Christian America is on the Decline
07 Sep 2017 Alison Lesley World Religion News
Muslims and Mormons constitute the youngest faith demographic
A report published by Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) says that white Christians have become a minority in United States. In 20 U.S. states, the 'nones' have formed the majority. Over 100,000 Americans were questioned during the survey. Questioners were bilingual when they queried information. It is clear, that future American is young and non-Christian.
Majority of the Christian denominations increasingly exhibit diversity signs as white Christians, once majority in both Catholic and Protestant denominations, are passing the baton to younger members. The latter are found to belong a number of different races. This change in U.S. religion has even entered American evangelical territory. The latter are also rapidly losing numbers. It is clear that a large number of Americans continue to shift from any kind of organized religion. They identify themselves as agnostics and atheists. There are also people who are not affiliated with any specific group, and are termed as “nones.” These make up about 24 percent or one quarter of the population.
According to PRRI findings, white Christians now constitute about 43 percent of the population. They were 80 percent during the end 1970s. This decline was because of increasing numbers of non-white Christians, where the latter may not hold identical social or political views as the white evangelicals. If the age factor is considered, about 38 percent of those respondents aged under 30 admitted to being 'unaffiliated.'
According to Robert P. Jones, the CEO of PRRI, “This report provides solid evidence of a new, second wave of white Christian decline that is occurring among white evangelical Protestants just over the last decade in the U.S.” This decline has been going on from 2006. Jones wrote the book The End of White Christian America. He continued on to say, “Prior to 2008, white evangelical Protestants seemed to be exempt from the waves of demographic change and disaffiliation that were eroding the membership bases of white mainline Protestants and white Catholics.”
The important survey findings include a number of facts like Lutherans constitute the highest percentage of whites. The latter makes up 92 percent of this religious population. The findings also threw up the information that white Christians are rapidly aging. Approximately 10 percent of mainline protestants, Catholics and evangelicals are below 30 years of age. This can be compared to one-third of all the Buddhist and Hindu populations. Youngest U.S. faith groups are the Mormons and the Muslims.