The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) for the first time has been listed among the top five largest churches in the United States, according to figures released Feb. 13.
The Salt Lake City-based church, popularly known as the Mormons, ranked fifth among the 25 largest U.S. churches, according to the “2002 Yearbook of Canadian and American Churches” compiled by the National Council of Churches.
The Roman Catholic Church maintained its No. 1 spot, with 63.6 million reported members. The largest Protestant church, in the No. 2 spot, remains the Southern Baptist Convention, with 15.9 million reported members. The United Methodist Church placed third, with 8.3 million members in the United States. In the No. 4 spot is the Church of God in Christ, a predominantly black Pentecostal church with 5.4 million members. Latter-day Saints, with 5.2 million members, placed fifth.
The Latter-day Saints bumped the nation’s largest Lutheran body, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, to sixth place, with 5.1 million members. That move leaves the Methodists as the only mainline Protestant church among the top five — in 1970, three of the top five churches were mainline churches.
Rounding out the top 10 were the National Baptist Convention of America Inc. (3.5 million members), Presbyterian Church (USA) (3.4 million members), Assemblies of God (2.5 million members) and the Lutheran Church-
Missouri Synod (2.5 million members). The Assemblies of God, a fast- growing Pentecostal denomination, rose from tenth to ninth place.
Total U.S. church membership, according to the almanac, stands at an estimated 152 million.
The annual list is considered the most authoritative guide to U.S. church membership, although editor Eileen Lindner readily concedes that church statistics can be notoriously unreliable. Figures for the National Baptist Convention of America Inc., for example, date from 1987.
Lindner said the rise of the Latter-day Saints is not unexpected, but still significant. “The distinctive theological position of the LDS and its history of persecution make such rapid growth all the more remarkable,” she wrote.
“However, the church’s strong emphasis in outreach through both missions personnel and electronic and print advertising makes it unique among contemporary North American churches,” Linder added.
(RNS)
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