Sorry Figures

If figures mean anything, organized religion in the U.S. has little to shout hallelujah about. The Twentieth Century Fund's monumental 3 1/2-year study (America's Needs & Resources, published this week) adds a few sorry details to a sorry story that U.S. churchmen already know:

Membership. Church membership figures have always been computed in a way that would make a certified public accountant shudder: different denominations keep their records in different ways, and few churches agree on just who should be counted a church member. Listing only those 13 years or older, the overall muni ber of church members (Protestant, Catholic and Jewish) dropped in the decade between 1930 and 1940 from 534 per 1,000 of population to 507.

Biggest numerical gain between 1926 and 1941-42 was scored by the largest single sect,* the Roman Catholics, with 4.3 million. But by percentages, Roman Catholicism is doing no better than the general trend: during the same period, "the 43 larger Protestant denominations showed a combined rate of growth of nearly 24%--almost identical with the percentage gain of the Roman Catholic Church [23.3%]."

Ministers. In 1900, the U.S. had 137 clergymen per 100,000 citizens. Today the ratio has fallen to approximately 104. Ministers' salaries average less than $2,000 (much less in rural areas), for which the average congregation gets two Sunday sermons, an adult Sunday-school class, personal consultation, active leadership in civic organizations and youth groups.

"A rather high proportion of clergymen," says the report, "have never had any special training for their jobs. . . . According to a study in 1926 of the education of 105,000 clergymen in the Roman Catholic Church, 17 white Protestant denominations and in three Negro bodies, the typical Roman Catholic clergyman has had a better educational preparation for his responsibilities than the Protestant minister." Since 1926, the training of rural ministers has shown "marked improvement."

Money. As Government and secular agencies have been taking on more & more of the burden of social welfare, church expenditures in this field have been going down. Despite a rise in consumer income of $10 billion between 1929 and 1941, contributions to churches and social welfare institutions dropped from $1.5 billion to $1.2 billion. And to churches "families at the lowest income levels contributed more generously than those at the highest."

*Second largest, the Methodist Church; third, the Southern Baptist Convention; fourth, Jewish Congregations.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.