North America

Modern Demographic Realities

The Christian experiment succeeded in North America, though not without cost. When the Europeans came to the continent in the 15th and 16th centuries, it is estimated that there were 2 million indigenous people already living on the land. Due to disease and warfare, by 1900, only 500,000 remained. Meanwhile, Christians missionized and “Christianized” the indigenous populations, with mixed results. Nonetheless, through the centuries, Christianity was able to dominate the North American religious market. This is apparent when examining the present religious demographics of North America. Out of Canada's 33 million people, 77% self-identify as Christian (43% Roman Catholic, 29% Protestant); other religions make up 6% of the rest, with Islam as the leading minority religion at 2%. Of the Canadian population, 16% claim no religion, which makes this population nearly identical to its counterpart in the United States.

The United States has a similar demography to that of Canada. Seventy-nine percent of the nation self-identify as Christian, but in contrast to Canada, U.S. Protestants dominate at 51% of the population compared with Roman Catholics at 24%. There is a similar percentage of minority religions as in Canada; however, Judaism rather [Page 940]than Islam is the leading U.S. minority religion at 2%. Two demographic trends are critical to keep in mind: First, in both countries, the number of affiliated Christians has fallen by nearly 10% over the past decade, with those claiming no religion gaining the lion's share; second, the makeup of U.S. Protestantism has also shifted dramatically, with a nearly 10% decline in gross population as well as a change in the overall proportion of Protestants to the rest of the U.S. population. Among U.S. Protestants, the mainline churches (Congregationalist, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, and Lutherans) have declined dramatically over the past 40 years, and evangelicals now make up more than half of the total Protestant membership.

In other words, in the open religious markets of North America, Christianity still dominates the culture, but other subcultures, particularly those with no religion, are now becoming a force to be reckoned with. Indeed, religious subcultures are a potent reality in North America, leading to vitality and fragmentation both culturally and politically. Globalization, with its open communication and instant gratification of nearly every impulse, has little patience with the status quo, leading to a fissiparous family of competing religious sects. We now trace the historical etiologies of these modern trends.

...