Posted on 05/18/2015 8:15:03 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The big story this week from Pew Research Center's report, "America's Changing Religious Landscape," was the sharp decline in the number of Christians and large growth in those who are unaffiliated with any religion. Digging deeper, the report contains interesting news about Evangelicals.
Here are 10 interesting facts about Evangelicals from the report:
1. The number of Evangelicals likely increased.
Evangelicals were the only segment of Christianity that likely saw growth. Evangelicals added about two million to their fold from 2007 to 2014. Taking the margin of error into account, the actual increase could be anywhere between zero and five million.
2. Evangelicals were the only Christian group that had more people joining than leaving.
8.4 percent said they left evangelical Christianity while 9.8 percent said they joined evangelical Christianity, a net change of plus 1.5 percentage points. By comparison, Mainline Protestants had a minus 4.3 percentage point net change and Catholics had a minus 10.9 percentage point net change.
3. The percentage of Evangelical Millennials did not change.
There was a large increase in unaffiliated Millennials, from 2007 to 2014. They increased 10 percentage points, from 25 to 35 percent of all Millennials.
This increase, however, did not come from Evangelicals. The proportion of Evangelical Millennials stayed the same, at 21 percent.
The largest drop, six percentage points, came from Catholic Millennials, down from 22 to 16 percent.
4. Evangelicals are now a clear majority among Protestants in the United States.
Pew's 2007 data showed Evangelicals were 51 percent of all Protestants. Taking the margin of error into account, that may or may not have been a majority.
In 2014 Evangelicals were 55 percent of all U.S. Protestants. Even with the margin of error, one can now say Evangelicals are clearly a majority of all Protestants.
5. Nondenominational Evangelicals are growing; Baptist Evangelicals are shrinking.
The share of Evangelicals who said they belonged to a Baptist denomination shrank from 41 to 36 percent while the share of nondenominational Evangelicals grew from 13 to 19 percent.
6. Some who attend Evangelical churches don't identify as Evangelical, and some who don't attend Evangelical churches do identify as Evangelical.
Among those to attend an Evangelical church, 15 percent answered "no" when asked if they would describe themselves as "a born-again or evangelical Christian."
Twenty-seven percent of Mainline Protestants and 22 percent of Catholics describe themselves as born-again or Evangelical.
7. Those who joined Evangelical churches as adults were mostly raised in homes that were Mainline Protestant or unaffiliated.
Among those who currently identify with an Evangelical church, 19 percent were raised in a Mainline Protestant home and another 19 percent were raised in homes that were unaffiliated with any religion, the highest of any other group.
For comparison, among those raised in Evangelical homes, 12 percent are now Mainline Protestants and 15 percent are now unaffiliated.
8. Among Millennials, the retention rate for the unaffiliated is higher than that for Evangelicals.
The retention rate (the percentage of those still in the religion in which the were raised) is 67 percent for unaffiliated Millennials. In other words, two-thirds of Millennials raised in unaffiliated homes are still unaffiliated. This is higher than the 61 percent retention rate for Evangelicals.
9. Evangelicals are becoming more racially and ethnically diverse.
The share of Evangelicals who are not white increased from 19 to 24 percent.
Catholics and Mainline Protestants saw a similar growth in non-whites. Among those three, Catholics have the smallest proportion of whites, at 59 percent, and Mainline Protestants have the largest proportion of whites, at 86 percent.
10. Evangelical growth came from Latinos.
Among Hispanics, the portion of Evangelicals increased from 16 to 19 percent. It was the only race/ethnic group to see an increase in its proportion of Evangelicals.
Also among Hispanics, the largest drop was among Hispanic Catholics, from 58 to 48 percent. The largest increase was among Hispanic unaffiliated, from 14 to 20 percent.
Never, EVER believe anything coming from the leftist media, even if they present “evidence.” That’s as easy to cook up as their “facts.”
#searchfortruthnotcomfort
LOL! I say that about leftist media stories about the Catholic Church.
I believe the Evangelical churches have been most likely to vote conservative, so this may not be a terrible thing.
I think it may be a great thing for pro-gay\abortion parishioners of churches to stop contaminating their churches and to finally embrace atheism.
1. The number of Evangelicals likely increased.
Etc. etc.. Especially point 6 ("1. The number of Evangelicals likely increased. ").
Is there any really useful definition of what an "evangelical" is.
RE: Is there any really useful definition of what an “evangelical” is.
In general, this is how being an Evangelical is understood as:
Evangelicals are a worldwide, transdenominational movement within Christianity, maintaining that the essence of the gospel consists in the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ’s atonement.
Evangelicals are Christians who believe in the the Bible as the sole ultimate authority of faith and practice, the centrality of the conversion or “born again” experience in receiving salvation, and have a strong commitment to evangelism or sharing the Christian message.
Since Evangelical Christians are the most conservative, and conservative voting Americans there are, this is great news.
Even among Hispanics, becoming Protestant changes their vote, Hispanic Protestants voted 56% GOP in 2004, and 48% in 2008.
RE: Hispanic Protestants voted 56% GOP in 2004, and 48% in 2008.
1) What is the source for the above data?
2) What happened to these Hispanic Evangelicals in 2012?
And is it in the Bible as we Catholics are so often questioned?
Here is 2000 and 2004, according to Pew.
“”Religion appears to be linked to President Bush’s improved showing
among Hispanics in 2004 over 2000, when he took 34 percent of Latino
votes. Hispanic Protestants made up a larger share of the Latino vote last
year (32% in 2004 compared with 25% in 2000), and 56 percent of these
voters supported the president in 2004, compared with 44 percent in 2000.
The president’s share of the Hispanic Catholic vote remained essentially
unchanged between 2000 and 2004. “”
http://www.pewhispanic.org/files/reports/48.pdf
Evangelicals are generally Bible based and fundamental in their teaching. This is good news for the church. People are starving for the truth.
Pray America is waking
Ignore them, especially when they once again announce that Christ is dead...
Christians shifted out of the Catholic church because of the gay mafia raped little boys and the mainline churches because they permitted gays to take over their church lives. The mainline churches are going to die off.
They went to Evangelical churches where sodomy is still a sin and Christians still love those who fall to that sin - like all other sinners.
Christians shifted out of the Catholic church because of the gay mafia raped little boys and the mainline churches because they permitted gays to take over their church lives. The mainline churches are going to die off.
They went to Evangelical churches where sodomy is still a sin and Christians still love those who fall to that sin - like all other sinners.
I wouldn’t be so holier than thou if I were you. While what you wrote about the Catholic Church and mainline churches is sadly too true, no organization is exempt from some of its leaders falling to that sin and not properly dealing with it . . .
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/01/protestant-sex-abuse-boz-tchividijian_n_4019347.html
I wouldn’t be so holier than thou if I were you. While what you wrote about the Catholic Church and mainline churches is sadly too true, no organization is exempt from some of its leaders falling to that sin and not properly dealing with it . . .
If all this is “holier than thou” to you, I can’t help you. : )
If all this is “holier than thou” to you, I can’t help you. : )
It’s not all “holier than thou.” Just your disparaging comment about the gay mafia raping little boys as if it never happens among Evangelical churches. And your lumping all mainline churches together as allowing gays to take over their church lives. I know that Lutheran Church Missouri Synod has not done this, and I am sure there are others.
This is not to say there is anything wrong with Evangelicals. My daughter belongs to an Evangelical church, and there is much about their spirituality that is to be commended.
Peace
Since that is a wonderfully conservative real Christian church, the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod is not “mainline.” They broke off the liberal mainline Lutheran church. It’s always sumthin’ with Christians. : )
Try to see me addressing the Catholic homo pedophile problem as what it is: the “gay mafia” that operates in the church and has way too much organization and influence. This way Catholics can freeze the target, zoom in on it’s appearance and methods and break it up. When we refuse to name the problem and the problem makers, all priests get smeared with the brush and that is not right. Ignoring the problem out of misplaced shame gives power back to the pedophiles and they will just keep on doing their thing. Catholics are smart enough to out them and ruin them but they can only do that if they name the problem and are paying close attention.
Of course, other churches have to put up with pedophiles sneaking into their ranks. They go where the children are. They are slime. The pedophile Muslims in Europe have a large child sex organization and power structure. They go after white girls (infidels). In Britain, the cops let them get away with it. I don’t know about the other European Nations - how they handle policing the problem.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.