{"id":13418,"date":"2015-11-03T10:00:48","date_gmt":"2015-11-03T15:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/a-closer-look-at-seventh-day-adventists-in-america\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T03:19:52","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:19:52","slug":"a-closer-look-at-seventh-day-adventists-in-america","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2015\/11\/03\/a-closer-look-at-seventh-day-adventists-in-america\/","title":{"rendered":"A closer look at Seventh-day Adventists in America"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Seventh-Day<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

Ben Carson\u2019s religion has been in the spotlight<\/a> in recent weeks after Donald Trump, one of Carson\u2019s leading rivals in the Republican presidential primary, mentioned it at a Florida rally. \u201cI\u2019m Presbyterian,\u201d Trump said, according to media reports<\/a>. \u201cBoy, that\u2019s down the middle of the road, folks, in all fairness. I mean, Seventh-day Adventist, I don’t know about. I just don\u2019t know about.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

The Seventh-day Adventist Church, known for its observance of the Sabbath on Saturdays and some other unique beliefs and practices<\/a>, traces its origins to the United States in the first half of the 19th century, when preacher William Miller built a religious movement around his prediction that Jesus Christ would return<\/a> to Earth in 1844. Since then, the church has transitioned from being seen as a cult by some Americans to a more mainstream evangelical Christian denomination.<\/p>\n\n

Here are a few facts about Seventh-day Adventists in the United States today, based on the Pew Research Center\u2019s 2014 Religious Landscape Study<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n

Demographics<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

Seventh-day Adventists make up one-half of 1% of the U.S. adult population<\/a> (0.5%), little changed from 2007 (0.4%). That stability stands in contrast to U.S. Christians overall, whose share of the population has dropped by nearly 8 percentage points (from 78.4% to 70.6%) over that same period.<\/p>\n\n

Seventh-day Adventists are among the most racially and ethnically diverse<\/a> American religious groups: 37% are white, while 32% are black, 15% are Hispanic, 8% are Asian and another 8% are another race or mixed race.<\/p>\n\n

About seven-in-ten Seventh-day Adventists live in either the South (40%) or West (31%) regions of the U.S. Only about one-in-ten members of the denomination live in the Midwest, where Carson was raised (in Michigan).<\/p>\n\n

Religious beliefs and practices<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

Seventh-day Adventists are extremely devout by traditional measures of religious observance. All Adventists in our survey say they believe in God, including nine-in-ten who are absolutely certain about this belief (89%). By comparison, 63% of all Americans say they are absolutely certain that God exists. Roughly eight-in-ten (83%) Adventists say religion is very important in their lives, compared with 53% of U.S. adults overall.<\/p>\n\n

Fully two-thirds (67%) of Seventh-day Adventists say they attend religious services at least weekly, higher than most other Protestant denominations that are large enough to be analyzed in the survey. In addition, 86% of Seventh-day Adventists say they pray at least daily (compared with 55% of all U.S. adults).<\/p>\n\n

A big majority of Adventists (89%) believe the Bible is the word of God, including about half (48%) who say it should be taken literally. And two-thirds (66%) say they look to religious teachings and beliefs as their primary source of guidance on questions of right and wrong, double the share of Americans overall who say this.<\/p>\n\n

Most Adventists (85%) believe in heaven, but far fewer (52%) believe in hell. The relatively low level of belief in hell by Seventh-day Adventists stands out among evangelical Protestants, 82% of whom say they believe in hell.<\/p>\n\n

Social and political views<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

After Carson\u2019s announcement that he would run for president, the Seventh-day Adventist Church released a statement emphasizing its political neutrality<\/a>. While Carson (along with 35% of Seventh-day Adventists) is a Republican, many in the denomination identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party (45%). About one-in-five (19%) Adventists identify as political independents or\u00a0do not lean toward either party.<\/p>\n\n

Adventists also are spread out across the ideological spectrum: 37% say they are conservatives, 31% identify as political moderates and 22% say they are liberals. Interestingly, about half of Adventists (53%) favor a bigger government with more services, while four-in-ten prefer a smaller government (42%).<\/p>\n\n

Carson has compared abortion to slavery and called for it to be banned in all circumstances<\/a>, but Adventists are actually somewhat divided over abortion. About four-in-ten (42%) say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 54% say it should be entirely or mostly illegal. This latter group includes one-in-five Seventh-day Adventists (19%) who take Carson\u2019s view that abortion should be illegal in all cases.<\/p>\n\n

Seventh-day Adventists are more united in their opposition to homosexuality and same-sex marriage. About six-in-ten (59%) say homosexuality should be discouraged by society, and a similar share (63%) oppose allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry legally.<\/p>\n\n

Fully two-thirds of seventh-day Adventists (67%) reject evolution, saying that humans have always existed in their present form. This mirrors Carson\u2019s view: The candidate has been a vocal critic of evolution<\/a>, saying that it is impossible to believe in both God and evolution.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Making up just 0.5% of U.S. adults, Seventh-day Adventists are extremely devout and are one of the country’s most diverse religious groups by race and 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