Posted on 02/21/2020 9:39:50 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Evangelical Christians make up a huge swath of the world’s population. But most of them reside in Asia, Africa, and Latin America — not in North America, a new study has found.
French researcher Sebastian Fath estimates that there are about 660 million evangelicals in the world, representing a little over a quarter of all 2.5 billion Christians.
According to Fath, the largest share of evangelicals live in Asia, with about 215 million adherents. China has 66 million, India has 28 million, Indonesia has 16 million, the Philippines has 13 million, and South Korea has 9 million.
Africa has the second-highest number of evangelical Christians with 185 million. Nigeria has 58 million, Kenya has 20 million, Ethiopia has 18 million, and both DRC Congo and South Africa have 15 million.
An estimated 123 million evangelicals live in South America, mostly in Brazil, Argentina and Guatemala.
Surprisingly, North America has 107 million evangelicals, 93 million of whom live in the United States. Ten million live in Mexico, and just 4 million in Canada. The rest of the world’s evangelicals are divided between Europe at 23 million and Oceania at 7 million.
The figures presented are approximate, based on 25 documents analyzed which address the evolution of evangelical Christianity in the world.
Fath’s findings corroborate an earlier report from the Pew Research Center which found that “Christianity has grown enormously in sub-Saharan Africa and the Asia-Pacific region, where there were relatively few Christians at the beginning of the 20th century.”
Additionally, some researchers estimate that by 2035, China will be both majority Christian and the largest Christian nation in the world.
Even within the United States, the share of evangelicals who are not white is growing, according to Pew. As of 2014, 11% of adults who identified with evangelical denominations were Hispanic, 6% were black, 2% were Asian, and 5% identified with another race or as mixed race.
Based on these trends, biblical scholar and author N.T. Wright told The Christian Post that Western Christians would do well to adopt a more global perspective when it comes to the growth and expansion of Christianity.
“Most Christians in the world today are not westerners and do not speak English as their mother tongue,” he said.
“Christianity is flourishing in sub-Saharan Africa, in Southeast Asia, in Latin America, in all sorts of ways,” Wright said. “And I think we in the West need to not say, ‘Oh well, they're a bit behind and they need to catch up with us.’ We need to say, ‘Maybe it's we who've gone a bit over the hill and we need to be reminded of where the action really is.”
They are doing a great job, and it shows, especially in Africa.
Hence all our political troubles. The fall of Christianity in the west has allowed the rise of the fascist Left.
~~Father, let there still be a faithful remnant of praying Christians to stay Your Hand of judgement. In Jesus’ name, Amen
They moved. Uncomfortable when the clergy is putting the moves on you.
We have some Catholic priests from Africa: Nigeria and the Congo. There are three or four in our Archdiocese.
Now I can see why the Sub-Saharan people were called BLACK because that is their color.
African-Americans all seem to have SOME Caucasian blood in them as they are in various colors ranging from a mocha color to a cafe latte color--or ONE DROP of African blood=African Americans.
My husband and I were living in the Middle East and we had FABULOUS travel options.
We visited every country we wanted to see. My husband, mother and I went to Kenya. We saw Kenyans, Bantu, Samburu...I've forgotten all the tribal names just in east Africa.
We stayed at a lodge in Kenya and went out to see the wild life and came up on a pride of lions. The guide knew JUST how far/close he could go.
We were about 30 feet from the lions...mostly females and ONE female was closest to us. She was lying down, apparently sleeping and never moved; her eyes were closed.
But every few seconds she would open ONE EYE to check us out. If ever the term "keeping an eye on someone" were appropriate THAT would fit what she was doing. YIKES. We did't stay long but I will NEVER, EVER forget that lioness!
We ended up going to Egypt TWICE and the Egyptians liked Americans. My mother and I went to midnight Mass on Christmas Eve at a St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Cairo.
My husband stayed at the hotel and watched "Miracle on 34th Street" in the hotel.
The sub-Saharan Africans ARE ebony colored.
After a Chinese Christian pastor returned to his homeland his church asked him about the church in America. He replied, "The one thing that amazes me about American Christianity is the great things they can do - without God.
God bless you and the work you do in His name.
Thanks.
I was Lector and Eucharistic minister in TWO parishes for YEARS and YEARS. I performed other tasks as well but those two were the most consistent and most rewarding.
I always considered it a HUGE honor to be of service to our Lord at His daily Mass.
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