Most Americans — even non-Christians or those of no faith — said they won’t rule out attending a church because of its denominational affiliation, a new survey has found.
But that doesn’t mean there aren’t prejudices against certain church “brands,” a survey from Lifeway Research revealed. More than half of Americans surveyed (51%) said a congregation with the word “Pentecostal” in its name “is not for me.”
Other churches whose names suggest a “not for me” designation are Catholic (48%); Methodist or Lutheran (47% each), Baptist (43%); Presbyterian, Assemblies of God or Southern Baptist (46% each). Non-denominational churches — those without a “brand name” on the front — had the lowest “not for me” ranking at 33%.
Impressions of the nine denominations, however, were generally strong: 61% of respondents had a “favorable” impression of churches named “Baptist,” although that number drops to 50% for Southern Baptist congregations.
The Lifeway Research survey was conducted in September of 2021, months before recent revelations of widespread cases of sexual abuse among Southern Baptist Convention churches were revealed by an independent investigator’s report last month.
Non-denominational churches ranked 57% on the favorability scale, the survey reported. Methodists clocked in with a favorability rating of 55%. Presbyterian churches drew a 53% favorable rating, and Lutherans garnered a 51% favorable score. Pentecostal churches drew a 47% positive rating, besting the Assemblies of God at 43%, the survey revealed.
The factors behind public perceptions of a given denominational name depend on how the “brand” is framed, a researcher said.
“Church names vary greatly,” Scott McConnell, Lifeway Research’s executive director, said in a statement. “Names including St. Peter, Trinity, Crossroads and Presbyterian reflect biblical people, theology, modern imagery or references to the branch of Christianity the church is tied to. Most people have preexisting impressions of denominational groups when they see them in a church name or description.”
Mr. McConnell said a denomination’s reputation may be linked to people’s impressions of local churches in those groups.
“Personal experiences with local churches, word-of-mouth and whether they see them serving in their communities can lead people to have positive or negative impressions of” a given denomination, he said.
The religiously unaffiliated, one of America’s fastest-growing faith categories, are more likely to have unfavorable impressions of Catholic (47%), Pentecostal (41%), and Southern Baptist (40%) churches, the study found.
Lifeway said it surveyed 1,005 Americans between September 3 and 14, 2021, using a national pre-recruited panel, and had a margin of error of +/- 3.5 percentage points.
• Mark A. Kellner can be reached at mkellner@washingtontimes.com.
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