A new survey from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life reports that the U.S., once a stronghold of Protestantism, is on the verge of becoming a minority Protestant country. The number of Americans who report being members of Protestant denominations now stands at barely 51%.<\/p>\n
Moreover, the Protestant population is characterized by significant internal diversity and fragmentation, with hundreds of different denominations loosely grouped around three fairly distinct church traditions: evangelical (26.3% of the overall adult population), mainline (18.1%) and historically Black (6.9%). Mainline churches include such established denominations as Congregationalists, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Methodists, northern Baptists and Presbyterians; historically black churches include such bodies as the African Methodist Episcopal Church and the National Baptist Convention.<\/p>\n