Those Undiverse Episcopalians, and Others

They talk a good game, but as a recent Pew report notes, those purveyors of same-sex marriage bomb in the racial diversity department.   Even with the choice of Presiding Bishop Curry, the Episcopal Church is whiter than–horrors–the Southern Baptist Convention!

It’s hard to blame non-white people from avoiding the Episcopal Church; in fact, it’s hard to blame anyone from avoiding it these days.

Some other observations:

1. Although “nothing in particular” religiously is better spread out, if you’re a declared atheist or agnostic, chances are you’re white.  And that’s TEC’s (and other liberal churches) prime demographic.  It’s an uphill battle.
2. Pentecostal churches and the Roman Catholic Church hover around the racial distribution of the population at large.  That’s one reason (I think it’s the big reason) why Pentecostal churches continue to grow and the RCC can offset their weak pastoral system and perennial “back door problem”.  My experience in the Church of God is that this church in particular doesn’t take full advantage of its racial diversity, particularly in its leadership structure, which is why the Assemblies of God are growing faster.
3. It’s interesting that the Seventh-Day Adventist church and its errant progeny, the Watchtower, lead the pack in racial diversity.  On the other end are the Mormons, who (justifiably) struggle with this issue.
4. It’s probably a little unfair to compare religions such as Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism because their main adherents are immigrants from non-white parts of the world.
5. The Anglicans are actually ahead of the Episcopalians they left in the racial diversity department, but there’s a lot of work to be done.

I’m not one of those people who think that racial diversity is important for “politically correct” reasons but because a) like it or not, our population is increasingly non-white and b) non-white people are less likely to secularise (and militantly so) than their white counterparts.  It’s a simple matter of church growth.

I’ve dealt with issue re TEC before.