Survey finds Protestants losing ‘majority status’ in U-S

By July 28, 2004

USA (MNN) — A recent survey has found that the U.S. will no longer be the majority
Protestant nation in years to come as membership in Protestant churches continues to decline. A survey taken by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago between 1993 and 2002 shows that the share of Americans who call themselves “Protestant” dropped to 52 percent, down from 63 percent after years of remaining “generally stable,” reported the Associated Press.

At the same time, the number of people who said they had no religion rose to nearly 14 percent, up from 9 percent. Many are former Protestants, the survey’s authors said. The study was based on three decades of religious identification questions. The U.S. “has been seen as white and Protestant,” said Tom Smith, director of the General Social Survey.

That means evangelical churches have a huge mission field right in their own backyard. The problem is most churches are more inclined to taking a short term missions team overseas and ignoring the problems at home.

The survey pointed to the influx of non-Protestant immigrants and the failure of a growing number of Protestant parents to raise their children in the faith as possible reasons for the decline. Many Christian parents are failing to have family devotions, pray together, or talk about the Gospel.

Pray that God would move in the heart of the American church to reach out at home, so those who claim “no religion” could come to Christ.

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