Who is Who in the Pew?

The Pew Forum on Religion and Life has done another service for Christians of all stripes. You can take a look at http://religions.pewforum.org/

Christianity Today is reporting on how well it counts Evangelicals at: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2008/februaryweb-only/109-23.0.html

They even have an interactive map showing their ideas on the percentage of differing Christin groups in each state. The Map above is about Evangelicals.

Here is the problem as I see it. Evangelicals within a Mainline group are not counted. For example, Evangelical Presbyterians, Methodists and Lutherans are called, "Mainline" not "Evangelicals". Evangelical Roman Catholics are counted only within the RC category.

At one time I was President of the Board of an Evangelical Ministry within the Presbyterian Denomination. There were many of us and we knew of many in other denominations. All Mainline groups have a large spread of theological commitments that can range from Unitarianism to Charismatic Evangelical. But these distinctions are difficult to make in surveys.

Evangelical is an individual term not a denominational term. I might be a Baptist and not be Evangelical or a Catholic and be an Evangelical. This is the difficulty with trying to use two different categories to count Believers.

But, the Pew research is insightful and helpful. For example, they conclude that religion is very dynamic and shifting. However, the percent who are self called Christians remains almost exactly the same. People shift frequently from a Christian group to another Christian group frequently. For example, from Catholic to Vineyard or Baptist to Catholic but rarely from Christian to Hindu.

For the pessimists it is bad news. The USA is a very religious nation, in fact a very Christian nation. God is good and people are coming to Him and to His churches. But many of the elite writers and media are not religious so it seems as though the nation is crumbling faith wise. It is not.

As one wag said: India is the most densely religious nation on earth. Sweden is the least religious nation on earth. America has a population of Indians led by Swedes!

But many people are switching groups and are open to try yours. Right now you can prayerfully consider who you want to invite to go to worship with you.

Gary Sweeten