Racial Diversity Chart

[Sandy]

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/20 ... us-groups/

Keith must have missed this somewhere.

[Ed Pettibone]

Ed: It looks like one of Fox's post.

[Tim Bonney]

[Ed Pettibone]

[Tim Bonney]

[Ed Pettibone]

[Sandy]

I don't think the intention of this particular survey was to provide detailed information for introspective analysis. I think it was to give people a general idea of the racial breakdown of various denominations.

Both the National Baptist Convention and AME are strong denominations, with large memberships and a strong denominational heritage that has probably had an effect on the diversity of the UMC and the SBC. I don't think the Pew Research figure includes dually affiliated SBC/NBC churches. There are quite a few of those, along with a lot of shared ministry support between the SBC and the NBC. I don't know if some kind of "merger" would ever be in the works, but I think there's a lot more cooperative ministry on the way. The last two SBC congregations to which I belonged were both multi racial, the most recent one was almost evenly divided between Caucasians, African Americans and Latinos, with a small percentage of Asians. We offered a separate Spanish-speaking service because we had a lot of adults who weren't really up enough on their English to follow worship in the regular congregation.

[Tim Bonney]

[Tim Bonney]

[Ed Pettibone]

Ed: Sandy, do you find any thing in the article to support your thinking that the Pew Research figure don't include dually affiliated SBC/NBC churches.

As I said in my first post in this thread "This is one of the least useful charts that I have seen on line. Respondents have pointed to several weaknesses."

I am going to have to re-evaluate Pew Research. Especially any thing by this writer.

[Sandy]

[Ed Pettibone]

[Sandy]

The initial link is from their press release page, edited for brevity and is more of a news article. The survey itself, and the description of it, is the second link I provided. It provides more information about the details of the information gathered, how it was analyzed and why.

I'd like to see some more detailed information, or perhaps some research done as to why the most liberal, mainline denominations are in the bottom third of the chart in terms of having ethnic membership, while groups even more conservative than the SBC, namely the Assemblies of God, Churches of Christ, Seventh Day Adventists, Church of God Cleveland, TN, and Presbyterian Church in America, are more ethnically diverse. Then there's the SBC, more diverse than more liberal denominations like the UMC, and ultra liberal groups like PCUSA, the UCC, the ELCA and the Episcopal Church. My guess would be that because the Christian heritage of African Americans is dominated by denominations like Baptists and Pentecostals, which tend to be more conservative, and even the AME is more conservative than the UMC, they are more comfortable in conservative churches. The "evangelical" part of conservative Christianity has been very active in pursuing and winning Latinos, and the effects of over 100 years of Christian missionary activity among Asian populations probably has something to do with the numbers as well.

It's a little bit interesting to note that Judaism, being so connected to race, is more ethnically diverse than some churches.

[Tim Bonney]

Sandy, I'm not sure you are right about the AME being more conservative than the UMC. In fact, if anything, the AME is as much into social just issues as the UMC.

[Sandy]

[Tim Bonney]

Another note about diversity. How do you count (or not) full communion agreements where bodies choose to recognize each other's clergy and sacraments but choose not to merge? In full communion agreements clergy can be shared between denominations.

The UMC is in full communion with, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, the African Union Methodist Protestant Church, the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, and the Union American Methodist Episcopal Church.

Maybe the best way to promote diversity for the UMC would be a merger of all of the Methodist bodies into one. Given how many groups are listed just above that would be quite an undertaking.

[Tim Bonney]

[Sandy]

[Tim Bonney]