Re: How many Christians are there in America?

Lee Ratner wrote:

> 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?

A common definition of "Christian" in Evangelical circles restricts
the term to those who have "accepted Christ as their Personal Savior."
This usually involves being "born again" and experiencing a personal
relationship with Jesus.  This excludes most non-Evangelicals.  They
might also deem someone unchristian on the basis of their "sinful" ways
or "heathen practices" (Catholics in particular often fall prey to the
latter, with a variety of misunderstandings and downright falsehoods
about Catholicism still being prevalent in some Evangelical
communities).

But their "Woe are we, tiny remnant of the faithful in a sea of the
damned" sentiments don't come from a numerical analysis of their
situation. Rather, they look at a society which is full of "unchristian"
behavior and which derides their efforts to steer things onto the
"right path" and conclude that it must be an unchristian society.

And if most of the people in it were brought up to be good Christians,
and may even still think of themselves as Christians, well obviously
there must be some powerful Anti-Christian forces at work, luring
the faithful to sin...

Old Toby
Least Known Dog on the Net