Sometimes the Anglican Communion is considered part of Protestantism; other times it is classified as a separate group within Christianity. Distribution of Christian believers among the continents of the world:
Decline of Christianity within the United States:The percentage of adults in the U.S. who identify themselves as Christians is in steady decline. A Religious Landscape Study 2 was conducted by the Pew Research Center during 2007 and 2014. It showed that adult Christian affiliation decreased from 78.4% in 2007 to 70.6 in 2014. This is a decline of 7.8 percentage points over the 7 year interval, or about 11 percentage points per decade. If the poll were taken again, at the time this essay was last updated in mid-2018, at this rate of decline, the percentage of Christians in the U.S. would probably be close to two in three -- the lowest value in centuries. Further analysis of the Pew Research data shows that between 2007 and 2014, the share of the population who identify as:
Part of these changes was probably caused by the general secularization of America. Part was caused by a major rejection by older teens and young adults of the teachings of the faith group in which they were raised. However, there was growth detected within two religious groupings in the U.S.:
What their religious beliefs are based upon:The main foundations for a Christian's beliefs are:
Conservative groups tend to weigh the Bible and church tradition more heavily. Liberal groups tend to give greater weight to personal experience and scientific knowledge. To confuse matters further, different groups have derived different interpretations from the same biblical passages. Many core beliefs are common to most Christian faith groups. e.g. the Trinity, the atonement, salvation by grace, etc. But many define the terms differently; they may agree on the name of the belief, but not its definition.
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Some conservative Christian groups view the original autograph copies of the books in the Bible as
inerrant -- without error -- written by authors who
were directly inspired by God. The Bible is viewed
as totally consistent from Genesis to Revelation. Its teachings are valid from about 900 BCE when its first books were written, until today. |
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More liberal groups often view the Bible as a collection of historical documents written by fallible authors, each promoting their own spiritual and religious understandings and those of their faith groups. They note major conflicts within the books of the Bible which are partly attributed to the authors' differing beliefs and partly due to the evolution of beliefs among the Jewish and Christian communities of the approximately 1,000 years during which the 66 books of the Bible (73 books in the Catholic Bibles) were written. |
With such a different fundamental understanding of the nature of the Bible, denominations will inevitably disagree about the afterlife, criteria for salvation, atonement, nature of God, origin of the species, the Earth and the rest of the universe, divorce and remarriage, eligibility for marriage, the "fall" of humanity, concern for the environment, the moral implications of a homosexual and bisexual orientation, the moral implications of a transsexual gender identity, and dozens of other topics
Unfortunately, there is no central authority within Christianity to whom Christians can appeal to resolve differences. Some pray to God for such resolution and believe that they obtain a response. However, there is some doubt about whether the response is actually coming from God. There have been a number of cases at denominational meetings where major disagreements ocurred. The moderator asked that the attendees go off by themselves and pray. When they returned, both sides felt that God had approved their original beliefs. Few had changed their mind.
Among the denominations and faith groups that define themselves as Christian -- including the Catholic Church, Mormon churches, Jehovah's Witnesses, Southern Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists, the United Church of Christ, Unification Church, etc., -- there are few major beliefs upon which everyone will agree completely.
Different Christian faith groups often define terms such as Protestant, Christian, salvation, marriage, gender, etc. quite differently.
Every great moral and ethical conflict, including human slavery, the role of women, abortion access, homosexual and bisexual rights has produced a major conflict within Christianity. Some have led to actual schisms. Transsexual rights almost instantaneously became the latest major topic of conflict in mid-2015 when the U.S. Supreme Court settled the same-sex marriage debate across the entire United States.
References used:
The following information sources were used to prepare and update the above essay. The hyperlinks are not necessarily still active today.
- "Eastern Orthodox Church," Wikipedia, as on 2015-DEC-15, at: https://en.wikipedia.org/
- "America’s Changing Religious Landscape: Christians Decline Sharply as Share of Population; Unaffiliated and Other Faiths Continue to Grow," Pew Research Center, 2015-MAY-12, at: http://www.pewforum.org/
- ""Homophone," Wikipedia, as on 2015-DEC-01, at: https://en.wikipedia.org/
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Copyrighted © 2009 & 2018 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
First posted: 2009-MAR-24
Last updated 2018-JUL-22
Author: B.A. Robinson

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