The author thesis is breaking down the number of participants in church in the beginning of Religious organizations in America. Although, certain information was documented pertaining to the participation of church attendance. Information gathered from the text explains that there is additional text that provides proof of the rise in attendance for modern day churches. The text stated that "The backbone of this book consists of our attempt to explore and explain how and why America shifted from a nation in which most people took no part in organized religion to a nation in which nearly two-thirds of American adults do (Finke and Stark 1)." Explaining why more people are leaning to attending church, or the reason certain religions had more attendance than others are also explained in the text.
The first major point that the author uses to support his thesis is that new religious freedoms changed the way people viewed religion,"As the state and local regulation of local American religion declined, a growing supply of energetic clergy …show more content…
Both the Baptists and Methodists resonated with the African Americans because they were not preaching one thing and doing another. Methodists experienced an increase in their growth “the Methodist had just achieved a virtual miracle of growth, rising from less than 3 percent of the nations church members in 1776 to more than 34 percent by 1850, making them far and away the largest religious body in the nation(Finke and Starke 156).” However, the Methodists experienced a decline and the rise of the Baptists “as the Methodists declined from 42 percent to 28 percent of all adherents, the Baptists grew from 30 to 43 percent (Finke and Starke 157).” The transformation from sect to church was one of the reasons that the Methodists lost their numbers, and what they lost the Baptists came to gain in
The first major point that the author uses to support his thesis is that new religious freedoms changed the way people viewed religion,"As the state and local regulation of local American religion declined, a growing supply of energetic clergy …show more content…
Both the Baptists and Methodists resonated with the African Americans because they were not preaching one thing and doing another. Methodists experienced an increase in their growth “the Methodist had just achieved a virtual miracle of growth, rising from less than 3 percent of the nations church members in 1776 to more than 34 percent by 1850, making them far and away the largest religious body in the nation(Finke and Starke 156).” However, the Methodists experienced a decline and the rise of the Baptists “as the Methodists declined from 42 percent to 28 percent of all adherents, the Baptists grew from 30 to 43 percent (Finke and Starke 157).” The transformation from sect to church was one of the reasons that the Methodists lost their numbers, and what they lost the Baptists came to gain in