June 25, 2009
Southern Baptists (and Republicans): old, white and in decline?
by Ed Stoddard
Reuters
The evangelical Protestant revival has been one of the most dynamic religious and social movements in the United States in the last three decades. According to the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, one in four U.S. adults now count themselves as followers of this faith tradition.
So it may come as a surprise to some non-American readers of this blog that the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) – with 16 million members, America's largest evangelical denomination and the country's second largest after the Catholic Church -- is ringing the alarm bells of decline.
Its research arm LifeWay Research released the following projections this week at the convention's annual meeting in Kentucky: it said its numbers would fall nearly 50 percent by 2050 "unless the aging and predominantly white denomination reverses a 50-year trend and does more to strengthen evangelism, reach immigrants, and develop a broader ethnic base."
"Using U.S. Census projected population figures, SBC membership could fall from a peak of 6 percent of the American population in the late 1980s to 2 percent in 2050," said LifeWay director Ed Stetzer.
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