At least according to a study released Monday by the Pew Report. As Ethics Daily notes
Americans are leaving Baptist churches at nearly twice the rate that others are joining them, according to details of a study released Monday by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.
But it’s not all bad news for Baptists:
Despite their losses, Baptists had one of the highest retention rates of Protestant families. About 60 percent of people raised Baptists did not change from the church of their childhood. The group experiencing the greatest net loss was the Catholic Church. More than 31 percent of U.S. adults said they were raised Catholics, while just under 24 percent identify as Catholics today, a loss of 7.5 percentage points.
And
The study confirmed that the U.S. is on the verge of becoming a minority Protestant country. Protestants account for 51.3 percent of the adult population and 65 percent of Christians in the U.S.
And finally, and interestingly, at least to me
Baptists as a group are 45 percent male and 55 percent female. The gender gap is smaller in the evangelical tradition–48 percent male and 52 percent female–than in the mainline (44 percent male, 56 percent female) or historically black (40 percent male and 60 percent female) traditions.
File all this under ‘things that make you go, hmmmm…’
5 responses so far ↓
Good news and bad news for Baptists : KnoxvilleTalks.com // February 27, 2008 at 10:50 am
[...] Dr. Jim West blogs: Americans are leaving Baptist churches at nearly twice the rate that others are joining them, according to details of a study released Monday by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. [...]
Eric // February 27, 2008 at 1:29 pm
I wonder how much of this can be attributed to the surge over recent decades of baptistic churches that eschew the word “Baptist,” opting instead to call themselves, “Such and such Community Church,” “X Bible Church,” “Q Evangelical Church,” etc.
Jim // February 27, 2008 at 1:36 pm
Interesting question Eric. From my point of view, anyone unwilling to associate themselves isn’t.
What the Pew U.S. Religious Landscape Survey Really Tells Us | Notes From Off-Center // February 27, 2008 at 10:18 pm
[...] Religious Landscape Survey as if it really is showing us something new. Ethics Daily (HT to Jim West who gives the appropriate response to the data as of now with "Hmmm") asks about [...]
The Friday Rundown | Notes From Off-Center // February 29, 2008 at 7:25 pm
[...] Many Baptists Aren’t Baptist Anymore [...]
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