Posted on 05/15/2018 11:05:14 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The nation’s religious makeup has shifted dramatically in the past 15 years, with a sharp drop in the number of Americans who say they’re members of a Protestant denomination – still the nation’s most prevalent religious group – and a rise in the number who profess no religion.
On average last year, 36 percent of Americans in ABC News/Washington Post polls identified themselves as members of a Protestant faith, extending a gradual trend down from 50 percent in 2003. That includes an 8-point drop in the number of evangelical white Protestants, an important political group.
Reflecting the change among Protestants, the share of Christians overall has declined from 83 percent of the adult population in 2003 to 72 percent on average last year. In the same time, the number of Americans who say they have no religion has nearly doubled, to 21 percent.
Catholic self-identification (22 percent) has held steady during this time. The share of adults who identify with another form of Christianity – including Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons and Greek or Russian Orthodox, for example – has risen modestly, from 11 to 14 percent.
This analysis, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates, is based on a very large dataset – 174,485 random-sample telephone interviews in ABC News and ABC News/Washington Post polls conducted from 2003 to 2017. We focus mainly on 2003 and 2017 data, including 7,185 and 5,017 interviews, respectively.
Among all Protestants, 56 percent currently say they’re evangelical or born-again; that has held essentially steady since 2003, with virtually equal declines in the number who say they’re either evangelical or non-evangelical Protestants, down 7 and 6 points, respectively.
Evangelical white Protestants are of particular interest in political terms, since they’re a core group within the Republican coalition; 80 percent supported Donald Trump in 2016.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
The One True Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church founded by Christ Jesus
The Nicene Creed
I believe in one God,
the Father almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all things visible and invisible.
+10 One God
I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the Only Begotten Son of God,
born of the Father before all ages.
+10 Christ Jesus
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father;
through him all things were made.
+ 1 Consubstantial with the Father
For us men and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,
+ 1 For our salvation
and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary,
and became man.
+ 1 Virgin Birth
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate,
he suffered death and was buried,
and rose again on the third day
in accordance with the Scriptures.
+10 Suffered, Died and Rose
He ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
+ 1 Ascended, Seated
He will come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead
and his kingdom will have no end.
+10 Come Again in Glory to Judge
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son,
who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified,
who has spoken through the prophets.
+10 Holy Trinity
I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.
+10 One Visible Church
I confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins
+ 1 One Baptism
and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead
and the life of the world to come.
+10 Resurrection of the Dead
The Ten Commandments:
1. I am the LORD your God. You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve.
2. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
3. Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day.
4. Honor your father and your mother.
5. You shall not murder.
6. You shall not commit adultery.
7. You shall not steal.
8. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
9. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife.
10.You shall not covet your neighbor's goods.
+10 The Ten Commandments
The Greatest Commandment
1. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength
2. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
+ 2 The Greatest Commnadments
The Seven Sacraments Catholic Church:
1. Baptism.
2. Eucharist.
3. Confirmation.
4. Reconciliation.
5. Anointing of the sick.
6. Marriage.(XY+XX)
7. Holy orders.
+ 7 The Seven Sacraments
The Precepts of the Catholic Church:
1. You shall attend Mass on Sundays and on holy days of obligation and rest from servile labor.
2. You shall confess your sins at least once a year.
3. You shall receive the sacrament of the Eucharist at least during the Easter season.
4. You shall observe the days of fasting and abstinence established by the Church.
5. You shall help to provide for the needs of the Church.
+ 5 The Precepts
The seven chief corporal works of mercy:
1. To feed the hungry.
2. To give drink to the thirsty.
3. To clothe the naked.
4. To visit the imprisoned.
5. To shelter the homeless.
6. To visit the sick.
7. To bury the dead.
+ 7 Corporal Works
The seven chief spiritual works of mercy:
1. To admonish the sinner.
2. To instruct the ignorant.
3. To counsel the doubtful.
4. To comfort the sorrowful.
5. To bear wrongs patiently.
6. To forgive all injuries.
7. To pray for the living and the dead.
+ 7 Spiritual Works
Pro-Life - From Conception Until Natural Death
+15 Pro-Life
The Protestant decline appears to be in mostly the apostate mainline churches. Something to note.
Yep. As the churches embrace the LGBT movement, their numbers rapidly decline. This is in sharp contrast to the propaganda from the leadership who say they have to embrace LGBT to increase their numbers.
It is my observation that the more evangelical churches are growing and the “mainstream” Protestant churches - Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, etc. - are dying.
I run an imprinted sportswear company. We offer deep discounts to churches and charities. While the two Methodist churches I supply are ordering smaller and smaller orders, the non-denominational churches are ordering more and more. The Baptist church is about the same. Ditto Catholics.
I do question this, this doesn't match exactly what I observe, or think I observe. The old mainline "High-Church" protestant denominations, which seem to be mostly apostate, are also dying. The "evangelical" or fundamentalist sects, Baptists, Pentecostals, and the whole smorgasbord of independents that fall somewhere on the continuum between these two poles, all seem to be growing and fast.
So, I wonder instead of percentages, what the raw numbers are? A large percentage of new immigration is from Catholic countries, so to see that percentage hold steady is also odd, you'd think it would also be growing if only for that reason.
What I suspect is this: "Irreligion" is a lot more acceptable than it has ever been. So where people might once have claimed to be Catholic, or Baptist, just because their families were, are more likely now to simply say "none". But people who do claim to be catholic, or evangelical, or just "Christian", are more likely to mean it than in past generations.
I’ve watched a couple of Methodist Churches close their doors, both “pastored” by women. One closed on the day of the Supreme Court decision in 2015 forcing parody “marriage” on the entire country.
The UMC had a Bishop vote to change some wording in the church constitution to be more LGBT friendly. It got shot down while everything else passed. The reaction of the church leadership was outrage.
Did I mention the church is run by the Bishops? So the Bishops were outraged that they voted down their bills.
When we moved out to NM 12 years ago we joined a Methodist church because we had attended a Methodist church back in Fort Lauderdale. Christ Church UM was the Starship Enterprise of United Methodism. We were big, growing and really making a difference in our community. UM Pastors would come from around the country to see what we were doing and how to do it.
Out here in Rio Rancho, the church was small, the pastor was elderly. They had a good music program - both traditional and contemporary - and a great youth program that my boys enjoyed.
The pastor had health issues and was forced into retirement. The denomination sent us two elderly, retired, bishops to watch over us until we could get a new pastor. They proceeded to fire the music director and the youth pastor without Board approval. We left.
A year later they were assigned a gay, female pastor. Needless to say the church is struggling to stay open.
We now belong to a non-denominational, Bible-centric, Christ-centric church - Anchor Point - which we are very happy with.
It looks like we a part of a trend.
Are you able to print shirts/monograms using Greek letters?
Yep; there is a growing riff between the UMC “leadership” and the rank-and-file conference delegates. The same thing is happening in the Presbyterian church. One church here in each of these denominations recently left the national organization over doctrinal “liberalism” (i.e., almost anything goes.) When you believe in everything, you believe in nothing.
Well, yes it is.
I offer the real 10 Commandments from the Old Testament....not the Roman Catholic version.
I've highlighted the primary one the RCC leaves out....and understandable in light of their use of idols.
1Then God spoke all these words, saying,
2“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
3“You shall have no other gods before Me.
4“You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. 5“You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
7“You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.
8“Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9“Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. 11“For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.
12“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the LORD your God gives you.
13“You shall not murder.
14“You shall not commit adultery.
15“You shall not steal.
16“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
17“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
Exodus 20:1-17 NASB
The Wesley’s would be spinning in their graves.
That is a tentative "Yes". It seems that some Greek organizations have jumped on the licensing bandwagon and are demanding that you pay a licensing fee to be able to print their stuff.
On the other hand, I have customers argue that you can't enforce a copyright on three Greek letters.
Membership in a church is meaningless.
You can be Christian and not a member of a church or you can be a member of a church and not be Christian.
I am certainly saved but when filling out a c0formn, I do not put down any religious affiliation besides *Christian*.
Wow, someone’s holier-than-thouness is showing big time.
Great for comparing ourselves among ourselves for bragging rights.
But I doubt it impresses God any since His standard is Jesus, absolute perfection.
Isn’t pride one of the seven deadly sins?
http://biblehub.com/drb/exodus/20.htm
Exodus 20:4-6 Thou shalt not make to thyself a graven thing, nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, nor of those things that are in the waters under the earth. Thou shalt not adore them, nor serve them: I am the Lord thy God, mighty, jealous, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me: And shewing mercy unto thousands to them that love me, and keep my commandments.
Presenting the truth to someone to correct error is never *childish bickering.*
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