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The Emmanuel Research Review is a publication of the Emmanuel Gospel Center, and features articles, papers, resources, and information that we believe are helpful and relevant to urban pastors, leaders, and community members in their efforts to serve their communities effectively. |
Be sure to check out additional resources at the end of the article for futher study. As always, we welcome your feedback!
by
Brian Corcoran
Research Associate, Emmanuel Gospel Center
Managing Editor, Emmanuel Research Review
The
2008 U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, conducted by the Pew Forum
on Religion and Public Life, introduces their extensive study with the initial
assumption, “From the beginning of the colonial period, religion has been
a major factor in shaping the identity and values of the American people.”
However, after having interviewed approximately 35,000 adults across the
country during 2007, the report can confidently state, “The U.S. population
remains highly religious in its beliefs and practices, and religion continues
to play a prominent role in American public life.”
The study quantifies “the increasing diversity of the American religious landscape, the remarkable dynamism of its faith communities and the pervasive presence of religion in the American public square,” contrary to the trend of public secularization in Europe.
Although some may question the practical value of this survey to urban ministry and communities, Luis Lugo, Director of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, responds, “We hope that the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey will contribute to a better understanding of the important role that religion plays in the personal and public lives of most Americans.”
Even with the historical significance of religion in the United States and America apparently being among one of the most religiously dynamic and diverse countries in the world, there is still a huge religion research gap, which this recent study is attempting to fill. In 1880, Census takers in the U.S. began collecting a variety of information, such as denominational affiliation, congregational demographics, church finances, and languages used in services from clergy and religious leaders, and continued until 1956, when funding expired.
In 1957, the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey attempted to fill the information gap with the unique approach of asking individuals directly about their religious affiliations, rather than asking clergy and religious leaders about their congregants. Unfortunately, the results of that survey were only partially released. Controversy soon followed over infringement upon “the traditional separation of church and state”. The legality of mandating a response to any U.S. Census question regarding personal “religious beliefs or membership in a religious body” was challenged and eventually prohibited as enacted by Congress in 1976. While the Census Bureau was later allowed to ask individuals questions about personal religious practices on a voluntary response basis, it has not opted to do so.
Therefore, ever since the 1950s, when America’s largest and most authoritative surveying agency, the U.S. Census Bureau, was prevented from directly collecting information on religious affiliation, researchers have attempted to fill the gap in two basic ways: 1. Gathering data from religious bodies such as Christian denominations, or 2. Conducting direct personal surveys. Each approach and combination thereof has its distinct contribution, value, and limitations.
As mentioned within the study, some good examples of information collected from religious bodies include the Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches, produced by the National Council of Churches, and Religious Congregations & Membership in the United States, produced by the Glenmary Research Center, and even the World Christian Database, which combines this information with other data to portray the contours of the global religious landscape. This may help portray a macro-organizational profile, especially for larger, more established groups that consistently monitor their congregations. However, even this data is often inconsistently reported across groups and still doesn’t inquire members directly.
The National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, the Gallup Organization, and the 2001 American Religious Identification Survey (conducted by the Graduate Center of the City University of New York) explore the religious landscape by surveying individuals. By asking people directly, these surveys hold a greater potential of portraying people’s actual religious beliefs and practices, yet are often large samples with few questions or smaller samples with more in-depth questions.
However, the 2008 U.S. Religious Landscape Survey complements and uniquely deepens these recent studies by having both “multiple questions on religion and large sample size [that] fills an important niche by providing a new basis for enumerating and understanding the country’s increasingly diverse religious landscape.” While admitting its own limitations, such as adult-only respondents, “vague denominational identification,” language barriers, and undercounting among foreign-born members, the study still provides “reliable estimates of the size of religious groups in the United States as well as detailed information on their demographic characteristics, religious beliefs and practices, and basic social and political values.” The study suggests that their data provides a benchmark for future studies and helps us better understand social-spiritual activity within the United States.
Even with over 35,000 respondents to their in-depth, national survey, there is a sense that this report has only begun to probe the depths of the current religious diversity and dynamics within America and various religious bodies.
The research of the Emmanuel Gospel Center has surveyed and monitored various aspects of Christianity for more than 40 years. In the case of Boston, we are encouraged and inspired by what we have observed and learned within our own city regarding increased vitality among churches. This trend, which we call the Quiet Revival, is a term used to summarize the unprecedented growth of Christianity in our region in the past 40 years, characterized not only by a growing number of churches and more people in churches, but also by increased unity, prayer, community transformation, and overflow to the world.
Having the benefit of a local comprehensive directory of Christian churches and other related research information and experience in hand, the Emmanuel Gospel Center has some basis for comparison with the 2008 U.S. Religious Landscape Study. Even though our research is predominantly taken from church leaders, it has the advantage of a geographic focus that provides a denser citywide portrayal of churches, therefore requiring less interpolation than national studies to understand the contours of the religious landscape within the heart of Metro Boston.
Even with these different research approaches, between the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey and the research of the Emmanuel Gospel Center, we can begin to see agreement between some of the national findings and our local Boston-based research. For instance, in the wake of the Catholic clergy sex abuse scandal and the ongoing reconfiguration of the Boston Archdiocese, there still appears to be a significant but declining Catholic representation in Boston as indicated by the national study. Furthermore, our Boston research would agree with the national results that the Catholic Church, as well as many other existing Christian churches in Boston, have experienced new attendees as a result of immigration. Even more so, immigrants have established new Protestant churches in Boston that contribute to the overall numbers and cultural diversity of Christianity in Boston.
For more information, read the following issues of the Emmanuel Research Review:
• Issue No. 19 — July-August 2006 — Surveying Churches II: The Changing Church System in Boston
• Issue No. 21 – October 2006 – Surveying Churches III: Facts that Tell a Story
However, at the same time, our research presents the opportunity for more analysis between the research of the Emmanuel Gospel Center and the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey and the possibility of conducting surveys to individuals that might capture data similar to the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey in our own community. As mentioned in the national survey, there is “the pressing need for up-to-date, reliable information,” especially with regard to newer, smaller, other than English speaking groups” that the Emmanuel Gospel Center may be able to investigate.
Religious Affiliation
Protestantism
Catholicism
Religious Diversity and Immigration
***The following page numbers refer the page number of the PDF document, not the report itself.***
RELIGIOUS COMPOSITION OF THE U.S. (1972-2006) - p. 21
THE COMPOSITION OF AMERICAN PROTESTANTISM (p. 18)
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION OF RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS (p. 74)
RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION BY STATE IN THE NORTHEAST (p. 99)
RELIGIOUS COMPOSITION OF THE NATIVE BORN AND FOREIGN BORN (p. 50)
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