The Future of Religion

Two important studies on religion have recently been completed and published:

NEW YORK – An interfaith survey, "Faith Communities in the United States Today" involving 14,301 congregations in 41 denominations or faith groups. It was conducted by researchers at Hartford Seminary in Connecticut and released at Holy Trinity Cathedral Center in New York.

According to this study, the claim of some sociologists- that American faith groups have entered a "post-denominational era" in which personal spirituality and needs have preempted loyalty to a single religious heritage- are invalid . Total U.S. church membership is 151,097,906 in 320,697 congregations, according to the 2001 Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches. "The overall vitality of these congregations is pretty stunning," said Carl S. Dudley, who with project co-director David A. Roozen determined that 62 percent of all congregations have strong denominational loyalties.

The survey confirms that the growth of less hierarchical, more charismatic congregations and smaller U.S. faiths such as Islam and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is "rapidly putting a new face on American religion" and diminishing the dominance of traditional churches, Dudley said. The 68-page report verifies the rapid growth of evangelical Protestant congregations and the declining membership of Episcopalians, Lutherans, Methodists and other mainline Protestant groups.

Newly organized Catholic parishes at mid-century represented about 10 percent of all new churches, Dudley said in an interview. That portion has dropped to 5 percent, while the combined percentage of new Baha'i, Muslim, Jewish and Mormon congregations has increased from about 3 percent to more than 20 percent, he said. Evangelical Protestant congregations make up the largest portion, 58 percent, of new congregations.

In an observation that could have a long-range impact on worship, the study found that many of the healthiest congregations -- measured by membership growth and financial stability -- offer alternative worship styles that appeal to younger worshipers, with electric guitars and keyboards rather than pipe organs and pianos. Such congregations are likely to be evangelical Protestant, with authority based "in the Holy Spirit" rather than in creeds or reason.

BRITAIN: A religion researcher's 40-year quest to tabulate every believer on earth has been completed by David B. Barrett, who recently published the second edition of his global analysis of faiths and the faithful, trends, details and his best estimated count of believers of all religions in each of 238 nations and territories worldwide.

The 2001 edition, successor to his 1983 first edition which took a decade to compile, identifies 10,000 distinct religions, of which 150 have 1 million or more followers. Within Christianity, he counts 33,830 denominations.

Among the studies’ claims:
- The full Bible is available in 1,943 languages and the New Testament in an additional 2,897.
- Christians baptize 122,000 new members in the average day.
- Organized Christianity spends $270 billion a year on all causes.
- Growth is in the Southern Hemisphere especially, notably in Africa.
- Christianity started out the past century 81 percent White and ended at 45 percent White.

“This is a huge change, not just ethnically but in what Christianity is all about. Christianity is steadily moving from this Caucasian, European-dominated, modern way of life, even beyond Christianity, as an institution," the study says.

CHANGES IN RELIGION

What is the future of religion? One of the simplest ways to look at the future is a straight line projection. For example, if population continues to grow at its current rate, in the year 2025 there will be more then eight billion people on the earth. This is a simple straight line projection. Following this logic:

-If the number of people becoming Christians continues at the current rate, in year 2025 three-billion eight-hundred million people will call themselves Christians.
-That same year, 2025, Islam, the fastest growing faith worldwide, will have two billion Muslims.
-In 2025 one-billion people will call themselves Hindus.
-Four hundred million people will call themselves Buddhists.
-Sixteen million people will call themselves Jews.

The computer and the Internet are examples of basic changes that are shaping our future. The Los Angeles Times recently published a report on the future of religion. The entire story focused on how the Internet is changing religion. They gave several examples.

-A Moslem living anywhere in the world, can log onto IslamiCity and listen to the call to prayer spoken in Arabic and the Friday sermon at a Los Angeles mosque. And I actually did this last week in preparing my sermon on Islam.
-Buddhists seeking enlightenment can go to BuddhaNet and ask for insight into the meaning of life.
-Jews can turn to thewall.org to type out messages, which students in Jerusalem print out and place in the Western Wall.
-Christians can log into the Crystal Cathedral's Web site each Sunday to hear that church's version of Christianity. Hundreds turn to the Crystal Cathedral's online counseling service, where they can confess their troubles to volunteer counselors in chat rooms.