Americans will be less Protestant and less Christian a century from now

Protestants are on the verge of becoming a statistical minority in the U.S., according a study released today. Whereas nearly two thirds of Americans identified themselves as Protestant as recently as the 1980s, only 51 percent identify as Protestant today, the study found. (US News and World Report)

Below is the article. I have some comments on the assumptions and conclusions. My commentary is at the bottom:

Protestants Verging on Becoming Minorities, By Kent Garber

The sharp decline in Protestant identifiers was one of several novel and potentially politically volatile findings reported in the study by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, which polled more than 35,000 Americans over the age 18.

One of the unifying themes of the study was its assessment that religious life in America remains remarkably fluid and dynamic, with an increasing trend toward diversity and specialization. Underlying the Protestant shift, for instance, is what appears to be an increasingly fragmented movement. Mainline Protestants, once the group's bedrock, now account for less than 20 percent of all Protestants. By contrast, evangelical Protestants now represent more than 50 percent of all Protestant adherents—and more than a quarter of the total population.

The findings, especially regarding evangelicals, hint at possible political consequences. As the 2008 presidential race has suggested, the religious right, which has typically enjoyed solid support from evangelicals, has lost its cohesion. Several factors likely explain this phenomenon, one of which is that as the evangelical movement has grown, it has also become more susceptible to multiple voices and more discordant opinions. "The homogeneity of evangelical politics has been overrated and overestimated for some time," said Randall Balmer, a professor of American religious studies at Barnard College. "You are now beginning to hear other evangelical voices besides James Dobson."

Among Catholics, the trend has been somewhat different, reflecting the heavy Catholic preference of foreign-born Americans. In recent decades nearly half of all U.S. immigrants have been Catholic, hailing predominantly from Latin America. As a result, the proportion of American residents identifying as Catholic has held steady, even as the number of native-born Catholics has dropped.

The study also found remarkable fluidity across different religions. Thirty percent of all Americans, it found, have switched their religion at some point in their lifetime, either to a different religion or to an "unaffiliated status." The "unaffiliated" category, in fact, nearly doubled in size from the 1990s to the most recent study, and most of the jump was attributable to Americans who described their religion as "nothing in particular," as opposed to self-described atheists or agnostics.

"American religion is likely to be even more diverse in the future than it is now," John Green, a senior fellow with the Pew Forum, told reporters. "One can make the case that Americans will be less Protestant and less Christian a century from now, but how much is hard to gauge."

There is no question that the number of 'religious' people, those who believe in a higher power we know as God, is declining. It is also no surprised to many of us that the number of Protestant Christians is declining. This poll simply reinforces what we have seen happening over the past years.

Words like 'fluid', 'diversity', and 'specialization' are not words that should be applied to the Protestant Christian faith. As I have said before, I don't think that God cares which 'denomination' we belong to, Methodist, Baptist, whatever. It is what we BELIEVE, our FAITH, and WHO we have faith IN -- God the Father, God the Son (Jesus), and God the Holy Spirit.

Yes there are other voices than James Dobson. I never thought James Dobson spoke for me. In fact I never gave one minute's thought to who was 'speaking for me' in the media. Americans are switching to 'unaffiliated status'. Unaffiliated with a church, a denomination or the Protestant Christian religion? The first two make no difference to me. The latter, unaffiliated status from the Protestant Christian religion worries me very much.

Americans who describe their religion as "nothing in particular," are they really that different from self-described atheists or agnostics? Or have they just not reached the agnostic stage yet? This is very worrisome.

A human being with no connection to God, with no faith in a higher power than him/herself, is missing something in their lives I have no idea how people like that live, how they make it through each day. I depend on God's strength and guidance every day.

America was founded on Christian/Jewish principles and this is what has helped us be the great nation we are today. If we are turning away from those principles, then this country is headed for trouble. Perhaps we need to return to our faith, to the beliefs in the Bible. We need to witness more, share God's love and Word. We need to turn this trend around.

Comments

[KP]

The cause of Protestant failure is simple, turning their backs on the gospel. The true gospel. Today, churches embrace all gospels. The gospel of election apart from the free will of man. The gospel of faith plus works, beginning with repentance. Churches fail to say what it is and what is isn't. Pastors fear loss of revenue. By speaking the truth, they worry that they may offend someone. Truth pierces the soul, it keeps man sane. And, where there's truth, the mind of God, there's love. Where is love today? Not the mushy, superficial stuff. But, love as God defines it. Love is powerful, strong, kind and gentle.

I wonder why so many, especially the educated, including seminary graduates, miss the simple gospel. Why do people want to add to the work of Jesus Christ? Sin is dead. God can no longer impute the penalty of sin. The problem is, we are born condemned. God's justice requires that we obey a singular nonmeritorious command to believe in the atoning work of Jesus Christ. Religion, whether Catholocism or for that matter any "ism" is worthless if used as a substitute for reconiliation to God the Father apart from faith in his son.

Rejecting the gospel is why so many in this country are mindless, empty souls.

Protestantism needs to return to its roots of truth.

God demands perfection. You can go the route of "self" or the route of Jesus Christ. Perfection as a gift is a judicial status, permanent. That's the sweet message of the gospel that should be taught, not the slavery of religion.

[JS]

I am very much a advocate for decentralized power. Protestants, by their history, have always been more suspicious and resistant to centralized power than other faiths and branches of Christianity. I don't think it is a coincidence that the democrats, the party of centralized power, have drawn more from Catholics than the Republicans. (I know I am speaking in generalities and that there are exceptions.)

[Debbie]

Paul: The study differentiated between Protestants and Catholics, so that's what I commented on. Most surveys askl the questions that, are you: Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, etc. There are some Protestants that do not consider Catholics to be Christians, but again we are talking in generalities.

There are divisions like that within the Protestants, one denomination not considering another to be "Christian", so we need to be careful about judging.

I'm glad you pointed that out.

James Hardison: I've added your site to the blogroll, thanks for the visit and the invitation.

Ortho: Thanks for including the link, I should have put that in the article.

Faultline: Yes, the Catholic numbers are increasing because of immigrants to the US.

Rosemary: A fellow Southern Baptist, yeah!!!

Courtney: That's true, I've noticed that when traveling. It's like a game guessing what they preach/teach in those churches.

Skunkfeathers: You always condense things to the ultimate truth.

MK: Actually the last I checked, the Pentecost-type groups are the ones who are really growing overseas.

Stormwarning: I didn't get into the Jewish part of the study, but that would make a good article. I think what's happening there also happens with other groups. People marry, you have mixed faiths that both get watered down. Not good for the family or the religions.

[Paul Champagne]

I find it strange that you put Catholics and Protestants into different catagories.

But then again a lot of people do. When I'm asked my religion, I reply that I am Roman Catholic. The questioner then often says, "Oh, I'm a Christian".

Are they trying to say that Catholics are not Christians? Well I just wanted to let "Christians" know that Catholics believe in Christ too. In fact, we are the Church that all the rest of broke off of.

Thanks for listening to my rant.

[Stormwarning]

From my perspective, and admittedly it is only mine, the increasing assimilation of the American Jewish population with so many leaving the faith is a significant problem (according to the graph in Chapter Two of the study, an 11% decline from religion of childhood to adult religiosity). There is an increasing trend toward intermarriage and non-denominational beliefs.

As for anything else, I find Ortho's observation to be "interesting," to say the least.

[Skunkfeathers]

I believe what I believe, and will believe it to the day I recycle. God knows what I believe, 'nuff said there. No progressive thought-cop or Islamofascist satchel wearing thug is gonna change it, or me.

[MK]

"If we are turning away from those principles, then this country is headed for trouble. "

It's a lot worse in the rest of the west, Europe in particular and look how they are struggling.

Funny thing is that Christianity is increasing, but in the third world. Interesting times ahead eh.

[courtneyme109]

Reckon this includes all the 'nominations that drop the name and call themselves nigh unidentifiable names? Like in this partic neck of Hillbillyland, a lot of churches will drop the call signs and rename themselves 'Life Church' or something that is almost impossible to tell what they might believe or what affiliation they are with.

[Rosemary]

Hi Debbie. I used to belong to a non-denominational Church (Calvary Chapel) because it taught straight from the Bible without having all the rules and the such which I did not find in the Bible. I have since then become a First Southern Baptist Church-goer. I do have a Church which I go to when I can physically go, but that isn't as often as I would like. I may have to buy a car just to get to Church!

Great article. If we do not do something about the way these state-owned, federally mandated schools (WHICH WERE BROUGHT INTO BEING BY THE CHURCH) put down Christianity and teach COMMUNISM which has no belief in anything so that the people will believe in any nonsense that they brainwash our children (NOT KIDDS, those are billygoats) with these days.

Oh my, I better say thanks now and sign off. I could go on forever. lol.

[Faultline USA]

Debbie thanks for posting this article and your comments. I also heard about this study on the news today. I completely agree with your conclusions. We are headed for trouble in a big way. For example, yesterday the Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, which I wrote about earlier this year, voted yesterday to eliminate photos of married couples in the church directory rather than offend their committed gay couples. The directory now will only show group photos.

For over a generation the left has worked hard to convince churches that compassion must be wedded to moral relativity. The result is the loss of the concepts of sin and Christian witness. Leftist compassion recognizes no God other than the god of our own making and therefore the left views “sin” as a judgment we cannot make about others, thus “it doesn’t exist”. And Christian Witness might be offensive to those of other religions, “who are all going to go to meet the maker of their own understanding anyway, so why bother???”

An additional part of the study caught my interest. News reports said that the Catholic church in America has lost 10% of adult Catholic members, but this number has been more than replaced by new immigrant members. The figure tossed about was 27 million added. Hmmmmm??? Additionally, it is said that those who left the Catholic faith wanted to be members of a church with less rules.

[ortho]

Nice post Debbie. I enjoyed reading your analysis.

The U.S. is a long way away from becoming a non-Christian nation. According to this poll, 78.4% of adults claim to be Christian. Certainly, the number of adults who don't claim a religious affiliation appears to be growing (they compose 16.1% of respondents). But, these non-religious have a long way to go before they compose a majority of Americans (that is, if the poll's respondents are an accurate representation of the U.S. population).

What I found most interesting about this survey were the percentage of people who claim to be Muslim. Judging from what I read on some blogs and hear on certain radio programs, I thought Muslims would have composed at least 1% of respondents. Instead, to my disbelief, only 0.6% of respondents claimed to be Muslim. The only religion with a smaller percentage was Hindu (0.4%). The small percentage of Muslims makes me laugh at the hysterical who cry that America will soon become a Muslim nation ruled by Muslim law.

If you're interested, you can explore the survey's results and methodology here: http://religions.pewforum.org/reports

[James Hardison]

Very true. The turning away from Christianity in America is happening so fast, I'm in shock. The Bible said this would happen before His return.