At large family gatherings, in order to keep order, many Americans set up a ground rule. Religion and politics are off the table. There is a reason for that.
There are 305,205,851 Evangelicals worldwide. 89,500,000 or more in the United States. Does Billy Graham ring a bell? Wikipedia:
The 2004 survey of religion and politics in the United States[11] identified the Evangelical percentage of the population at 26.3%; while Roman Catholics are 22% and Mainline Protestants make up 16%. In the 2007 Statistical Abstract of the United States, the figures for these same groups are 28.6% (Evangelical), 24.5% (Roman Catholics), and 13.9% (Mainline Protestant.) The latter figures are based on a 2001 study of the self-described religious identification of the adult population for 1990 and 2001 from the Graduate School and University Center at the City University of New York. [12]
Rather than engage in the emotion charged debate of religion and politics, I would simply make the point that there a lot of Evangelicals in America and many in the Villages. Draw your own conclusions.
|