religion

[Doug Henwood]

While I'm sure that there are lots of upscale Evangelical Christians 
in the U.S., I have a hard time believing that it's predominantly an 
upscale thing. Here's a chart drawn from a book that reported the 
most comprehensive poll of religious self-identification ever 
undertaken in the U.S. The most upscale religions are the most 
doctrinally and stylistically tepid of them all.

Doug

----

                             average     status,

                             income        rank

Unitarian                   34,800         1
Disciples of Christ         28,800         2
Agnostic                    33,300         3
Congregationalist           30,400         4
Episcopalian                33,000         5
Eastern Orthodox            31,500         6
Jewish                      36,700         7
Presbyterian                29,000         8
Hindu                       27,800         9
NRMs                        27,500        10
Buddhist                    28,500        11
None                        27,300        12
Catholic                    27,700        13
Lutheran                    25,900        14
Protestant                  25,700        15
Methodist                   25,100        16
Mormon                      25,700        17
Churches of Christ          26,600        18
Muslim                      24,700        19
Assemblies of God           22,200        20
Christian Science           25,800        21
Evangelical                 21,900        22
Brethren                    18,500        23
Christian                   20,700        24
Nazarene                    21,600        25
Baptist                     20,600        26
Pentacostal                 19,400        27
7th-Day Adventist           22,700        28
Holiness                    13,700        29
Jehovah's Witness           20,900        30

Status is a composite of four measures: income, percent with college 
degree, percent full-time year-round workers, percent homeowners. 
NRMs are New Religious Movements (Scientology, New Age, Ekankar, etc.)

source: Barry A. Kosmin & Seymour P. Lachman, One Nation Under God: 
Religion in Contemporary American Society (New York: Crown/Harmony, 
1994)