The Global Transformation of Christianity Is Here

New York Times, March 26, 2023
By Tish Harrison Warren

EXCERPTS

The last century has seen a near-complete reversal of the global demographics of Christianity. Currently, the fastest growing Christian communities are in the “majority world” — the term I use for non-Western countries that make up most of the world’s population.

In 1900, about 80 percent of the world’s Christian population lived in the Western world and about 20 percent in the majority world. By 2000, only 37 percent lived in the Western world, and nearly two-thirds lived in the majority world. Sub-Saharan Africa had the most striking growth of Christianity, growing from around 9 percent Christian at the beginning of the 20th century to almost 45 percent at the end of it. There are around 685 million Christians in Africa now.

In Africa, Latin America and Asia, Christianity is growing in historic denominations, such as Roman Catholicism and Anglicanism, but the most explosive growth has been in Indigenous, independent Pentecostal churches.

The largest church congregation in the world belongs to Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul, an Assemblies of God church, which has around 480,000 members. Statistics vary but even conservative estimates guess there were around 98 million evangelical Christians globally in 1970. Now, there are over 342 million.

This transformation of global Christianity has begun to change demographic patterns in America and Western Europe as well. There are two factors at play here. With the United States home to more immigrants than any other country in the world, as Christianity booms overseas, more Christians are migrating to the United States. But there’s also evidence that migrants who come to here are finding immigrant-led churches and converting to Christianity after they arrive.

The Atlantic reported in 2021 that Latino evangelicals are the fastest growing segment of evangelicals in the country [U.S.]. It also said that “Latino Protestants, in particular, have higher levels of religiosity” — with more frequent church attendance, prayer and Bible study than white Protestants. The Atlantic also said that the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference represents more than 40,000 churches and aims to plant another 25,000 before 2030.

We often hear that the most significant trend in religion in America is the rise of the “nones,” those who profess no religious affiliation. That demographic group is indeed important for the future of religion, culture and politics in America, and as of 2021, Pew reported that 29 percent of all adults identified as atheists, agnostics or “nothing in particular.” But alongside that trend, the changing demographics of Christianity promise to transform faith and religious discourse. We cannot assume that America will become more secular so long as the future of America is less white.

Immigrant Christian communities are, of course, not a monolith. However, most hold convictions that overlap with traditional evangelicalism in substantial ways. They are by and large traditionally conservative about sexuality and marriage. They hold an authoritative view of the Bible and believe in miracles and supernatural occurrences.

But they tend to be more committed to social justice and “communitarian” than many white evangelicals. Beyond that, it isn’t always easy to map the faith of immigrant communities using traditional Western assumptions. George said that, for instance, when he visits churches in Brazil and Argentina, “Sometimes the Catholics are more evangelical and Pentecostal” than even typical white evangelicals in America.

The question remains: What will it mean for politics and religion in America when religious conservatives are by and large voices of color? Even now, when white progressives criticize “conservative Christians” or “conservative evangelicals,” they, perhaps unknowingly, are largely critiquing people of color from the majority world. On the other hand, when conservatives for so-called family values take anti-immigration stances, they are ironically abetting the secularization of America.

Full article:

[nytimes.com]

Gift article: [nytimes.com]