Legal Commentary

Survey: Organized Religions Lose Members

By Jeralyn

ABC News reports a new survey by Aris shows Americans are becoming less religious:

According to the poll, which came out today, the percentage of Americans who define themselves as Christian has dropped from 86 percent in 1990 to 76 percent in 2008.

In one of the most dramatic shifts, 15 percent of Americans now say they have no religion -- a figure that's almost doubled in 18 years. Americans with no religious preference are now larger than all other major religious groups except Catholics and Baptists.

The number of Atheists is growing and the number of Protestants have fallen: [More...]

Mainline Protestants are down the most. Methodists, for example, have gone from 8 to 5 percent. Baptists are down from 19.3 to 15.8. And Jews are down from 1.8 to 1.2 percent.

Spirtualism, however, seems to be on the rise:

Some 2.8 million Americans now say they identify with new religious movements like Wicca, paganism or spiritualists. Catholic strongholds in New England and the Midwest have faded as people have moved toward the Sunbelt.

The only Christian denominations not seeing falling numbers are evangelicals:

Megachurches are booming, rising from 5 to 11.8 percent of the population. And with the economy in free fall, many megachurches say they're seeing increased attendance. They're praying that perhaps hard times will draw Americans back to their faith.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on March 09, 2009 (boomark / email).