The death of star musician Prince has prompted numerous reflections on their life – including their spiritual faith. Prince, who was simply raised as an adventist that is seventh-day became a Jehovah’s Witness as a grown-up and went to solutions in the house state of Minnesota.
Jehovah’s Witnesses, whom make-up simply significantly less than 1% of U.S. grownups, are notable for their door-to-door proselytism. But people of this denomination, which includes its origins in 19th-century America, may also be unique in lots of different ways. Listed below are a few details about Jehovah’s Witnesses in the us today, according to Pew Research Center’s Religious Landscape research:
Demographics
Jehovah’s Witnesses are being among the most racially and ethnically diverse groups that are religious America. A maximum of four-in-ten people in the team participate in any one racial and cultural back ground: 36% are white, 32% are Hispanic, 27% are black colored and 6% are another battle or race that is mixed.
Most Jehovah’s Witnesses – roughly two-thirds (65%) – are women, while just 35% are guys. Christians internationally are more inclined to be females than guys, but this sex space is especially big within the context of U.S. Christian teams. As an example, 54% of U.S. Catholics are ladies.
In contrast to other U.S. spiritual teams, Jehovah’s Witnesses tend become less educated. A great almost all adult Jehovah’s Witnesses (63%) haven’t any a lot more than a senior high school diploma|school that is high}, weighed against, as an example, 43% of evangelical Protestants and 37% latin brides online dating site of mainline Protestants.
Jehovah’s Witnesses have retention that is low in accordance with other U.S. spiritual teams. Among all U.S. grownups who had been raised as Jehovah’s Witnesses, two-thirds (66%) not any longer recognize with all the team. In comparison, about two-thirds of the have been raised as evangelical Protestants (65%) and Mormons (64%) nevertheless state they’ve been users of those particular teams.
Regarding the side that is flip about two-thirds (65%) of current adult Jehovah’s Witnesses are converts – like Prince, these people were raised in another faith.
Spiritual values and methods
Jehovah’s Witnesses identify as Christians, however their thinking will vary off their Christians in a few means. For example, they train that Jesus could be the son of Jesus but is perhaps not element of a Trinity.
By old-fashioned measures of spiritual dedication, Jehovah’s Witnesses are one of the more very spiritual major U.S. spiritual teams. Nine-in-ten Jehovah’s Witnesses (90%) state faith is vital inside their life, while comparable stocks state they have confidence in Jesus with absolute certainty (90 percent) and therefore the Bible may be the expressed term of Jesus (94%).
Our study bought at minimum two other ways that are interesting which Jehovah’s Witnesses stick out inside their values. For just one, while 1 / 2 of Jehovah’s Witnesses state they have confidence in paradise, not many (7%) state they have confidence in hell, the standard image of that will be challenged by the denomination’s teaching. The share of all of the U.S. Christians whom rely on hell is 10 times bigger (70%). And most Jehovah’s Witnesses (83%) state their faith could be the one real faith resulting in eternal life; just about three-in-ten U.S. Christians (29%) think this about their particular spiritual faith.
Compared to U.S. Christians general, Jehovah’s Witnesses are specifically expected to state they attend spiritual solutions one or more times a week (85%, in contrast to 47% of most U.S. Christians), pray daily (90% of Jehovah’s Witnesses vs. 68% of all of the U.S. Christians) and – not share that is surprisingly faith with others one or more times per week (76% vs. 26%). In addition they are far more most likely than U.S. Christians general to take part in prayer or scripture research teams also to read scripture at the least regular, among other spiritual actions.
Personal and governmental views
Like a great many other very christians that are religious Jehovah’s Witnesses have a tendency to just take conservative jobs on social dilemmas. Each) for example, three-quarters (75%) say abortion should be illegal in all or most cases, while similar shares oppose same-sex marriage and say homosexuality should be discouraged by society (76%. Approximately three-quarters of Jehovah’s Witnesses (74%) additionally reject development, saying people have actually constantly existed within their form that is present since start of time.
But Jehovah’s Witnesses usually do not commonly advocate for those values when you look at the sphere that is political. The denomination teaches that its users should stay politically basic and abstain from voting or playing “any action to improve governments.”
It is mirrored inside our polling. Three-quarters of Jehovah’s Witnesses (75%) state they truly are governmental independents that do maybe maybe maybe maybe not lean toward either major event. Half (50%) decrease to resolve a concern about governmental ideology (in other words., if they describe their governmental views as conservative, moderate or liberal). And a lot of Jehovah’s Witnesses (64%), whenever expected if they’re registered to vote, state they’re not registered or decrease to resolve issue.
Note: The last two paragraphs beneath the “Demographics” part were added.