No subject

Dan

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/08/AR2009030801967.html?hpid=topnews
or
http://tinyurl.com/d3em7n

[excerpts -- go the url to get all the details]

15 Percent of Americans Have No Religion
Fewer Call Themselves Christians; Nondenominational Identification Increases

By Michelle Boorstein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 9, 2009; Page A04

The percentage of Americans who call themselves Christians has dropped
dramatically over the past two decades, and those who do are increasingly
identifying themselves without traditional denomination labels, according to
a major study of U.S. religion being released today.

The survey of more than 54,000 people conducted between February and
November of last year showed that the percentage of Americans identifying as
Christians has dropped to 76 percent of the population, down from 86 percent
in 1990.
[But note:]
Those who do call themselves Christian are more frequently describing
themselves as "nondenominational" "evangelical" or "born again," according
to the American Religious Identification Survey.

[skipping ahead, music to Richard's ear]

The only group that grew in every U.S. state since the 2001 survey was
people saying they had "no" religion; the survey says this group is now 15
percent of the population. Silk said this group is likely responsible for
the shrinking percentage of Christians in the United States.

Northern New England has surpassed the Pacific Northwest as the least
religious section of the country; 34 percent of Vermont residents say they
have "no religion." The report said that the country has a "growing
non-religious or irreligious minority." Twenty-seven percent of those
interviewed said they did not expect to have a religious funeral or service
when they died, and 30 percent of people who had married said their service
was not religious. Those questions weren't asked in previous surveys.

[and we now have a new Christian "mystery"]

The survey reflects a key question that demographers, sociologists and
political scientists have been asking in recent years: Who makes up this
growing group of evangelicals? Forty-four percent of America's 77 million
Christian adults say they are born again or evangelical. Meanwhile, 18
percent of Catholics also chose that label, as did 40 percent of mainline
Christians.

"If people call themselves 'evangelical,' it doesn't tell you as much as you
think it tells you about what kind of church they go to," Silk said. "It
deepens the conundrum about who evangelicals are."