Worldwide slightly more than 1 in 10 Christians live in the United States. As of 2015, there were 2,276,250,000 Christians with 248,148,00 (or 10.9%) residing in the United States. Perspective While a higher percentage of people in some other large nations are Christian (e.g., 88.5% in Brazil), the United States is home to more Christians than any other nation. More than 3 out of 4 Americans (76.9%) are Christian. So What? Yesterday much of the focus on American Read More …
United States
Religious Diversity in the US (#1382)
While I often hear people state as fact the idea that the United States is a land of considerable religious diversity, it is important to note that such claims are simply untrue. According to a new Pew Research Center study, the United States is nowhere near making the list as one of the world's most diverse countries or territories (we ranked #68). So What? Just how diverse are we? The research shows that only 1 out of every 20 people living in America is an adherent to a Read More …
US Megachurches (#1277)
Warren Bird, research director at Leadership Network, recently shared some incredible statistics about megachurches (those congregations with an average weekly worship attendance of at least 2,000) in the United States. 5 million - the number of people who worship at a megachurch during a typical week. 1,650 - the current number of megachurches in the United States. 0.5% - While almost 10% of Protestant churchgoers attend a megachurch, these churches represent only about Read More …
Canadian Nones (#1097)
While I have written extensively about the rise of the religiously non-affiliated (also known as "nones") in the United States, I have given far less attention to how this trend is impacting our neighbor to the North. Results from the 2011 National Household Survey show even as Christianity remains the dominant religion in Canada, the nones are growing quickly. More specifically, as a percentage of the population by year "nones" accounted for 2011: 23.9% 2001: 16.5%, Read More …
Worldwide Image of the USA (#0906)
The Pew Research Center offers you the opportunity to "test how much you know about the worldwide image of the United States" by taking a 10 question multiple choice quiz. After completing the quiz, I encourage you to learn the story behind each of the questions. So What? For me completing this quiz was an exercise in humility; I scored 60%, answering just 6 of the 10 questions correctly. When one lives within an empire, a culture, or a worldview it is all too easy to see Read More …
Toward A Christian Response to the Death of Osama bin Laden (#0354)
Osama bin Laden’s death has been a lead news story for the last several days. Over the course of the week I have read a number of tweets, Facebook status messages, and blog posts commenting on the matter from a Christian perspective. These reflections represent a wide range of theological beliefs, including a number that place United States citizenship above one’s place in the reign of God and sound quite unChristian. In contrast, I offer the words of leaders from two of the Read More …