The number of Christians in America has dropped nearly 8 percentage points since 2007 while the number of religiously unaffiliated adults has increased by nearly 7 percentage points during the same period.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the finding of the Pew Research Center\u2019s 200-page study of \u201cAmerica\u2019s Changing Religious Landscape\u201d released today (May 12). The survey of some 35,000 adults drew a variety of reactions from Southern Baptist leaders.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe results of the survey communicate growing evidence that the greatest need in America is a spiritual awakening,\u201d Southern Baptist Convention President Ronnie Floyd told Baptist Press in written comments. \u201cThe time is now and the hour is urgent; our churches in this nation must come together in clear agreement, visible union and extraordinary prayer for the next Great Awakening and to reach America and the World for Christ.<\/p>\n
\u201cSimultaneously, we need to rise with the same urgency, having a vision to reach our communities, towns and cities for Christ, returning to the priority of evangelizing, disciple-making and planting Gospel churches exponentially,\u201d said Floyd, pastor of Cross Church in northwest Arkansas.<\/p>\n
Pew\u2019s survey — conducted by phone June 4-Sept. 30, 2014, in Spanish and English — estimated a net decline of between 2.8 to 7.8 million Christians since a comparable survey in 2007. That translates to a drop from 78.4 percent of the U.S. population to 70.6 percent.<\/p>\n
Most of the decline occurred among mainline Protestants and Roman Catholics, with each decreasing by approximately 3 percent as a portion of the population since 2007. For every convert to Catholicism in America, there are six former Catholics, according to the report.<\/p>\n
Historically black Protestant denominations held steady between 2007 and 2014, and evangelicals decreased 0.9 percent as a portion of the population while increasing by some 2 million in terms of raw numbers.<\/p>\n
\u201cGenerational replacement\u201d as Americans from predominantly Christian generations died and \u201creligious switching\u201d were two primary causes of the decline among Christians, the survey found. A full 42 percent of Americans have a different religion than they did in childhood — a percentage that accounts for switches between evangelical, mainline and historically black Protestantism.<\/p>\n
Non-Christian religions have increased by 1.2 percentage points since 2007 to encompass 5.9 percent of American adults.<\/p>\n
But the increase of the religiously unaffiliated population — dubbed the \u201cnones\u201d — was the \u201cmost dramatic\u201d change, a Pew senior adviser told journalists during a May 12 conference call.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis trend towards the unaffiliated has occurred among all age groups to some extent and among all the major racial and ethnic communities as well,\u201d said John Green, a Pew senior advisor and distinguished professor of political science at the University of Akron. \u201cIn this regard, of particular note is a sharp increase in the percentage of Americans who self-identify as atheists and agnostics.\u201d<\/p>\n
While 25 percent of the nones claimed to be atheists or agnostics in 2007, 31 percent claimed those designations in 2014. Over the same period, the percentage of Protestants who identify with Baptist denominations dropped from 41 percent to 36 percent.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis research reveals that which many of us have been suspecting for quite some time,\u201d said Frank S. Page, president and CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention\u2019s Executive Committee. \u201cWe have seen the ever-increasing secularization of our culture and know that this is affecting those who call themselves Christians.<\/p>\n
\u201cPastors and evangelists for years have said that we are always only one generation away from becoming a pagan culture,\u201d Page told BP in written comments. \u201cThe importance of personal evangelism cannot be overstated. Our world needs Christ, and He has commissioned us to be the sharers of the Gospel. Let us recommit to telling those in our sphere of influence about the good news of our Lord Jesus Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ed Stetzer, president of LifeWay Research, underscored the survey\u2019s finding that evangelicals now constitute a majority (55%) of American Protestants. He highlighted the steadiness of \u201cconvictional Christianity\u201d amid the decline of liberal Protestantism.<\/p>\n
\u201cChristianity isn\u2019t dying and no research says it is,\u201d Stetzer wrote in a blog post. \u201cThe statistics about Christians in America are simply starting to show a clearer picture of what American Christianity is becoming — less nominal, more defined, and more outside of the mainstream of American culture.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor example, the cultural cost of calling yourself \u2018Christian\u2019 is starting to outweigh the cultural benefit, so those who do not identify as a \u2018Christian\u2019 according to their convictions are starting to identify as \u2018nones\u2019 because it\u2019s more culturally savvy,\u201d Stetzer wrote. \u201cBecause of this, the statistics show (on the surface) that Christianity in America is experiencing a sharp decline. However, that\u2019s the path of those who don\u2019t read beyond the surface. If there remains a relatively stable church-engaged, convictional minority, and there is a big movement on self-identification, that means that the middle is going away.\u201d<\/p>\n
Russell Moore, president of Southern Baptists\u2019 Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, said he sees hopeful signs amid Pew\u2019s report.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis study makes it clear … that people who don\u2019t want Christianity don\u2019t want the almost-Christianity offered to them by traditions that jettison the historic teachings of the church as soon as they become unfashionable,\u201d Moore said according to an ERLC news release.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe churches that are thriving are the vibrant, countercultural congregations that aren\u2019t afraid to not be seen as normal to the surrounding culture. This report actually leaves me hopeful. The Bible Belt may fall. So be it. Christianity emerged from a Roman Empire hostile to the core to the idea of a crucified and resurrected Messiah. We\u2019ve been on the wrong side of history since Rome, and it was enough to turn the world upside down,\u201d Moore said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The number of Christians in America has dropped nearly 8 percentage points since 2007 while the number of religiously unaffiliated adults has increased by nearly 7 percentage points during the same period. That\u2019s the finding of the Pew Research Center\u2019s 200-page study of \u201cAmerica\u2019s Changing Religious Landscape\u201d released today (May 12). The survey of some […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[582,282,392,1194,221,1276,1132,1278,2532,3646],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6111"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6111\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}