From: cramer@optilink.UUCP (Clayton Cramer)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc,ca.politics,ba.politics
Subject: Religion In America: Hard Numbers
Date: 14 Aug 92 16:29:35 GMT
Organization: Optilink Corporation, Petaluma, CA


I got a lot of flak here recently for my assertion that 80% of the
American population subscribes to the Judeo-Christian ethical
system.  First item:

    In the first Gallup audit of the 1990s, 69% of adults said they 
    were members of a church, synagogue, or similar religious congregation.
    [World Alamanac 1992, p. 727]

OK, some of those may not be attending a Christian church or Jewish
synagogue or temple.  How many?  Another table in the 1992 World
Almanac shows "Religious Population of the U.S."  This is based on
membership in a church or other religious body.  As the accompanying
notes admit, membership definitions vary, with the Roman Catholic
Church counting "members from infancy" (which doubtless overcounts
them) and Protestant churches counting "only 'adult' members, 
usually 13 yeras or older..." [p. 724] which quite certainly
undercounts Protestants, since many Protestant churches distinguish 
membership (voting rights in a congregation) from those who
attend regularly and sporadically but haven't joined.  (Churches
I have attended usually had weekly attendance about 20% higher
than church membership, for this reason).

For 1990, from p. 725:

Total   147,607,394
Members as percent of population 59.3%
Buddhists   19,000
Eastern Churches (Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, etc.) 4,057,000
Jews    5,944,000
Old Catholic, Polish National Catholic, Armenian Churches   980,000
Roman Catholics 57,020,000
Protestants 79,387,000
Miscellaneous   197,000

Obviously, the Buddhists and Miscellanous ("Officially non-Christian
bodies, e.g. Spiritualists, Ethical Culture Movement, and Unitarian-
Universalists") aren't part of the Judeo-Christian ethical and
moral tradition.  Big deal.  That still leaves >58% of the population
in the Judeo-Christian tradition.  As discussed above, the numbers
for Catholics doubtless include people who aren't members of
the Catholic Church anymore, and the Protestant numbers excludes
adults and teenagers who aren't formerly members, but certainly
subscribe to those values.  Since about 40% of the population
attends religious services in any given week, the evidence suggests
that the majority of Americans, and probably a large majority,
still hold to their religious beliefs.  It is clear that large
numbers of other Americans don't ever attend church, temple, or
synagogue, but still identify with those values.  (For example,
you would be astonished how many couples who don't EVER attend
church seek out a pastor or priest to marry them).

Even here in the San Francisco Bay Area, where Christianity
is definitely a minority religion, there is plenty of corroborating
evidence.  Start counting the number of stylized fishes on cars.
(Ignore the ones where the fish has feet, and "Darwin" appears in
the middle of the fish.)

Look for bumper stickers that advertise "Good News Music" radio
stations.  Look for aggressively Christian bumper stickers: 
"Christians aren't perfect, just forgiven."  It will become
apparent that there is a large population out there with whom the
average USENETer has little or no contact.
-- 
Clayton E. Cramer {uunet,pyramid}!optilink!cramer  My opinions, all mine!
I can make myself popular on USENET again -- all I have to say is that I'm not 
disturbed by the support for North American Man-Boy Love Association in the 
homosexual community.  Being popular at a child's expense isn't worth it.
Xref: sparky talk.politics.misc:39422 alt.individualism:5230 alt.activism:14756 soc.motss:34991