US News
More than 8 out of 10 Americans identify with a Christian faith
By M&C US News Dec 25, 2007, 15:42 GMT
The latest Gallup poll and reporter Frank Newport recently analyzed the current percentage of Americans today identify with a Christian religion.
About 82% of Americans in 2007 told Gallup interviewers that they identified with a Christian religion.
Neport breaks it down: "51% who said they were Protestant, 5% who were "other Christian," 23% Roman Catholic, and 3% who named another Christian faith, including 2% Mormon."
Coming in at 11% were those who claimed no religious identity at all, and another 2% didn't answer.
Newport writes that these "results suggest that well more than 9 out of 10 Americans who identify with a religion are Christian in one way or the other."
Time has shown a shift in religious camps. The new Gallup shows that the percentage of Americans who identify with a Christian religion is down some over the decades.
It is due to the higher percentage of Americans today who don't claim a religious identity.
In 1948 - one of the first Gallup polls - 69% cliaimed to be Protestant and 22% as Roman Catholic, or about 91% Christian.
The latest poll examines the line between those who claim to be a member of a church versus the actively religious.
In the 1937 Gallup Poll, 73% of Americans said they were church members. Toay 62% percent of Americans in Gallup's latest poll say they are members of a "church or synagogue."
Gallup noted that statisticians argue over the veracity of self-reported attendance data. Newport notes possible reasons: "Deliberately over-reporting the frequency of their church attendance because it is socially desirable, or generalizing and guessing at the frequency of their church attendance rather than pinning it down specifically."
Gallup notes that now 17% of adult Americans say they never attend church, and more than 8 out of 10 Americans say they attend church or other worship services at least "seldom."
But attending church could also mean attending a wedding, baptism or a funeral.
Gallup's latest shows that one third say they attend once a week, with another 12% saying they attend almost every week. This means that about 44% of Americans can be pegged for "frequent church attendance."
This year, 56% of Americans have said religion is very important. Only 17% say religion is not very important.
Gallup noted that from the 1950s and 1960s over 70% of Americans said religion was very important in their daily lives. That percentage dropped into the 50% range by the 1970s, and since then it has fluctuated somewhat, but has generally been in the 55% to 65% range.
Based on the latest Gallup's poll conducted in December, Newport claims "more than 8 in 10 Americans identify with a religion and 8 out of 10 say that religion is at least fairly important in their daily lives; more than 8 out of 10 say they attend church at least 'seldom'; and again more than 8 out of 10 identify with a Christian religion."
COMMENT
blog comments powered by DisqusLatest Headlines in US
- 1. Mitt Romney Addresses Tea Party Summit Pictures
- 2. Seven injured as US Navy plane crashes into apartments
- 3. At least three injured in US Navy plane crash
- 4. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, others to face death penalty trial
- 5. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, four others to face death penalty trial
Older Talkback
page: 1
...........But only 1 out of 8 practices a Christian Faith..............
Happy Christmas to you too.
I'm Cynical.. not Hypocritical.
Peace and blessings.Happy Xmas to you too!
...is a sinner who keeps on trying.
Merry Christmas
Open verbal warefare after New Year
AS USUAL
Truce for Xmas ???
God Bless everyone....and Yes SP:4 Even You.
God Bless.
And a happy new year.
a huge load.
Maybe I'm just not comprehending, but if 82% are Christians, then why does it also say that 9/10 people are Christian?
So the insanity is widespread but not absolute. Its a start.
May the few grow to be the many.
My Christmas message. The Koran, The two Bibles and the Torah are weapons of mass delusion. Keep them away from your kids.
Since when are there more Mormons than Jews?
How many of these Xtians actually follow the 'word of the lord'? 1 out of 10? 2?
Ever watch folks who are firghtened of organized religion? They act a lot like...well...the Klan, don't they?
I would really like to see the actual questions. I have always believed these polls are written to encourage a religious response.
How many of the 8 out of 10 Americans didn't lie this year or 'loved' his/her neighbor?? Its all bunch of BS. Lot of people are Jesus wannabes!
Happy Pagan Holiday to you all. zeitgeistmovie.com
Care to give at least a slight attempt of justification for your bizarre statement SP4,or are the readers just to believe you on your word,without a shred of argumentation?
I'm always happy to work on any day that my 7 day work rota specifies *AND* that I don't specifically request as leave days. For example I NEVER work on my daughter's birthday, and won't until after her 18th birthday.
As for gifts - I don't require the benefits of a fairy tale to buy something nice for my wife or daughter, nor they for me.
Let's replace 'In God we trust' (or 'In God we're trussed', or whatever it is) with 'Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition', especially while stirring up a hornets' nest in some corner of a foreign field that is forever the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Those numbers seem a little high to me. There's alot of christians yes, but a majority of people I know and volunteer with, aren't christian. They're totally disgusted with organized religion and the things it's been doing lately.
I think the numbers have been tweaked, or only certain groups have been asked what their beliefs are. Making the numbers look so pro-organized religion, gives the christian community another excuse to keep everybody else around them in a primitive stranglehold. It's not the crusades anymore. It's time to step up and be respectful of everybody's personal beliefs or lack thereof, and to remove ALL religious speech, statements, and innuendo from anything state related.
Did you know that the pledge of allegiance was altered by the christian right wing in 1950 (or was it 51? i forget, i was so young) to say 'one nation under god? back in those days, if you argued about it, you'd get yourself hurt by the local 'christians' who to this day still think they have the right to harm others who don't believe the same as they do. We need to step out of the dark ages. The original version of the bible was violent and islamic-styled anyway, the version knowadays was re-written by some scottish yahoos, why would you want to worship either of those?
Think for yourselves for once people, the world will be a better place.
...since you're the only one who seems to need an explanation, never say that I'm not accomodating.
Ever notice the hostility towards Christans? It seems to be not directed at their particular beliefs, but only the fact that they are Christians.
Now, there are a lot of Christian sub-sects i.e. Catholics, evengelists, Protestant, etc. but notice the broad brush that paints them as 'insincere' or insinuates that somehow, this is backwards thinking, even though it's simply a faith.
I think most of this parodies some of the syntax I heard as a child about blacks in the deep south. This was from reactionaries typically associated with the political right but now, most of this new bigotry seems to be arriving from the left. Interesting, is it not?
We have now, a group on the political left that seems to treat Athieism as a religion, something one of my professors predicted years ago. I did not agree with him at the time, but now it has jelled into a defined political entity.
These non-god worshipers have, of course, made their own gods up: eco-centrism, relativity-based morality i.e 'we're all right...except conservatives!'...ethno-centrism (diversity... except for Conservatives), and the like.
In the absence of a god to worship, they've created the Divine-Church-of-Liberalism. It was, of course, modeled on the old churches, with figureheads (a liberal, like Clinton), a clergy (academics and know-it-alls like Gore) and a faithful that would make Jim Jones proud. Ayn Rand said it perfectly 'PLEASE! would you get in the gas chamber for me?!'
Like all organized faiths, it is going through it's role as government, trying to institutionalize it's beliefs like the old Church of Rome did centuries ago.
It has it's clergy, any academic who, the crazier he is, the more exposure he gets (Ward Church?). These are the keepers of the faith, paid in full to do so via tax dollars. (no poverty vow, for sure!) They claim a holy infallibility and punish the infidels. Which was it...Univ. of Mass. who was holding mandatory dorm meetings on 'sustainability' and had assigned environmental work with no classes in order to go there?
Consequently, they have become the new bigots. It's their church against yours, because how could they possibly be wrong? One only has to look at the Duke rape case to see thier claims of infallibility and what happens when O'Reilly invites them to their own disemboweling on national TV.
You see Mikey Chreighton was right: folks will invent a new religion, if they don't have one they currently believe in. One ony has to look at the idolitors of the modern age, Tom Cruise or John Travola to see this in plain sight, or how folks like...well..you Tonny... are sooo ready to believe guys like Al Gore, simply because you wish to, while hiding behind the poorly covered veil of what you call 'science' and then seek, desparately, to convince everyone else like a Jehovah's Witness on a warm Saturday on my doorstep.
Keep your Kool Aid and no, I won't step into your gas chamber.
SP4 - you really are a meathead aren't you?
Of course we have ethical codes, I don't need an individual to tell me that there are right and wrong ways to deal with people.
I won't discriminate against you if you hold anachronistic views regarding deities. What I will do is discriminate against you if you think that holding those views entitles you to special treatment, if you think that your particular imaginary friend's followers should get tax breaks. If you think that you should be seen of as a more 'moral' person because of thise views, if you're one of the huge majority of people who would trust an unconvicted atheist less than a convicted (but religious) criminal.
Organised religion is about nothing more than power and control, most of the followers are being controlled and subjugated by that power, yet happily sup greedily.
I find the leader of the catholic catholic church, a man who has vowed never to have sex, telling his followeers that they can only have sex for procreation. Of course, he merely wants more devoted followers.
I find muslims calling for death to those that they refer to as 'apostates', can't have one less follower, can we?
When the future of the world is boiling down to who has the best imgainary friend, isn't it time that we all stood together and condemned the mad bastards who lead these cults.
Oh, I did once claim to believe in god (never specified which one), and yes the stupid bitch believed me and let me sleep with her :) Gullible as ever!!!!!
Allow me to quote a great mean ....
'We are all atheists about most of the gods that societies have ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further.'
If the majority of us are Christians, why are the majority of people rude, anti-social, and sometimes violent for no logical reason? Nice people are hard to come by nowadays. Hmmm...
p.s. SP4-The Klan are highly religious, not afraid of religion dear. They're what happens when religion is allowed to run rampant
'I won't discriminate against you if you hold anachronistic views regarding deities.'
Something of a land speed record for self contradiction.
Religion is nothing but a bunch of fairy tales. You're worshipping fictional books. Are you so desperate to feel complete that you'll worship fiction? It just doesn't make any sense to me. Scientology has got to be the most confusing. A science fiction book by L Ron Hubbard? Come on people. There's no such thing as Santa or the Tooth Fairy.
To An Agnostic ..... read the quote properly.
'I won't discriminate against you if you hold anachronistic views regarding deities. What I will do is discriminate against you if you think that holding those views entitles you to special treatment, if you think that your particular imaginary friend's followers should get tax breaks. If you think that you should be seen of as a more 'moral' person because of thise views, if you're one of the huge majority of people who would trust an unconvicted atheist less than a convicted (but religious) criminal.'
Holding the views will NOT lead to dicrimination by me - expecting special treatment of ANY sort WILL lead to discrimiantion.
A very clear divide, the message - keep your personal views to yourself and you'll do just fine with me.
page: 1
CynicDec 25th, 2007 - 17:22:31
'More than 8 out of 10 Americans identify with a Christian faith'
...........But only 1 out of 8 practices a Christian Faith..............
Report this comment