Jan 31
9237017
Barna Research. has released an interesting survey on the religious make-up of the US. It is most eye-opening, and shows a very diverse level of belief even amoung self-described Christians.
Most interesting to me is the fact that only 8% of the population describe themselves as evangelicals. From the commotion these people make you would think they are in the majority of all Christians. This is in fact a perception held by many, outside the US. I must confess I was surprised to see that there were so few of them. Truth be told they are as small a minority as homosexuals, yet equal if not surpass them in the noise they make. It is ironic to note that in many cases the clamour for these two minority groups is aimed at each other.
The percentage of non-Christians (either Evangelical, Born-Again or Nominal (lapsed)) is considerably higher than it has been portrayed in some part of the media. Non-believers (ie non-Christian) and Agnostic/Atheist are 7% and 8% each, exaxctly 10% below the percentage of Nominal Christians. In short the US is predominantlty Christian country.
I do find it a bit troubling that agnostics and atheists were placed in the same catagory. It would have been interesting to see the breakdown between these two types in the catagory. Agnostics and atheists are two distinct types of people. It would be akin to placing “Not Sure” and “Abstain” in the same catagory in the results of a political poll.
This is a very interesting poll and report, and one well worth reading.
