Re: How many Christians are there in America?

On May 5, 8:41=A0am, Lee Ratner <LBRat...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> =A0 =A0 =A0This OT for the newsgroup but considering the collective
> knowledge and wisdom of the people here, I thought this is the best
> place to clarify something that has been confusing me for years. Most
> people here know that I am a Jew and an American. Growing up, I always
> assumed that most of the non-Jews in America were Christian. Then I
> learned that many Americans consider themselves to be agnostics,
> athiests, Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists etc. Still, most Americans were
> Christian. However, the way some Christian Americans depict
> themselves, you would think that only a minority of Americans are
> Christians and the rest of the country is filled with heathens. I
> point to Evangelical Christians as an example of this. Now are they
> just using some definition of Christian that I am unaware of or is
> something else going on?

The definition used depends on the result that the speaker wants
to get. Trying to be objective, you could argue that anyone who
was baptized, and has not converted to another faith, is a
Christian. However, that would include a huge number of people
who, if asked, would say they're nonbelievers/agnostic/atheist.

A tighter definitiion might be based on frequency of observance:
do they say Grace before (some/all) meals? Do they attend
church more frequently than some threshold?

Judaism isn't free from the problem either: see the controversies
over the Right of Return and 'who is a Jew?' in Israel, where the
converts and children of converts of Reform and more liberal
Jewish movements face problems.

pt