Brad Wright: Religious affiliation since 1910
Religious affiliation since 1910
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5 responses to “Religious affiliation since 1910”
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Interesting chart. I guess mainline decline isn’t exactly new news, but the angle of the decline is rather alarming historically even if it seems to be currently decreasing its rate of acceleration.
Also curious about a category like Black Protestant. What exactly does that mean? Blacks affiliating with historically black denominations? Or Blacks affiliating with Protestant churches mainline or otherwise? The categories missing or aggregated in this survey probably reveal some of the blind spots or biases of the authors as well. -
It’s been awhile since I’ve used this database but I’m sure “Black Protestant” refers to historically Black denominations … the issue in the chart is denominational affiliation not the affiliation of different demographic groups.
The Mainline decline actually precedes 1900. A couple of years ago I posted a some graphs by Finke and Stark, The Decline of Mainline Denominations …. for 150 Years? Their research shows that Methodists have been in decline as percentage of the population since the Civil War. I think Presbyterians followed suit not long after. -
I wonder what accounts for the rise in Catholicism. Immigration?
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One news report from last year said. That while Catholics have a high retention rate as people move into adulthood they do poorly at recruiting new adherents. It went on to say:
“And yet Catholics still account for just under a quarter of the population, as they have for many years. That’s because the surge in Hispanic immigration has offset the steady decline of white Catholics. Roughly 2 in 3 Latino immigrants are Catholic, according to Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum. He also notes that Hispanic fertility rates are higher than those of white Americans, ensuring more Latino Catholic growth in the United States.” -
This is a hugely significant graph for many reasons. Primarily it indicates the decline of the capacity of the mainline to win people to faith and to participate in its congregations began long before the usual reasons offered today such as our shift into a post-modern and post-Constantinian culture. While our increasing interest in missional church thinking is a positive development, clearly internal/transformational issues of spiritual vitality (discipleship), quality of relationships and leadership effectiveness among other matters are also extremely important. That various other Christian communions do not show much decrease and some cases are growing is a sign of hope for us all. Stan
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