[lbo-talk] 15% of the Population, 2 Hours per Weekend

Yoshie Furuhashi critical.montages at gmail.com
Tue Mar 27 13:22:12 PDT 2007


On 3/25/07, tfast <tfast at yorku.ca> wrote:
> But the real question is what makes some forms of protestant proselytizing
> more popular than others at different times. It is no secret that hyper
> individualized forms of Protestantism have had more success in the last
> thirty years than their collectivist cousins.

It's not that some forms of Protestant proselytizing are more popular than others. Mainline Protestant denominations, by and large, have ceased to proselytize. I have not met proselytizing Catholics either, and they would be in trouble but for continuing influxes of immigrants from Central and Latin America, especially Mexico.*

In contrast to Catholics and mainline Protestants as well as Jews, evangelical Christians proselytize, as do Soka Gakkai (cf. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soka_Gakkai_International>) and Muslims (Islam is therefore among the fastest growing religions in the USA, especially among Blacks: Matthew Bigg, "Post 9/11, Islam Flourishes among Blacks," 25 Feb 2007, <http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=inDepthNews&storyid=2007-02-25T152201Z_01_N21215362_RTRUKOC_0_US-USA-MUSLIMS-BLACKS.xml&src=rss&rpc=22>).

* <http://www.ncccusa.org/news/060330yearbook1.html> 2006 Yearbook of Churches reflects 'robust immigrant history in U.S.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The Yearbook also records the continuing growth of Pentecostal, historic African American and other non-mainline churches in the U.S. Among the largest 25 churches in the U.S., the fastest growing are the Assemblies of God (increasing 1.81 percent to 2,779,095), the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (increasing 1.74 percent to 5,999,177) and the Roman Catholic Church (increasing .83 percent to 67,820,833).

Only three mainline Protestant churches are among the ten largest churches: the United Methodist Church (ranked 3 with a membership of 8,186,254), the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ranked 7 with a membership of 4,930,429), and the Presbyterian Church, USA (ranked 9 with a membership of 3,189,573). All three churches declined in membership since the 2005 Yearbook was released. -- Yoshie



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list