Posted on 10/09/2012 3:08:34 AM PDT by markomalley
For the first time in its history, the United States does not have a Protestant majority, according to a new study. One reason: The number of Americans with no religious affiliation is on the rise.
The percentage of Protestant adults in the U.S. has reached a low of 48 percent, the first time that Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life has reported with certainty that the number has fallen below 50 percent. The drop has long been anticipated and comes at a time when no Protestants are on the U.S. Supreme Court and the Republicans have their first presidential ticket with no Protestant nominees.
Among the reasons for the change are the growth in nondenominational Christians who can no longer be categorized as Protestant, and a spike in the number of American adults who say they have no religion. The Pew study, released Tuesday, found that about 20 percent of Americans say they have no religious affiliation, an increase from 15 percent in the last five years.
Scholars have long debated whether people who say they no longer belong to a religious group should be considered secular. While the category as defined by Pew researchers includes atheists, it also encompasses majorities of people who say they believe in God, and a notable minority who pray daily or consider themselves "spiritual" but not "religious." Still, Pew found overall that most of the unaffiliated aren't actively seeking another religious home, indicating that their ties with organized religion are permanently broken.
(Excerpt) Read more at bigstory.ap.org ...
“rely on the “Catholic” states so reliably.”
Like Texas?
The specific evidence backing my specific claim is the pile of well over a hundred million infant victims of premeditated murder by contraception.
The Protestant majority in this country determines the character, direction, and policies, of the nation.
The character, direction, and policies, of the nation are dedicated to the worship of Self as god and everyone participating in Protestant sanctioned premeditated murder.
Protestants teach that each individual is guided to a correct understanding of Scripture by the Holy Spirit and that each individual needs no guidance other than the Scripture, prayer, and their own understanding. Since intrinsic to Protestantism is the belief that the Holy Spirit was incapable of keeping the Church founded by Jesus Christ Himself from going astray, the doctrine of individual guidance is just a fig leaf hiding the naughty bits of the real doctrine, Self Alone.
Fifty million murders openly committed by abortion and at a bare minimum twice that many more murders committed with chemical birth control is irrefutable proof that the majority of the population worship their Self.
Which Protestant denomination preaches that murder by contraception is a premeditated murder and how many of the Protestants in this nation claim to agree with that denomination? Which Protestant denominations preach that chemical birth control is no problem, no sin, and an acceptable convenience for Christians?
The immense pyramid of the corpses of murdered infants is a monument to Protestant teaching and doctrine in this country.
No; the northeast, upper midwest, and west coast.
Any Texans I’ve met are Protestants of one stripe or another, though I guess there are plenty of Mexican Catholics there.
“Any Texans I’ve met are Protestants of one stripe or another, though I guess there are plenty of Mexican Catholics there.”
Texas has more Catholics than Southern Baptists. The split is 50:50 for the state between hispanic and white Catholics.
But I see unaffiliated, which I take as pentecostal or baptist or others
This may be preferable to "Protestant" groups like the ECUSA...
Most of the "religious fights" were heavily nationalistic -- France and England used religion to justify some wars, and in other cases they were fighting each other and it was put as Catholic v/s non-C when it was really England v/s France
That's why this entire "Protestants are declining' should be taken with a pinch of salt -- the non-denominational probably includes many pentecostals and mega-church. As long as these "non-affiliated" are Christian, that's good
"Mainline" groups like the ECUSA, ELCA, PCUSA are declining for a definite reason, while baptists etc are increasing for the same reason :)
It's easier to just say non-catholic groups (orthodox, orientals and assyrians fall into different religious categories of course) and club all into this.
should have read your comment before commenting :) yeah, ncc is a good enough rough term as long as we remember that there are many differences
it depends on which groups — a few Baptists will insist they are not Protestant. Also, how would one classify Oneness Pentecostals, leave alone Unitarians etc.?
Any earlier sects that occured had many serious differences with present day Baptists - who are Trinitarian Christians while groups that some cite were not.
the creeds are the defining point for me.
As long as this fleeing is to a Christian group, its ok — and I’ll be generous to also include the Oneness in my opinion. But it would be horrible for folks to leave to follow Benny Hinn for instance
You'll get a big Amen to that from this corner.
The exact question asked in the survey was:
“What is your present religion, if any? Are you Protestant, Roman Catholic, Mormon, Orthodox such as Greek or Russian Orthodox, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, atheist, agnostic, something else, or nothing in particular?”
The results reflect the answers to that question.
You can read it for yourself: http://www.pewforum.org/uploadedFiles/Topics/Religious_Affiliation/Unaffiliated/NonesOnTheRise-full.pdf
When the ECUSA becomes apostate, it means Christians souls there are in danger and also among us people may think that that lifestyle should be acceptable.
While it is worthy of concern, Paul said it was going to happen exactly the way it is happening and scripture also tells us it will get worse. I think all we can do is remain a faithful remnant and preach the true Gospel in order so save the remaining elect, preserve the faith and further our sanctification.
Protestants ... teach the doctrine of Self Alone and the worship of your own, Most High and Holy Self."
That is a false claim and you are doubling down on it. Your choice. But a false claim, nonetheless.
We can agree that the secular religion of Nietzschean autonomy has produced an evil fruit, but you have not addressed the role your own Aquinas has played in creating that view of autonomy.
And we can agree that body count is evidence that murder has occurred. But you have yet to show how said murders are connected with a solid belief in the Bible as the God-breathed word of God and the supreme authority in the life of a believer. This is because you cannot. There is no connection.
Let me ‘splain something to you. We are all sinners. From the Pope down to the janitor, each of us is capable of rebellion against God. Even after we become believers. If you want to look for a root cause of moral relativism, look no further than the Garden of Eden. “Hath God said,” “Ye shall be as gods,” etc. Now THERE’s where you will find the teaching you claim, in plain and printed form.
And it is utterly incompatible with God’s word. Do you notice? What is the first thing Satan does? Separate Eve from her certainty about the words of God (as you now do). Always the promoters of human autonomy begin with this. They must. Anyone who knows what God says, and believes it, will know better than to follow a lie, no matter who is telling it. Because all of what God says is truth:
Psa 119:98 Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies: for they are ever with me. [99] I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation. [100] I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts. [101] I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I might keep thy word. [102] I have not departed from thy judgments: for thou hast taught me. [103] How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!
As for body count, who produced the various Marxist revolutions of the 20th Century? Atheists, launching off Marx, who in turn launched off Darwin, who launched off the enlightenment deification of Reason, which was only possible in the post-medieval thought world created by Scholasticism, who’s premier scholastic was Aquinas, who imported the pagan view of reason into the worldview of the Church.
And who invented abortion? The Romans practiced it. The modern era embraced it via Margaret Sanger as a tool to 1) advance Marxist “equality” between the genders, and 2) to conduct racial genocide against those whom they believed to be burdens on the human gene pool. In the name of Bible belief? No, in the name of atheism. Unbelief. Rejection of the words of God. Sin. Which has been with us since the Reformation only? No. Since those first dark moments in the Garden, when Eve was first convinced to set God’s words aside.
Again, let me remind you, as strongly as you may wish to link Bible belief to all manner of evil, you have made a claim you cannot support, that:
Protestants ... teach the doctrine of Self Alone and the worship of your own, Most High and Holy Self.
You have yet to show proof that this is what Protestants teach. I say you’re making it up out of whole cloth. Back it up, or back it off. The choice is yours.
BTW, I have absolutely no idea what the reference is about the dark glasses and the white tipped cane. Perhaps a misspent youth studying the Bible prevented me from learning such important things. My bad.
Peace,
SR
What?
What was in 1960? Did you respond to the wrong post?
Things must have changed a lot if right wing Texas suddenly became Catholic instead of Evangelical protestant.
In 2000, the religious demographics of Texas were: wiki
Evangelical Protestant – 64.4%
Mainline Protestant – 8.1%
Orthodox – 0.1%
Roman Catholic – 21.0%
The poster said Protestants, not a single denomination of them, you said that Texas has more Catholics than Southern Baptists (not Protestants).
If Texas had more Catholic voters than Protestants then the Protestants would never be able to overcome the liberal, pro-abortion voting of Catholics.
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