Pleasant Valley United Methodist Church June 18, 2013
(AL.com)
MOBILE, Alabama - The percentage of Alabamians not affiliated with a specific religion surpasses the percentage of white mainline Protestants, ranking it third among "religious" groups, according to new research.
The American Values Atlas was compiled by the Public Religion Research Institute and Social Science Research Solutions, and was released in late September. It found that 14 percent of Alabamians describe themselves as "unaffiliated" when asked about their religious tradition. The "unaffiliated" category ranks third behind white evangelical Protestants (36 percent) and black Protestants (18 percent).
White mainline Protestants made up 13 percent of respondents, the survey said, ranking it fourth. The mainline Protestant category includes such denominations as the United Methodist Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the American Baptist Churches U.S.A., the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Episcopal Church, the United Church of Christ and the Christian Church.
The evangelical Protestant category, meanwhile, includes the largest single denomination in Alabama, the Southern Baptist church.
The institute conducted about 50,000 telephone interviews on the topics of religion, demographics and political viewpoints to gather data for the American Values Atlas. Public Religion Research Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to research at the intersection of religion, values and public life.
Here's what the survey of Alabama said:
White evangelical Protestant: 36 percent
Black Protestant: 18
Unaffiliated: 14
White mainline Protestant: 13
Other non-white Protestant: 5
White Catholic: 4
Hispanic Catholic: 2
Other non-white Catholic: 1
Hispanic Protestant: 1
Mormon: 1
Other religion: 1
Jewish: 1
Jehovah's Witness: 1
Muslim: Less than 0.5
Buddhist: Less than 0.5
Hindu: Less than 0.5
Orthodox Christian: Less than 0.5