Posted on 07/26/2009 7:41:49 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
African-Americans are the most religiously devout racial group in the nation when it comes to attending services, praying and believing that God exists, according to a recent profile.
Compared to the rest of the U.S. population, which is generally considered highly religious, African-Americans engage in religious activities more frequently and express higher levels of religious belief, Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life highlighted in a report released in time for Black History Month.
The center's U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, conducted in 2007 on more than 35,000 people, found that 79 percent of African-Americans say religion is very important in their lives while 56 percent of all U.S. adults said the same. Even among African-Americans who are unaffiliated with any particular faith, 45 percent of them say religion is very important compared to 16 percent of the religiously unaffiliated population overall.
Among the various racial and ethnic groups, African-Americans are the most likely to say they belong to a formal religious affiliation. An overwhelming 87 percent of African-Americans identify with a religious group, according to the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life.
Following close behind are Latinos, with 85 percent of its population associating with a religion. In comparison, 83 percent of the overall U.S. population report affiliation with a religion.
Nearly six out of ten African-Americans (59 percent) say they belong to a historically black Protestant church, according to the study. The next most popular affiliation is Evangelical Protestant churches (15 percent).
Slightly more than one out of ten (12 percent) say they are unaffiliated to a religious group.
In other noteworthy findings, African-Americans express greater comfort with religion’s role in politics than other racial and ethnic groups. The black community most closely resembles white evangelical Protestants, with about six in ten saying that churches should express their views on social and political issues.
But both African-Americans and white evangelicals say churches and other houses of worship should not endorse political candidates and there should be some restrictions on mixing politics and religious institutions.
When it comes to social issues, the African-American community is nearly split on abortion, with 49 percent favoring to keep abortion legal in most or all cases, and 44 percent wanting abortion to be illegal in most or all cases.
The African-American ratio is similar to that of the general public (51 percent vs. 42 percent).
On the issue of homosexuality, 41 percent of the black community thinks it should be accepted by society, while 46 percent say that homosexuality should be discouraged.
In comparison, the overall public is more open to accepting homosexuality (50 percent vs. 40 percent).
African-Americans belonging to evangelical churches are the most likely to say homosexuality should be discouraged by society (58 percent), while religiously unaffiliated African-Americans are least likely to discourage homosexuality (32 percent).
The Landscape survey shows that across all religious groups, at least two-thirds of African-Americans voice support for the Democratic Party. Meanwhile, less than half (47 percent) of the general U.S. population describes themselves as Democrats or leaning towards the Democratic Party. Slightly more than a third (35 percent) of the total population identify with the Republican Party.
Religious affiliation did not make a major impact on political party affiliation among African-Americans, the Pew Forum analysis shows.
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20090725/survey-faith-of-blacks-grows-stronger-more-orthodox/index.html
Survey: Faith of Blacks Grows Stronger, More Orthodox By Audrey Barrick Christian Post Reporter
Blacks remain the most religious ethnic group in America, a new study shows.
And over the last 15 years, African Americans have grown even more religious and orthodox in their Christian beliefs, according to The Barna Group.
Findings from surveys that included 1,272 African American respondents reveal that blacks today are more likely than they were in the early 1990s to believe that the principles taught in the Bible are totally accurate; to say that their religious faith is very important in their life; to have a biblically orthodox understanding of the nature of God; and to be born again.
African Americans were found to be the most likely ethnic group to consider themselves Christian with 92 percent saying so. Nationally, 85 percent of Americans in general consider themselves Christian. Blacks were also the most likely to be born again Christians (59 percent vs. 46 percent nationally).
Moreover, blacks had the lowest population of unchurched adults and were least likely to be Catholic.
"While the beliefs and behaviors of America's white population have changed little since the early 1990s, the new research underscored that the faith of African-Americans is dynamic, generally moving in a direction that is more aligned with conservative biblical teachings," the Barna report states.
Today, 66 percent of blacks say the Bible is totally accurate in all of the principles it teaches. Only 49 percent of the general U.S. population agrees. Eighty-six percent of blacks say their religious faith is very important in their life while 72 percent of the American public says so.
More than four out of five African Americans also say loving God is the single, most important purpose of their life and that God is the all-powerful, all-knowing, perfect creator of the universe who rules the world. Meanwhile, three out of five in the general U.S. population agree with those statements.
African Americans are markedly more religious when it comes to attending church, participating in a small group, praying and reading the Bible.
Data is based on telephone interviews conducted between January 2007 and November 2008 among nine nationwide random samples of adults. More than 9,000 interviews were conducted.
Ha ha ha haaaaaaaaa!!!<POh. Wait. This guy’s being serious.
And then they vote for an abortionist. Logical.
They why are they, as a group, over-represented in prisons?
These studies are usually dumb.
Many of these churches are more like social clubs and political clubs
Has Hussein found a church in D.C. yet?
Really?
Can somebody show proof of this?
No, but he’s found a nice mosque.
Religion & denomination are quite different than salvation.
You'd never know it by the way they vote.
The African-Americans I know well are universally biblically illiterate, but they like to get dressed up and go to church on Sunday. Dunno - maybe it’s just the ones I know.
I read a couple weeks ago the 0bamas still haven’t found a home church. I recall 0 stating that he was going to let Michelle pick the church, therefore abdicating his responsibility to be the spiritual lead for his family.
Blacks in America are very religiously. They religiously pray at the altar of the Democrat party and Obama....
That graph shows a 35 year figure. Maybe you can show a graph that indicates “trends” of these death figures for the past 5 years... then we can see if the abortion rates are accelerating or decelerating.
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