The Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) conducted a survey of over 101,000 Americans from all 50 states and concluded: “Today, only 43% of Americans identify as white and Christian, and only 30% as white and Protestant. In 1976, roughly eight in ten (81%) Americans identified as white and identified with a Christian denomination, and a majority (55%) were white Protestants.”
A review of the PRRI website may indicate that while the organization claims to be non-partisan and unbiased in its surveys, there is a more liberal than not lean to its topics and interpretations. Notwithstanding skin pigment or political bias, these findings are a signal that Christianity is losing ground in America.
PRRI also found that evangelical Protestants are on the decline:
White evangelical Protestants were once thought to be bucking a longer trend, but over the past decade their numbers have dropped substantially. Fewer than one in five (17%) Americans are white evangelical Protestant, but they accounted for nearly one-quarter (23%) in 2006. Over the same period, white Catholics dropped five percentage points from 16% to 11%, as have white mainline Protestants, from 18% to 13%.” Politically, only 29% of Democrats are white Christian compared with 50% a decade ago, and 40% are religiously unaffiliated. Some 73% of all Republicans belong to a white Christian religious group, according to PRRI.
Another finding of the PRRI survey was that the religions of youth in America are becoming more non-Christian:
Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists are all far younger than white Christian groups. At least one-third of Muslims (42%), Hindus (36%), and Buddhists (35%) are under the age of 30. Roughly one-third (34%) of religiously unaffiliated Americans are also under 30. In contrast, white Christian groups are aging. Slightly more than one in ten white Catholics (11%), white evangelical Protestants (11%), and white mainline Protestants (14%) are under 30. Approximately six in ten white evangelical Protestants (62%), white Catholics (62%), and white mainline Protestants (59%) are at least 50 years old.
Other pollsters such as Barna and Pew Research corroborate the trends on these numbers. Quite frankly, the implications have nothing to do with white Christians. Christianity in America is in a decline. Christians are losing their children to a dark and dying world. We can even see that the Democratic Party attracts those who are walking away from Christianity. As is written in Galatians 3:28:
“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
God is not looking at this falling away in terms of race. We are all one race-the human race. Our challenge is to do a better job at making disciples as commanded by Jesus Christ in the Great Commission.
Have a Blessed and Powerful Day!
Bill Wilson