This chart shows that religion in the United States is experiencing some difficulties. In the seven years since 2007, all three major christian groups have lost membership -- evangelicals about 0.9%, mainline protestants about 3.4%, and catholics about 3.1%. The only two groups that experienced growth are the non-christian religions by about 1.2 % and the non-religious by a whopping 6.7%.
The growth of the non-religious in the last seven years has been remarkable -- and has boosted them from 4th place among the groups to 2nd place now (vaulting them past the mainline protestants and the catholics). There is no reason to believe these trends won't continue.
The chart was made from information provided by the Pew Research Center.
I have heard it argued that the reason religion is bigger in the US than in the UK is because we don't have an official religion. And that was true long before religion became a signifier of the Good Guys in the Cold War. I wonder if the virulence of American Christians in political life isn't backfiring. People are sick of it in the same way that they are sick of Kim Davis. Anyway, here is an article I wrote on pretty much the same data about six months ago, Are the New Atheists Succeeding?!
ReplyDeleteI think we are succeeding because the bigots are growing and getting louder.
ReplyDeleteAlso the RCC and Evanjellies are growing because they are the ones that enable the bigots the best.