Major US Metropolitan Areas Differ in their Religious Profiles

[tech12]

The idea that anyone who celebrates Christmas is Christian, is pretty off the mark. My family isn't Christian at all, in any way shape or form, and have always celebrated it. Religion plays literally zero part in it, it's all about family for us.

[Jawnadelphia]

Originally Posted by mrsmartman

America has a surprisingly huge Catholic population.

Very true.

Philly is planning/expecting up to 2 million Catholics (well, including curious on-lookers) for the Pope's visit, Sept. 26-27.

[brickell]

Originally Posted by fflint

Interesting grouping based on the highest % of Christian denomination. Seattle definitely stands out.

Evangelical Cities
Dallas
Atlanta
Houston
Riverside
Phoenix*
Detroit*
Seattle*

Catholic
Chicago
San Diego
Miami
Philadelphia
LA
DC*
NYC
Boston*
SF*

Mainline Protestant
Minneapolis

I guess to be fair we should include no affiliation (starred above).

Detroit
Phoenix
DC
Boston
Seattle
SF

[Ryanrule]

Originally Posted by McBane

The "no-affiliation" identification is complete BS. If you exchange gifts on Dec 25, you're Christian. It's not as if Christmas is an American holiday (like Thanksgiving) celebrated by all. Non-Christians do not exchange gifts on Christmas, they go to the movies.

If the they asked all those who said "no affiliation" if they exchange gifts on Dec 25, those numbers would fall dramatically.

christmas is a holiday of capitalism.

[fflint]

Gift-giving around the Winter Solstice was a pagan ritual. People of European descent have been exchanging presents at that time of year for millennia, long before Christianity even existed.

[Shawn]

It would be more interesting to see participation rates along with affiliations. There may be more Catholics than any other single denomination, but I am willing to bet a minimum of half that number are "barely practicing" / Cultural Catholics / Cathnostics like myself.

Percentage-wise, there are essentially the same number of Catholics in metro Boston as Evangelicals in metro Houston, but I think we can all agree Texan Evangelicals take their faith far more seriously than Northeastern Catholics do.

Curious if anyone knows: where did the Germans who settled the lower Midwest / Texas / OK come from? Was there ever a large wave of Bavarians (who would have been Catholic)? Seems most German-descent Americans are Methodist.

[fflint]

Originally Posted by Shawn

It would be more interesting to see participation rates along with affiliations. There may be more Catholics than any other single denomination, but I am willing to bet a minimum of half that number are "barely practicing" / Cultural Catholics / Cathnostics like myself.

I don't disagree. This particular poll focuses more on expressed identity--how individuals identify themselves, and the differences in how entire metropolitan populations identify themselves relative to other metropolitan populations.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by Shawn

Curious if anyone knows: where did the Germans who settled the lower Midwest / Texas / OK come from? Was there ever a large wave of Bavarians (who would have been Catholic)? Seems most German-descent Americans are Methodist.

Germans who settled in urban areas appear to be overwhelmingly Catholic. The old German neighborhoods of urban America are filled with Catholic churches and institutions common to Catholic Germany (such as breweries). Bushwick, Brooklyn would be an example. I would assume cities like Cincy and Milwaukee have large stretches of urban fabric settled by German Catholics.

Most of Protestant Germany is Lutheran, not Methodist. Methodists aren't particularly numerous in Germany.

[lio45]

I'm impressed at how high the "no affiliation" category is even in Bible Belt metro areas... at least ~20% everywhere!

[mhays]

In Seattle's defense I have to say the evangelicals are mostly not within city limits.

[Cirrus]

Originally Posted by McBane

The "no-affiliation" identification is complete BS.

Are you one of those people who think "I don't believe in atheists" is a clever comeback? Or hey, did you know that since Christmas has pagan roots, anyone who celebrates Christmas is actually a pagan?

Seriously though, it may surprise you to learn that atheists who grew up in Christian households also enjoy spending time with their families and exchanging gifts.

[BnaBreaker]

Originally Posted by McBane

The "no-affiliation" identification is complete BS. If you exchange gifts on Dec 25, you're Christian. It's not as if Christmas is an American holiday (like Thanksgiving) celebrated by all. Non-Christians do not exchange gifts on Christmas, they go to the movies.

If the they asked all those who said "no affiliation" if they exchange gifts on Dec 25, those numbers would fall dramatically.

Sorry world, the authority has spoken. If you don't claim a belief in a virgin birth 2,000 years ago, the exchanging of gifts and drinking of hot cocoa is strictly forbidden!

[PHL10]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Germans who settled in urban areas appear to be overwhelmingly Catholic. The old German neighborhoods of urban America are filled with Catholic churches and institutions common to Catholic Germany (such as breweries). Bushwick, Brooklyn would be an example. I would assume cities like Cincy and Milwaukee have large stretches of urban fabric settled by German Catholics.

Most of Protestant Germany is Lutheran, not Methodist. Methodists aren't particularly numerous in Germany.

Also bolstering the earlier immigration waves, the ethnic Germans who were displaced from Eastern Europe after the war (eg. Danube Swabians) many of whom settled in the US and Canada, were overwhelmingly Roman Catholic.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight...944%E2%80%9350)

[McBane]

I apologize that I do not know any Jews or Muslims who exchange gifts on Dec 25. I'm Jewish and American I don't celebrate Christmas, have a tree, or do any of that stuff. And I know lots of non-practicing Christians who celebrate Christmas with their families. I'm just saying, to claim you have no affiliation or that you're atheist but celebrate a Christian holiday (even in it's American bastardized commercial form), you're Christian. Perhaps a non-practicing Christian, but a Christian nonetheless.

Just as well there are non-practicing secular minded individuals from all religions who continue to keep religiously-rooted traditions.

I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree here.

[fflint]

Yeah, sure, you can continue to insist you have the authority to arbitrarily dictate to other people how they personally identify themselves with respect to religion (or lack thereof)--but that doesn't mean anybody here or offline will accept your hubris as authority. You're no expert on any other individual's self-identity--but that individual certainly is. Other people inform you how they happen to identify themselves, not the other way around.

If someone says he's an atheist who happens to follow the ancient European pagan traditions of gift-giving and lighting trees at Winter Solstice to indulge his family's affinity for those traditions, or for any reason really, I take him at his word.

Originally Posted by McBane

I apologize that I do not know any Jews or Muslims who exchange gifts on Dec 25. I'm Jewish and American I don't celebrate Christmas, have a tree, or do any of that stuff. And I know lots of non-practicing Christians who celebrate Christmas with their families. I'm just saying, to claim you have no affiliation or that you're atheist but celebrate a Christian holiday (even in it's American bastardized commercial form), you're Christian. Perhaps a non-practicing Christian, but a Christian nonetheless.

Just as well there are non-practicing secular minded individuals from all religions who continue to keep religiously-rooted traditions.

I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree here.

[Cirrus]

We're just going to have to agree to disagree that you're a kangaroo. I've never seen an alligator carry anything in a bag, so therefore anyone who's ever carried anything in a bag must be a kangaroo. I said it, so it must be true.

That's what you sound like. That's how absurd your opinion is. You can have whatever opinion you want, but you're wrong and you're making yourself look foolish.

[Gordo]

In my experience McBane is mostly right for Jews and Muslims, since both religions happen to have their own holidays right around the same time that involve gift-giving.

However, he's just wrong for others, especially Chinese and Japanese. I've worked with dozens of Chinese in particular over the years that do not have shred of Christianity in them (some practicing Buddhists), but adopted gift-giving traditions in their family because of Santa at the mall.

[SHiRO]

Originally Posted by Cirrus

We're just going to have to agree to disagree that you're a kangaroo. I've never seen an alligator carry anything in a bag, so therefore anyone who's ever carried anything in a bag must be a kangaroo. I said it, so it must be true.

That's what you sound like. That's how absurd your opinion is. You can have whatever opinion you want, but you're wrong and you're making yourself look foolish.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by McBane

I apologize that I do not know any Jews or Muslims who exchange gifts on Dec 25.

True, U.S. Jews and Muslims aren't exchanging gifts on Christmas. What does that have to do with anything?

Jews and Muslims are no more than 4% of the U.S. population. Obviously there is a massive cohort of Americans (and others worldwide) who aren't Christian (or Jewish, or Muslim), yet who exchange gifts on Christmas.

[StethJeff]

Originally Posted by McBane

I apologize that I do not know any Jews or Muslims who exchange gifts on Dec 25. I'm Jewish and American I don't celebrate Christmas, have a tree, or do any of that stuff. And I know lots of non-practicing Christians who celebrate Christmas with their families. I'm just saying, to claim you have no affiliation or that you're atheist but celebrate a Christian holiday (even in it's American bastardized commercial form), you're Christian. Perhaps a non-practicing Christian, but a Christian nonetheless.

Just as well there are non-practicing secular minded individuals from all religions who continue to keep religiously-rooted traditions.

I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree here.

Indeed. You are disagreeing with basically an entire form. I'm glad we agree that you're an outlier in your thinking.