A new survey is out - not surprising - a new survey comes out about every 30 seconds, it seems. This one is on religion in America. It was conducted by Baylor University, a prestigious Southern Baptist School in Waco, Texas. The article in the Houston Chronicle about the survey, attempts to show that other surveys have been overly pessimistic about religion in America (http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4177637.html). The article states, "the survey found that 89 percent of Americans attend a local congregation or affiliate with a denomination. The finding rebuts other national surveys showing that 14 percent or more of Americans were "religious nones" — people with no religious backgrounds." The article continues, "Prior national surveys have concluded that 10 million people are not religious who actually are in church every Sunday — praying, believing in a God; 10 million Americans counted as religious nones."
The basic thrust of the article attempts to say basically, "Hey, we're not as bad off as we've been told! Lot's more people are in church than previously reported!"
What I'm wondering is this: If more people are in church than ever before, why are we continuing to hate each other, kill babies, flock to pornography, get ever-increasing amounts of our governmental revenue from gambling, and on and on and on? If more people are going to church, and society continues its skid into deeper levels of degradation, then those churches are not having as much impact on society as society is on the church.
And that's commentary for today. Back to you...
5 comments:
that's a tough one to even comment about. on one hand, i'd like to promote the church, but on the other hand, most churches aren't promotable. i admit i go to my church b/c i like the people, not b/c of the service or what it offers me. going to church is ingrained in me. i would miss it if i didn't go. but i have to say i don't really enjoy the service. the daily prayer and scripture readings/devotions/worship is where i connect with God, not church. all the teaching i get is outside of our church - mostly IHOP stuff. the pastor has nothing that challenges me; i gave up taking notes a few years back. basically, i hang out for the 20 minutes of worship and the coffee and fellowship afterwards. i don't know if that's a reflection on church or me?
89% of americans go to church? yeah sure...??
how many actually go to church regularly...
(as in more than easter and christmas and mothers day)
and how many of those are saved...
I agree that the Church in America is not effectively doing her job on a broad scale. I know people who call themselves Christians who don't know the basic tenets of the faith - I imagine these people are included in that 89% statistic. It seems to me that many people would also claim some affiliation out of guilt (if unconsciously), knowing somewhere in their background they were taught that church is good and not going to church is bad. I am blessed to attend an amazing church body where the worship is always phenomenal and the preaching is generally inspired. Our city has a reputation for being a Christian city, but even here I am convinced that the % of true believers is less than half. If that's the case in a "Christian" town - how could it be better in the nation at large?
I don't think anybody is fooled into thinking the state of the church in america is good or strong or worthy of Jesus. All I can say is that we need to pray.
Even just looking at this study from a social science/statistical standpoint, the data doesn't seem to support the claims that the researchers are making regarding the strength of America's religiosity. The section you quoted (...the survey found that 89 percent of Americans attend a local congregation...The finding rebuts other national surveys showing that 14 percent or more of Americans were "religious nones"...) makes it sound like this is a groundbreaking study, shattering the findings of previous studies that left us with the illusion that our society is becoming more secularized.
I just have one problem with this conclusion. Later in the article, it is stated that the study has a margin of error of 4%. (In repeat studies, the results could vary by 4% due to chance alone). So, if the current study shows 10.8% of the population are "religious nones", and the previous studies found 14% were "religious nones", that is only a difference of 3.2%, which is well within the margin of error. So, these results are not statistically significant (don't prove a difference from previous studies that can't be attributed to random chance). My statistics skills are a little rusty, so I could be totally wrong here, but it basically looks like they're trying to make their study look important, when it's really just more of the same.
Beyond all that...I think that raising the cry of "we're not as bad off as we've been told" on the basis of statistics alone would be a ludicrous proposition, even if the results showed that 99% of Americans were attending church weekly. As you and your other commenters suggest, many (most?) of the church-attendees in the U.S. are doing little to stand up against the wave of unrighteousness that is consuming our nation. We don’t need more numbers in the pews, we need more fire in the hearts.
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