Americans switching faiths, dropping out

[AgnosTheist]

cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/02/25/religion.survey.ap/index.html

Good News for Catholics:

The U.S. Religious Landscape Survey estimates the United States is 78 percent Christian and about to lose its status as a majority Protestant nation, at 51 percent and slipping.

Bad News for Catholics:

The Roman Catholic Church has lost more members than any faith tradition because of affiliation swapping, the survey found. While nearly one in three Americans were raised Catholic, fewer than one in four say they’re Catholic today. That means roughly 10 percent of all Americans are ex-Catholics.

Good News for Secular Humanists:

*The religious demographic benefiting the most from this religious churn is those who claim no religious affiliation. People moving into that category outnumber those moving out of it by a three-to-one margin.

The majority of the unaffiliated – 12 percent of the overall population – describe their religion as “nothing in particular,” and about half of those say faith is at least somewhat important to them. Atheists or agnostics account for 4 percent of the total population.*

Good News for Buddhists:

Among other findings involving smaller religious groups, more than half of American Buddhists surveyed were white, and most Buddhists were converts.

What? Nothing about Jews & Muslims?

 

[EmergencyOps]

What? Nothing about Jews & Muslims?

Check out USA Today. They have an state-by-state interactive map called the “Topography of Faith” that includes Jews and Muslims.

-Mark

 

[Mannyfit75]

You forgot this information:

The share of the population that identifies as Catholic, however, has remained fairly stable in recent decades thanks to an influx of immigrant Catholics, mostly from Latin America. Nearly half of all Catholics under 30 are Hispanic, the survey found.

news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080225/ap_on_re_us/religion_survey;_ylt=AghCYyqp6PYDJwbvw4tCoZU7Xs8F

 

[AgnosTheist]

^ HOLA! All those millions of mexican illegal immigrants are actually good news for American Catholicism. They are whats keeping the faith alive.

 

[hamba2han]

So then, according to USA Today, Christians constitute 78.4% of the American population.

In Islam, anyone who does not believe in the truth of the Qur’an is not considered a Muslim.

In Christianity, does anyone who does not believe in the truth of the Bible still considered a Christian?

 

[RebeccaJ]

cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/02/25/religion.survey.ap/index.html

**Good News for Catholics:***The U.S. Religious Landscape Survey estimates the United States is 78 percent Christian and about to lose its status as a majority Protestant nation, at 51 percent and slipping.***Bad News for Catholics:***The Roman Catholic Church has lost more members than any faith tradition because of affiliation swapping, the survey found. While nearly one in three Americans were raised Catholic, fewer than one in four say they’re Catholic today. That means roughly 10 percent of all Americans are ex-Catholics.*Good News for Secular Humanists:

*The religious demographic benefiting the most from this religious churn is those who claim no religious affiliation. People moving into that category outnumber those moving out of it by a three-to-one margin.

The majority of the unaffiliated – 12 percent of the overall population – describe their religion as “nothing in particular,” and about half of those say faith is at least somewhat important to them. Atheists or agnostics account for 4 percent of the total population.*

Good News for Buddhists:

Among other findings involving smaller religious groups, more than half of American Buddhists surveyed were white, and most Buddhists were converts.

What? Nothing about Jews & Muslims?

Yeah, and you forgot the part where 50% of people who identified themselves as “unaffiliated” (including agnostic and atheist")…they up and joined a religion.

And the part that Roman Catholic church has a boat load of new converts every year. And they aren’t even knocking on anyone’s doors!

 

[VARC]

^ HOLA! All those millions of mexican illegal immigrants are actually good news for American Catholicism. They are whats keeping the faith alive.

 

[ibkc]

Catholicism is shrinking in some of its historical strongholds - like the Northeast, which is getting more secular in general - but it is growing in some areas that are historically strongly Protestant, like the Southeast. I’m in the Archdiocese of Atlanta, which is growing very fast. There’s talk we may get a cardinal soon.

 

[Rolltide]

Here’s the same study with some more information from Time magazine:

news.yahoo.com/s/time/20080225/us_time/americasunfaithfulfaithful
**
More Good News for Catholics:**
But Catholicism has made up for the losses by **adding converts **(2.6% of the population) and, more significantly, enjoying an influx of new immigratns, mostly Hispanic.

(Assuming that the US population is 300,000,000, that means 7.8 million converts.)

 

[AgnosTheist]

More Good News for Catholics:

But Catholicism has made up for the losses by **adding converts **(2.6% of the population) and, more significantly, enjoying an influx of new immigratns, mostly Hispanic.

Gained 2.6% but lost 10%. The RCC’s future truly lies with the Mexicans. Pray for their success in crossing the borders.

Overall, Christianity is diminishing.

Islam is still growing very fast. Over 37% are converts!

religions.pewforum.org/comparisons

And even hispanics are fast becoming unaffiliated.

 

[Metaron]

Gained 2.6% but lost 10%. The RCC’s future truly lies with the Mexicans. Pray for their success in crossing the borders.

No, if you look at Catholic Answer’s page on “the fastest-growing fallacy”, you’ll see that Roman Catholicism still has an upward edge in religion in America.

Overall, Christianity is diminishing.

This is true, worldwide, especially since it is beling destroyed by secularised versions of evangelical and pentecostal Christianity. And Islam is beginning to topple Catholicism, Anglicanism, and Protestantism in Europe.

However, in Africa and Asia, things are far different, and Catholicism and Anglicanism are growing rapidly, even cutting into the Islamic Northern region.

 

[Rolltide]

Gained 2.6% but lost 10%. The RCC’s future truly lies with the Mexicans. Pray for their success in crossing the borders.

Well in that case, the US will probably be majority Catholic by the end of the century!

Seriously, what the numbers don’t reflect is that a lot of “cultural” Catholics are finally removing themselves from the affiliation rolls. These are people who called themselves Catholic and may have held to a few cosmetic traditions, but didn’t really practice the faith in a meaningful manner. These people have been gone for a while now, but the numbers never reflected it. What IS interesting is that those Catholics left behind ARE taking it more seriously. Further, it’s well-known that converts make up among the most faithful Catholics, as they have had to discern their decision very carefully, and these are the types of people we’re adding to the church. As Pope Benedict XVI predicted, we are seeing a smaller but far more faithful church emerging.

Compare that to the dismal outlook for the Jehovah’s Witnesses!

“An even more extreme example of what might be called “masked churn” is the relatively tiny Jehovah’s Witnesses, with a turnover rate of about two-thirds. That means that two-thirds of the people who told Pew they were raised Jehovah’s Witnesses no longer are - yet the group attracts roughly the same number of converts. Notes Lugo, “No wonder they have to keep on knocking on doors.””

 

[Syele]

Good News for Secular Humanists:

*The religious demographic benefiting the most from this religious churn is those who claim no religious affiliation. People moving into that category outnumber those moving out of it by a three-to-one margin.

not too surprising, the American public schools get to have the Kids at least 35 hours a week. then the kids go to daycares or afterschool programs or sports all evening and then see their parents at bedtime and on weekends. Who’s bringing up the children with faith in God? and how easy is it to drum out of them what they get on Sunday during Monday - Friday?

 

[kalt]

Check out USA Today. They have an state-by-state interactive map called the “Topography of Faith” that includes Jews and Muslims.

-Mark

Everyone, move to CT, MA, or RI! the 3 states that have the highest percentage of Catholics - 43% each. That’s a pretty strong voting block.

’

 

[kalt]

You “sound” gleeful. What difference does it make to you? Does it bother you that people are Catholic?

Gained 2.6% but lost 10%. The RCC’s future truly lies with the Mexicans. Pray for their success in crossing the borders.

Overall, Christianity is diminishing.

Islam is still growing very fast. Over 37% are converts!

religions.pewforum.org/comparisons

And even hispanics are fast becoming unaffiliated.

 

[AgnosTheist]

You “sound” gleeful. What difference does it make to you? Does it bother you that people are Catholic?

Im gleeful when i catch religious people in “Denial Mode”.

 

[AgnosTheist]

Compare that to the dismal outlook for the Jehovah’s Witnesses!

GOOD RIDDANCE!

 

[Steadfast]

The American Church, regardless of the denominational tag has become, by and large, a bloodless, seeker-friendly museum of quaint relics set to provide a backdrop for the message of self-help and the accrual of “life skills”.

Why would anyone be surprised that what was once called “churchmanship” has fallen on hard times in such a climate?

There is a solution, but it’s not on anyone’s radar.

It might offend some people.

 

[Scottgun]

Im gleeful when i catch religious people in “Denial Mode”.

No one is in denial mode at all. There may be diminishment, but what of it? The death of Christianity? We’ve been hearing that since the so-called Enlightenment. I always hear protests that non-Catholics can act morally too. Prove it by treating people on this forum as actual humans and not as data bits to squeeze into your pet template.

 

[Steadfast]

I always hear protests that non-Catholics can act morally too.

To the casual observer this might suggest that AT is in our camp. He isn’t. We like him well enough but he isn’t one of us.

But maybe you meant to say, “non-Christian”…