The recently released U.S. Religious Landscape Survey is causing most observers to ring their hands in despair over the declining role of religion in America.
The extensive research done by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life found, for example, that Protestants hold a majority position in the United States only by their fingernails. Today only 51.3 percent of the American public claims to be Protestant. Twenty years ago, the number was almost two out of three. Also the Protestant category is broken down into evangelical Protestants — 26.3 percent, mainline Protestants — 18.1 percent and historically black Protestants — 6.9 percent.
Roman Catholics constitute 23.9 percent of the American population. Together, that makes 75.2 percent of Americans who claim a Christian heritage or identity. But if trends continue, it will not be too many years before Protestants are just one of many minority faiths in the nation.
Non-Christian religions are still rather scarce in the United States. Only about 4 percent of people hold to such faiths: Judaism — 1.7 percent, Buddhism — 0.7 percent, Islam — 0.6 percent, Hinduism — 0.4 percent, New Age — 0.4 percent and American Indian — 0.3 percent.
The number claiming to be atheist is also relatively small — 1.6 percent — while 2.4 percent of people reported they are agnostics. These numbers did not increase over previous studies.
That leaves a large group of people — 12.1 percent — who said they are "nothing in particular" though almost half describe themselves as "religious."
The survey also noted a high mobility between faith groups. Of the more than 35,000 adults who participated in the survey, 28 percent reported they had left the faith of their childhood for another religious tradition or for no religion at all. When those who had moved from one Protestant denomination to another were included, the figure rose to 44 percent of adults.
Also noted was that nearly four out of 10 Americans are married to someone of a different faith.
Baptists make up the largest Protestant denomination, comprising one-third of all Protestants. Nearly 21 percent of American adults reported being raised as Baptists. About one in five Americans still describe themselves as Baptists.
Alabama demographics are similar in many ways to the national scene. According to the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies (ASARB), 74.4 percent of Alabama residents claim affiliation with some religious body. About one-third are members of churches cooperating with the Alabama Baptist State Convention (ABSC). At the end of 2006, total ABSC membership stood at 1,125,821.
ASARB reports that out of every 1,000 people in the state, 311 are Southern Baptists. Of course, that number does not include members of other Baptist groups in the state such as those who are members of the historically black Baptist conventions. The next highest ratio in the state is United Methodists with a ratio of 74 out of 1,000 residents.
Despite this numerical dominance, Alabama Baptists show signs of slipping in their efforts to reach people with the gospel and to enlist those people in worship and Bible study. In 1975, when membership in ABSC churches was 918,990, the total number of reported baptisms was 30,636.
In 2005, 30 years later, convention membership was more than 1.1 million and reported baptisms totaled 21,368. In 2006, that total rose to 22,406 — almost 5,000 baptisms below the 1976 total.
Around 1980, the percentage of resident members to total members almost touched 74 percent. Now it is just below 70 percent. In the mid-1970s, just more than 42 percent of resident members participated in Bible study. Since that time, the trend has been steadily downward. Today 35.9 percent of resident members regularly participate in Bible study.
When total membership is compared to average Bible study attendance, one finds that only 25.1 percent of total members are in Bible study any given week. Now more people come to worship than to Bible study. In 2006, the average Sunday morning worship attendance was 392,177 in churches related to the ABSC. The average Sunday School attendance was 282,732. That means 28 percent of those attending worship did not participate in organized Bible study.
One good sign out of all the statistics is that worship attendance has increased about 12.5 percent in the last 15 years, according to information from the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions.
Those who examine trends in society see intense interest in spirituality, but that does not necessarily translate into interest in church. People like Jesus, they say, but they do not like the church.
Speaking to that point, John Green, a Pew Forum scholar and expert on evangelicals in America, noted that "Protestantism is … losing influence because of its divisions internally." Evidently those outside of the church do not like the face of the church that Christians often present.
But there is still an opportunity. An interest in Jesus opens a door. With 25 percent of the state’s people unaffiliated with any religious organization, there is opportunity.
And there is opportunity within our own ranks. Alabama Baptists can start with the 50 percent of resident members who do not attend worship on Sunday and with the 28 percent of those who do attend worship but do not participate in organized Bible study.
Ringing one’s hands in despair over the declining role of religion in America is not enough. It is time to put those hands to work sharing the good news of Jesus Christ and inviting people to worship and Bible study.
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