In the Black

Church membership in the U.S., steadily growing since the latter half of the 19th Century, is still on the rise. This week the nondenominational Christian Herald, most authoritative voice on current U.S. Protestant church membership, released its figures for 1948* and gave churchmen statistical proof of the fact.

The overall gain in U.S. church membership last year was 2,190,164, or 2.8% --more than equaling the estimated 1.7% population gain. This represents a total of 79,576,352 members, or 53.3% of the total population, the largest proportion of U.S. citizens ever yet recorded as church members. In the good old days of the old-time religion, the unchurched were far more numerous: in 1880 only 19.9% of the population were official church members; by 1900 the figure was 34.7%, and by 1920 it had risen only to 39.8%.

Direct comparisons in the size of different church bodies is misleading because of the widely varying methods of compiling membership: some include all persons in the cultural, racial or nationality group served, some include baptized babies, others rate only adults as members. But the biggest percentage gain over 1947 was reported by the 1,872,049-member Disciples of Christ, with 9%. Next came the Northern Presbyterians, with 4.2%, and the Southern Presbyterians, with 3.9%. The Roman Catholics ranked seventh in percentage of increase, with 3.1%, while the Protestant Episcopal Church gained 3%.

* Compiled from questionnaires sent out to 222 Protestant and 50 non-Protestant religious bodies in the U.S.

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