Americans Keep Switching Religions!

Posted on: 02/26/08 4:52 PM | by Jonathan McKee

The report was released just Monday. The results are in…

Americans are fickle about their religion!

The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life released the results of their 35,000 person poll concluding, “Americans not only change jobs, change where they live, and change spouses… they change religions too.”

Yahoo News reports:

According to Pew, 28% of American adults have left the faith of their childhood for another one. And that does not even include those who switched from one Protestant denomination to another; if it did, the number would jump to 44%.

Some other interesting facts from the report:

  • one third of Americans raised Catholic have left the church
  • two thirds of Jehovah’s Witnesses have left that church
  • the single biggest “winner” of a group that has changed their minds was the group called “unaffiliated” (including athiests and agnotics) who lost 50% of their original group to one church or another.
  • the highest rates for marrying within one’s own faith were Hindus (90%) and Mormons (83%)

The summary of the report has a nice chart that summarizes it pretty well. The actual report web page is pretty interesting, even at a glance. You can look at an AFFILIATIONS page that breaks down the percentage of people from each religion in the US, or look at a MAP that shows you the percentage of US adults affiliated with certain groups per state, or even look at the PORTRAITS of a particular religious group, detailing the demographic characteristics such as age, ethnicity, educational level, and income level.

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2 Replies to “Americans Keep Switching Religions!”

  1. SUMMARIES OF NEARLY 1000 JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES LAWSUITS & COURT CASES

    The following website summarizes 500 U.S. court cases and lawsuits affecting children of Jehovah’s Witness Parents, including 300+ cases where the JW Parents refused to consent to life-saving blood transfusions for their dying children:

    DIVORCE, BLOOD TRANSFUSIONS, AND OTHER LEGAL ISSUES AFFECTING CHILDREN OF JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES

    http://jwdivorces.bravehost.com

    The following website summarizes 500 lawsuits filed by Jehovah’s Witnesses against their Employers, incidents involving problem JW Employees, and other secret JW “history” court cases:

    EMPLOYMENT ISSUES UNIQUE TO JEHOVAH’S WITNESS EMPLOYEES

    http://jwemployees.bravehost.com

  2. Jehovah’s Witnesses have largest turnover of recruits,have one of the highest attrition rates of all denominations.

    Reports all over the news wires from TIME Magazine-“”An even more extreme example of what might be called “masked churn” is the relatively tiny Jehovah’s Witnesses, with a turnover rate of about two-thirds.

    That means that two-thirds of the people who told Pew they were raised Jehovah’s Witnesses no longer are — yet the group attracts roughly the same number of converts. Notes Lugo, “No wonder they have to keep on knocking on doors.”

    Jehovah’s Witnesses claim of increased membership is suspect.
    These reports are “SELF-REPORTING” stats tallied by the Watchtower society.They wouldn’t cook the books would they?

    There actually are now twice as many former Jehovah’s Witnesses as there are active ones with thousands leaving every month.Baptisms at assemblies is often mostly family member children who have grown up JW.

    Jehovah’s Witnesses are LOSING members and are on the decline.Japan has lost over 600 congregations.Witnesses are shrinking in number in many Western countries as of the last few years, as the Internet facilitates the spread of information (much of it critical of the Witnesses).

    Jehovah’s Witnesses members are cautioned against creating JW-related websites, largely to prevent their members from discovering the history and dirty laundry of this organization on other websites. There are literally hundreds of former members pages in many languages

    Danny Haszard Jehovah’s Witness X 33 years

    Jehovah’s Witnesses leaders do not allow dissent they kick out (disfellowship) anyone who is not ‘happy’.
    Neat trick eh?

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