October 28, 2002
Nearly half of Texans not claimed by a church
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___More Texans are unchurched than are claimed by the state's two largest religious bodies combined.
___Southern Baptists and Roman Catholics together count 7.9 million Texans on their membership rolls, 38 percent of the state's population at the 2000 Census.
___But 44.5 percent of Texans, or 9.3 million individuals, have no affiliation with a religious body, according to new comparative data compiled every decade by an interfaith coalition.
___The data was released this month by the Glenmary Research Center in Cincinnati in a report titled "Religious Congregations and Membership 2000." It is considered the most detailed survey of religious affiliation in the nation and is compiled using data reported by 149 religious bodies, from Albanian Orthodox to Zoroastrians.
___Catholics claim the largest number of adherents in Texas, with 4.4 million, up 22.2 percent in the last decade. Southern Baptists claim the second-largest number of adherents, with 3.5 million.
___Southern Baptists, however, take the lead in number of Texas congregations, with 4,973. The Churches of Christ come in second in number of congregations, with 2,188. United Methodists have 2,110, and Catholics have 1,293.
See complete report of survey data here.
___By adherents, the top five religious bodies in Texas are Catholics, Southern Baptists, United Methodists (1 million), Churches of Christ (377,264) and Assemblies of God (228,098).
___Together, these top five religious bodies claim slightly more adherents than the number of Texans unclaimed by any religious body.
___The survey's tally of religious affiliation does not consider whether individuals have made personal faith commitments to Jesus Christ--something Baptists and other evangelical Christians believe is necessary for salvation. Rather, the survey looks only at membership or affiliation in a religious body.
___Thus, the number of non-Christians in Texas could be greater than the number of Texans not affiliated with a religious body.
___Nationally, the survey accounts for half of all Americans being affiliated with some religious group and half not affiliated.
___The three largest religious groups in the nation are Catholics (62 million), Southern Baptists (20 million) and United Methodists (10 million).
___While Catholics are the largest single group, there are more Protestants than Catholics in America (66 million versus 62 million).
___The survey counts 6 million Jews, 4 million Mormons and 1.6 million Muslims in the United States.
___Among the nation's larger religious bodies, Mormonism continues to grow at one of the fastest paces. The number of Mormon adherents in the United States grew 19.3 percent from 1990 to 2000. Baptists typically consider Mormonism a non-Christian cult group, even though Mormon leaders identify themselves as a branch of Christianity.
___Other major religious bodies with significant growth in the 1990s included the Assemblies of God (18.5 percent), Catholics (16.2 percent) and Southern Baptists (5 percent).
___Among those declining in membership were the Presbyterian Church USA (11.6 percent), United Methodists (6.7 percent), American Baptists (5.7 percent), Episcopalians (5.3 percent), Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (3.2 percent), Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (2.2 percent) and Churches of Christ (2.1 percent).
___Among other findings:
___Utah (74 percent) and North Dakota (73 percent) have the largest percentage of population claimed by religious bodies.
___
___
___
___
___
___
Get printer-friendly version of this story
Send this story to a friend
News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.
Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!/ Signup for FirstLook