Word: protestantism
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Huntington, who has written numerous books about American foreign policy and culture and serves as chairman of the Harvard Academy of International and Area Studies, wrote an article in the March issue of Foreign Policy called “Jose, Can You See?” In it he was...
Held every year on Nov. 5, Bonfire Night nominally commemorates the foiling of the Gunpowder Plot of 1605-an attempt by English Catholics to blow up the upper house of Parliament and launch a Catholic uprising against the Protestant rule of King James I. These days however, it's simply...
You reported that the percentage of adult Americans who call themselves Protestant is now 52%, a drop of 11% between 1993 and 2002 [Aug. 16]. You also noted that in the past decade, the number of people who don't identify with any religious affiliation rose 6%, to 14%. One...
...MAINLINE PROTESTANTISM SHRINKING? Three explanations, proposed over decades, may each have some validity: Mainline churches did not require enough commitment, theologically or evangelistically, from congregants, whose enthusiasm waned accordingly; denominations that started out aggressively courting members turned to other tasks, such as social activism; and mainline birthrates lag behind the national average. Most mainline leaders claim their plight may hold hidden opportunities. The Rev. Dr. Bob Edgar, a methodist minister and general secretary of the National Council of Churches USA (whose membership historically has had a strong Protestant presence), notes, "the [Hebrew] prophets never had a majority, and yet they...
Although plausible, why does this sound a bit like rationalization? Because for centuries Protestantism's huge numbers had significant consequences: it bred most of America's founders and elite, and served as a template for its civil institutions and cultural assumptions. Huntington, a cheerleader, has credited it with our "core culture" of "individualism, the work ethic, and moralism." Protestant tropes of human perfectibility and the city on the hill continue to echo through political rhetoric. Comments Christian Smith, a sociologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: "the mainline always thought, we are America. What...