By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
Socially conservative churches that demand high
commitment from their members grew faster than other religious denominations in
the last decade, according to a study released yesterday by statisticians who
count American religious affiliations every 10 years.
The study, ''Religious Congregations and Membership: 2000,'' found
that the fastest-growing religious denomination in the last 10 years was the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which enlists thousands of young
Mormon missionaries to recruit door to door and boosted its membership in the
United States by 19.3 percent to a total of 4.2 million since the last survey in
1990.
The denominations that recorded the next highest growth were the conservative
Christian Churches and Churches of Christ, with 18.6 percent;
the Assemblies of God, a major Pentecostal denomination, with 18.5 percent; and
the Roman Catholic Church, with 16.2 percent.
Because the Census Bureau does not ask about religion, some
scholars regard this study, first done in 1971, as the most comprehensive
assessment available of the changes in American religious affiliation. The study
is based on self-reporting by religious groups, a method that the study's
authors acknowledge is imprecise because religious groups can inflate their
numbers. The study was conducted by
''I was astounded to see that by and large the growing churches
are those that we ordinarily call conservative,'' said Ken Sanchagrin,
director of the Glenmary Research Center and a professor and chairman of the department
of sociology at Mars Hill College in Mars Hill, N.C. ''And
when I looked at those that were declining, most were moderate or liberal churches.
And the more liberal the denomination, by most people's definition, the more
they were losing.''
The churches that lost the highest percentages of members were
the Presbyterian Church USA (11.6 percent) and the United Church of Christ (14.8
percent).
The Catholic Church is still the nation's largest, with more than
62 million adherents, about a quarter of the population. Many Catholics have
moved in the last decade from the Northeast and the
The next largest denomination is the Southern Baptists, with nearly
20 million members. Protestant churches all together reported 66 million
members.
About half of Americans belong to one of the 149 religious groups
included in the study.
The 2000 study is the first to include information on religious
groups other than Christians and Jews. But Mr. Sanchagrin acknowledged yesterday
that the numbers of Muslims and Jews reported in the survey could be misleading.
The estimate of Jews was 6.1 million, but the count included Jews who are
unaffiliated with synagogues -- the only group in the survey to use identity and
not membership as its criteria in the count.
The estimate of Muslims was 1.5 million, derived by counting the
members reported by a third of the nation's 1,200 mosques, which often do not
maintain membership rolls. Because some Muslims are new immigrants and others
are recent converts, reliable estimates are difficult. The study's number is far
lower than the seven million claimed by most American Muslim groups.
Images: Chart: ''DEMOGRAPHICS: Growing Religions in the United States''
Of the 17 religious bodies with more than a million members in the United States
surveyed by the Glenmary Home Missioners in 2000, six grew since 1990. Jewish
estimates include non-practicing Jews.
RELIGIOUS BODY: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
MEMBERS: 4.2 million
CHANGE FROM 1990: 19.3%
RELIGIOUS
BODY: Christian Churches, Churches of Christ
MEMBERS: 1.4
CHANGE FROM 1990: 18.6
RELIGIOUS BODY: Assemblies of God
MEMBERS: 2.5
CHANGE FROM 1990: 18.5
RELIGIOUS BODY: Roman Catholic
MEMBERS: 62.0
CHANGE FROM 1990: 16.2
RELIGIOUS BODY: Southern Baptist
MEMBERS: 20.0
CHANGE FROM 1990: 4.9
RELIGIOUS BODY: Jewish
MEMBERS: 6.1
CHANGE FROM 1990: 2.7
Copyright
2002 The New York Times Company