Global Christianity

The Pew Research Center has released an interesting report with comprehensive estimates of the world Christian population in 2010. Overall there are nearly 2.2 billion Christians, representing almost a third of the world's population.

The world Christian population has nearly quadrupled in the last century and has maintained its position as the largest faith in the world, ahead of Islam with approximately 1.6 billion adherents. However the distribution of Christians has shifted dramatically towards the developing world.

There are 800 million Protestant Christians, representing 37% of the total. 50% of Christians are Catholic, 12% are Orthodox and 1% are other (including groups that self-identify as Christian such as Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses).

The report also estimates that 10% of Protestants are Lutheran, which would imply approximately 80 million Lutherans worldwide.

Click below to access the report:

Global Christianity: A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World's Christian Population

Clarity on marriage

In the current debate over gay marriage, we need to carefully distinguish between Christian and civil marriage. 

Christian marriage has a strong theological component, as shown in this teaching directly from Jesus:

But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate. (Mk 10:6-9, cf Mt 19:4-6 ESV)

Based on this we can put forward a positive theological position that Christian marriage is a permanent union before God between one male and one female. Even in New Testament times this view of marriage was distinct from the prevailing Jewish and Roman views which for instance allowed relatively easy divorce.

Civil marriage, on the other hand, is an institution common to all human cultures and is not unique to Christian (or historically Christian) cultures. Current law and custom does not preclude interfaith marriages or marriage between non-believers, nor should it. The definition of civil marriage will also differ over time and across cultures and societies.

Therefore we should not conflate Christian marriage which has a theological basis and civil marriage which is essentially a human institution. Christian marriage is not and can never be threatened by civil gay marriage because they are two different things.