TruthBook Religious News Blog

Mark Byrne
29 September 2006

A new opinion poll, carried out by Ipsos Mackay during August for the Sydney Morning Herald, reinforces the message of numerous other surveys in recent years: more money doesn’t make us happier, and good relationships are the greatest contributor to wellbeing. This led Australia Institute director Clive Hamilton to proclaim once again that “"We need a wholesale shift in the orientation of government away from a focus on the economy and towards national wellbeing."

However, what if the quest for happiness is part of the problem: one more manifestation of Baby Boomer narcissism; or even a source of unhappiness if we believe we’re not as happy as we should be? As the irascible mid-century Australian philosopher John Anderson reportedly complained, “There’s more to life than being happy!” I’m sure he didn’t think we should merely do our duty, less still that we should be deliberately miserable; rather that a full life should also involve the pursuit of Plato’s “the Good, the True and the Beautiful.”

Hamilton recognises this in the Australia Institute webpaper he authored with Emma Rush. Although this wasn’t picked up by the SMH, there he reminds us that “happiness is a desirable byproduct of living a fully human life, in itself it is not the aim.”

Another way of putting this is to say that there are different kinds or degrees of happiness. While the SMH gave us multiple photos of people smiling and laughing, as if putting on a happy face is all it takes, American psychologist Martin Seligman, the guru of “authentic happiness,” identifies three levels of happiness: the pleasant life (the pursuit of pleasure); the engaged life (“being one with… music, absorbed and immersed in your work, love, friendship and leisure”); and finally, the meaningful life, in which we use our strengths and talents to serve something greater than ourselves.

According to Freud, “Love and work are the cornerstones of our humanness.” Although it wouldn’t have pleased Freud, there is also evidence of a correlation between religious beliefs and happiness.

What do family, work and religion have in common? As Seligman identifies, a relationship to something outside of, and usually greater than, ourselves. They have one other thing in common, too: through routine and ritual, they tie us to the everyday and the here-and-now, the rhythms of nature, the ground beneath our feet, and a sense of history, of who and where we came from.

The trouble is, if we want our “something greater” to be more than adherence to a football club or a political ideology, and our connection to the everyday and the earth to be more than a question of daily chores and real estate, there is usually a cost. If we want a new life, it most often comes by letting go of the old one. Or, if a new life wants us, often against our conscious will, the old life is wrenched from us in pain.

As the great anthropologist Victor Turner explained, this means “dying” to one’s old life and entering a “betwixt and between” period, in which we feel like one of the walking dead (bereft of energy, feeling or motivation) or the unborn (gestating something of which we are as yet unaware), before the emergence of a new self and a new way of life.

The encounter with death can be literal, as we confront our own mortality or the loss of loved ones. Or it can be symbolic, as we face disease, theft or just the disappointments and failures that life inevitably brings. Something is lost, but by facing the loss and using it as an opportunity to re-evaluate our lives, we often discover a deeper sense of meaning and belonging. Paradoxically, the turning within often ends up with us becoming oriented more towards the welfare of our fellow humans and other beings.

Real happiness don’t come cheap. Hamilton and Rush come close to recognising this in their analysis of the survey question about whether people would choose to take a legal happiness drug. “Tribulations on one’s life path”, they note, “are an inevitable part of any meaningful and fulfilling human life.” More than inevitable. Surrender and sacrifice, loss and despair, may be prerequisites for us to be truly, madly, deeply happy.

What might be the public policy implications of this take on the quest for happiness? The Australia Institute’s Wellbeing Manifesto, which “takes as its starting point the belief that governments in Australia should be devoted to improving our individual and social wellbeing” is a good start. But it’s been around for over a year and to date the grand total of 7276 people have given it their public endorsement. This would seem incongruous in light of the overwhelming public support in the new survey for the government’s prime objective to be “the happiness of the people, not the greatest wealth.” This may be one more indication that we might value happiness above money, but we don’t act accordingly.

In the SMH report, former NSW Minster Michael Egan mocked the idea that governments can help people to be happy, but in fact governments do this all the time (unhappy people tend to vote them out). They just differ in the way they go about it: is it by removing obstacles to individual creativity and entrepreneurship, or is it by providing enough social and other supports so that we don’t have to worry about the basics of life? In other words, is it by focusing on economic or social wellbeing?

Another way of putting the question is to say that it is not so much “How can governments help us in our search for a meaningful life?”, but “What can governments do to help remove the obstacles to that search?” This may involve using both hard economic policy as well as the “soft power” of cultural leadership to influence the work/life balance, the culture of over-consumption, the balance between individualism and social cohesion, and the anxiety that inevitably follows when interest rates and petrol prices are the arbiters of our individual and collective wellbeing.

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

Church: What Will it Look Like?

Ed Vitagliano
AgapePress

While Christianity seems to be flourishing in Africa, Asia and Latin America, many believe it is dying in the U.S. and is already on life support in Europe and Canada. What is the actual condition of the Christian faith in America? Although cultural trends often do shift unexpectedly, there is some reason for optimism, as well as significant challenge facing the church in the U.S.

More 'Born agains'

At first glance, there does seem to be a vigorous and growing Christian community in America.

According to The Barna Group, a polling firm that focuses on religious faith in the U.S., the number of "born again Christians" (see definitions below) is growing. The "proportion of adults who can be classified as 'born again Christians' ... was the highest ever measured in the quarter century that Barna has been tracking that measure," it said in a recent report.

Barna Group Definitions

Born again Christians: People who say they've made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ and who believe they will go to heaven when they die because they have confessed their sins and have accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior.

Evangelicals: Born again Christians who also meet seven other conditions, including the belief that they have a personal responsibility to share their faith with others; that salvation is possible only by grace through faith, and not works; and that the Bible is accurate in all that it teaches.

Barna reported that 45% of all adults claimed to be born again -- up from 31% in 1983. "The current figure represents the largest single-year increase since 1991-1992," the group said. When the subject turns to the narrower category of evangelicals, the percentage is smaller: 9% of all adults fit into that category.
Moreover, the notion that America is awash in non-Christian religions, pagan faiths and hordes of atheists does not appear to be true. "Adults who are aligned with faiths other than Christianity, and those who consider themselves to be atheist or agnostic, each comprise less than 10% of the population," Barna said.

Generally speaking then, the American people still seem interested in the Christian faith. George Barna said research reveals "that people's faith is not at all deep, but at least more people are becoming attuned to the importance of the life, death, resurrection and message of Jesus Christ."

Religious Behaviors Increasing

Barna's research presents an even brighter picture when religious activity is considered. The Barna Group reported that "there has been a significant increase in religious activity related to five of the seven core religious behaviors studied by the company."

In 2006, 47% of adults said they read the Bible during a typical week, up dramatically from 1995, when the number hit a 20-year low of just 31%. Increases were also registered in four more areas: church attendance, involvement in small groups that meet for Bible reading and other spiritual practices, church volunteerism, and Sunday School attendance.

The only two areas out of the seven that did not see an increase were prayer and evangelism. In the survey, 84% said they had prayed during the preceding week -- a high percentage that has not changed since 1993, when Barna said it first began tracking the practice of prayer.

As for personal evangelism, 60% of born again Christians said they had shared their faith with someone they knew was not a Christian. As with prayer, this was a percentage that had not changed during the last decade, Barna said.

Barna said that if these increases in religious activity stabilize or even grow in minimal fashion, "then we can confidently suggest that the U.S. is genuinely experiencing meaningful change in people's religious habits."

A religious shift occurring

Despite these hopeful signs, however, research reveals the rumblings of a possible radical shift in the way many Americans think about religion and the Christian life. More and more adults -- even Christians -- believe that church involvement is unnecessary for an individual's spiritual development.

"Only 17% of adults said that 'a person's faith is meant to be developed mainly by involvement in a local church,'" said a Barna report. "Even the most devoted church-going groups -- such as evangelicals and born again Christians -- generally dismiss that notion: only one-third of all evangelicals and one out of five non-evangelical born again adults endorsed the concept."

In a 2005 Newsweek cover story, writer Jerry Adler found "a flowering of spirituality" in America that seemed to be occurring outside church walls. "Whatever is going on here, it's not an explosion of people going to church," Adler said.
"Spirituality," or "the impulse to seek communion with the Divine," he observed, "is thriving." Adler cited a Newsweek/Beliefnet Poll which found that "more Americans, especially younger than 60, described themselves as 'spiritual' (79%) than 'religious' (64%)."

In the wake of America's rich heritage of political, economic and, over the last 40 years, sexual freedom, a spirit of religious individualism seems to be flourishing.
Harvey Cox, professor at Harvard Divinity School, wrote in Foreign Policy: "More and more people view the world's religious traditions as a buffet from which they can pick and choose."

The trend has tremendous ramifications for religious hierarchy, which Cox said is "crumbling fast." He said, "The notions of consumer choice and local control have stormed the religious realm, and decentralization of faith is now the order of the day. Religious leaders who once could command, instruct, and expel now must cajole, persuade, and compete."

When it comes to denominations, Cox added that "'brand loyalty' is a thing of the past."

Religion an Individual Pursuit?

What's going on? George Barna thinks many people are looking for an authenticity, passion and sense of community they find lacking in many churches.

"Americans remain unconvinced of the necessity of the collective faith experience," he said. "This is partially because the typical church model esteems attendance rather than interaction and immersion, partially due to the superficial experiences most believers have had in cell groups or Christian education classes, and partially attributable to our cultural bias toward independence and fluid relationships."
But is a Lone-Ranger pursuit of spirituality the answer? Many church leaders see a danger in this approach. In 1983, well before he became Pope Benedict XVI, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, addressed "the relation between personal experience and the common faith of the Church."

He wrote: "Both factors are important: a dogmatic faith unsupported by personal experience remains empty; mere personal experience unrelated to the faith of the Church remains blind."

In other words, for Christianity, at least, the Christian life must be lived out in the context of the community of believers. Barna states emphatically that "the Bible is unambiguous about the importance of experiencing God through a shared faith journey, and Jesus' example leaves no room for doubt about the significance of involvement in a faith community ...."

Although he seems to applaud the individualistic spirit growing in America's religious communities, Cox also sees potential dangers lurking behind the trend. "Religions without unassailable leaders and with hungry competitors may find themselves marketing as much as ministering," he said. "Meeting buyer preferences may seem essential in business, but it can eviscerate the integrity of the religious 'product.' Imagine what the Ten Commandments or the Sermon on the Mount might have been if Moses or Christ had poll-tested them."

Challenges for the Church

It's not all bad news. Barna said a significant number of people appear to be leaving the organized church flock, but not for pagan or otherwise non-Christian religious pastures. Instead, they appear to be opting for a more informal pursuit of the Christian life through home churches.

In the last decade, according to Barna, the percentage of adults who attend a house church during a typical week grew from just 1% to 9%. If monthly attendance is considered, Barna said "one out of five adults attends a house church at least once a month."

Where do those who identify themselves as Christian go to experience their religious faith traditions? According to a 2006 Barna Group report:

74% attend only a conventional church
19% attend both a house church and a conventional church
5% attend only a house church
2% small group, but not considered a house church

If extrapolated to the national population, Barna's figures mean that more than 20 million adults in the U.S. attend a house church during the week, while 43 million do so once a month. And that does not even include the number of regular, traditional church goers who also participate in small group meetings.

It's a trend Barna thinks will accelerate. He believes that "by 2025 the local church will lose roughly half of its current 'market share' and that alternative forms of faith experience and expression will pick up the slack," home churches among them.

If the growing popularity of house churches is an indication that the institutional church model is not meeting the basic spiritual needs of Christians, perhaps some honest soul-searching on the part of church leaders is in order.

"Developing a biblical understanding of the preeminence of community life will take intentional leadership, strategic action and time," Barna said. In considering how to meet such needs, Barna's recommendations on another subject -- getting the unchurched back into church -- are relevant.

"These people tend to be less turned on by the music or preaching than by a sense of God's presence -- even though they don't quite know how to explain or understand it -- and by the feeling that they are visiting a group of people who are a genuine community of loving and accepting individuals," Barna said about the unchurched.

It may not be clear just yet if there is a genuine shift occurring in the religious life of America. But what is clear is that, if institutional churches want to remain relevant, they can no longer conduct business as usual.

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

Saturday, October 28, 2006

Can faith and the paranormal co-exist?

Posted on Sat, Oct. 28, 2006

Studies have found that most Americans, including people of faith, embrace some paranormal beliefs.

BY JOE RODRIGUEZ
The Wichita Eagle

Does believing in paranormal activity conflict with a person's religious beliefs? Two recent surveys indicate that more Americans are trying to find ways to balance the two.

In part of its extensive religion survey, released last month, the Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion found a "surprising level of paranormal belief and experience in the United States."

The paranormal includes: telekinesis, haunted houses, astrology and communicating with the dead.

According to a 2005 Gallup Poll, about 75 percent of Americans hold some form of paranormal belief in at least one of the following: extrasensory perception, haunted houses, ghosts, mental telepathy, clairvoyance, astrology, communicating with the dead, witches, reincarnation and channeling.

William Dinges, professor of religious studies at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., said one explanation for such findings is the growing "spiritual, but not religious" mind-set among people.

Additionally, he said, some forms of paranormal activity have become popular in recent years because of television shows such as "The X-Files."

"They don't promote conventional religion per se, but what they do promote is this idea of a 'supernatural' reality --'it's out there,' " he said. "That kind of cultural influence adds a certain amount of credibility, plausibility to these kinds of things."

Wichitan Mary Briggs is a Christian who counts herself a believer in paranormal activity.

She said she does't see any reason why such beliefs should conflict with her religious belief.

Briggs, a former teacher on metaphysics at Wichita State University's continuing education department, said all people experience some sort of the "superconscious," or a type of intuition.

"Some people let it in, pay attention to it," she said, "and some people don't."

Eva Stern of Wichita said she has experienced paranormal activity many times, including once while on a trip to Mexico with friends.

During a drive on that trip, she asked the driver to pull over because she sensed something bad was about to happen. After they returned to their drive, there was a major crash involving three vehicles on the road they were driving.

Stern believes they would have been in that crash had she not told the driver to stop.

Stern, who performs "intuitive readings" for people, said she believes in other forms of paranormal activity, including the ability to communicate with the dead.

Stern, who said she believes in God but doesn't attend church regularly, said she doesn't think her belief in the paranormal is a conflict with her faith.

But other Christians see it differently.

Wichitan Laura Murphy, who attends Friendship Baptist Church, considers paranormal activity to have "demonic influences."

In fact, the Baylor study did find that belief in the paranormal declines with increasing church attendance.

In the study, the most common paranormal activity that respondents reported experiencing was having a dream that later came true. More than 40 percent of the respondents claim to have had such an experience.

Wichitan Valerie Black, who attends Dellrose United Methodist Church weekly and is attending a seminary in Tulsa, said she doesn't believe people should open themselves to paranormal activity.

"I would not participate in something like that because you enter into another level," she said.

Pastor Wade Moore, of the Christian Faith Centre in south Wichita, also sees dreams as a separate category from activities such as consulting a psychic.

"People have no control over their dreams," he said. "With those tarot cards and palm readings, something is missing.

Rabbi Michael Davis, of Congregation Emanu-El, said he doesn't "profess to be able to teach or understand anything that is beyond the realm of my existence."

But he did say that whatever a person may feel or believe, it's important to find the good in the messages. People should be skeptical of actions that would have them doing something that is wrong, he said.

Briggs, who considers herself psychic, said people should question the paranormal but should not automatically close their "sixth sense."

"Every single one of us is gifted," she said. "People need to be open to the spiritual part of themselves."

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

Friday, October 27, 2006

Don't think, just do it

Stephen Matchett
October 28, 2006

A RECENT survey suggested that most Australians want the Government to help us to be happy. It is of course not so much easier said than done than impossible. For a start, the 20th century offered ample evidence that social engineering often suits the interests of the engineers rather than the rest of us.

And the idea assumes the services the state provides, from education to law and order, pension to health care, can make us happy. They are all certainly a start for the ill and indigent. But, for the rest of us, at least in countries where government is servant, not master, our state of mind has always been in our own hands.

Or heads, because it seems that how we live our lives is largely shaped by our brain chemistry, and if we can learn to manage, or adapt to it, we can shape how we feel. If this sounds like the old power of positive thinking on steroids, in a sense that is exactly what it is.

Neuroscientists study the way our brains function, but their work has profound implications for philosophers and economists, politicians and theologians.

Behavioural economists argue that we are not always rational actors, intent on maximising profit. The idea that addiction is explained by moral weakness is long gone. And the way we behave is driven by our chemical programming rather than just what we believe or want to.

Science writer Stefan Klein explains how in a book long available online and now being published locally, The Science of Happiness (Scribe). Intended for general readers, its science may seem simple to professionals. But for lay readers it makes a compelling case about the way our brains work that will impress or unsettle, depending on a reader's attitudes to life (or basic brain chemistry).

Klein describes our brains' chemical systems for positive and negative feelings, the way they interact and how we can learn to distinguish between instructions from our genetic coding and what is appropriate to the circumstances.

And while our brain structures incline us to different temperaments, we can teach ourselves to change the way our brains work. Thus he writes about how we can override negative emotions by catching ourselves in the moment a particular thought kicks in, by deciding whether that is what we want to think.

Perhaps the most intriguing idea in the book is that we can cheer ourselves up by using our brain to outsmart, well, our brain.

Of course, it works the other way. It seems depressed people's brains release more of the hormone that causes their misery in the first place and the more an individual's brain is bathed in chemically induced despair the deeper their decline becomes. There are all sorts of similar examples in Klein's book and the implication is obvious. If we can identify the chemicals and the way they interact in our brains to make us angry and sad, happy and loving, why need anybody suffer any sort of mental misery?

Throughout the book there is a sense of hope, that if we can understand the chemical basis of diseases of the brain then we may be on the way to a cure for complaints that have always afflicted humanity. But Klein is careful to explain that we are not prisoners of the way chemicals bounce around our brains. Nor can we rely on medicine to save us from ourselves.

For a start, he asserts that for people who are not deeply depressed, positive feelings can drive out negative ones.

While Klein sees a role for all sorts of medication, he does not prescribe chemical cures for every miserable mental state.

Indeed, for people who are not profoundly depressed, doing something to take charge of their lives is the preferred solution to the miseries. "Exercise is a kind of natural Prozac," he writes.

Despite the enormous increase in knowledge of the way the brain works, Klein's case has much in common with Martin Seligman's superior self-help classic Learned Optimism (1991), which argues that we can learn to manage the way we look at the world.

Yet even though Klein does not suggest we can chemically engineer our own happiness, or other mental attributes for that matter, there is still a great deal in his book that will bother people who, on one hand, believe we should rely on our will to fight our way through life and those, on the other hand, who believe we are the victim of external circumstances.

There are no deities or devils in the brain, impelling to act, just chemicals interacting as they have always done.

Certainly Klein provides the social engineers with evidence by suggesting that cohesive societies, in which people feel they control their own lives, provide the foundation for individuals to be happy. And he argues that economic growth has not increased happiness in the Western world.

But there is a great deal of difference between the nanny state, regulating everything from hours of work to income, supposedly in the interests of the greatest happiness for the greatest number, and allowing each individual the independence they need to take responsibility for their own lives.

It is inane to argue that the state can or should try to legislate happiness when it is something only individuals can manage for themselves.

The study of brain chemistry is emerging but it seems likely to change our understanding of emotions and how and why they rule us, by showing how and why we all act as do.

For people who have assumed that we have no option but to play the hand our genes deal us, Klein's summary of the science can be liberating. However, even though he explains how neuroscience can provide us with strategies to push ourselves towards happiness, without expecting assistance from God or psychiatry, the point of the book is that it is still up to us,however the chemicals in our brain bless or curse us.

"A happy life isn't a gift of fate. To make it happen, we have to act," Klein concludes.

Which sounds suspiciously like what we used to call common sense.

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

Survey: Moms fed up with sexy dolls, wish for wholesome alternatives

By Hannah Elliott

Published October 25, 2006

DALLAS (ABP) -- Moms across America are fed up with overly sexy dolls, according to a Sept. 25 report from Synovate, a market-research firm.

The study, which surveyed 1,010 mothers with daughters 4 to 9 years old, found that 85 percent of moms are “tired of the sexpot dolls and characters” in stores. Nine out of 10 moms in the study said they wish young girls walking the toy-store aisles could find more positive role models on sale.

One Christian theologian welcomed the study and urged parents to push for dolls that embrace a "holistic" and less erotic view of the female body.

Researchers used questions with no details relating to specific dolls or demographics. Instead, they asked questions regarding the selection of dolls available and whether, if the dolls were real girls, mothers would let their daughters spend time with them.

According to the report, 88 percent of moms polled wish there was a wider selection of dolls available to represent girls they would like to befriend their daughters. And 93 percent of mothers said the most important attribute for a doll is that it serve as a positive role model.

The study was commissioned by a manufacturer of wholesome dolls -- AG Properties, which owns the Strawberry Shortcake, Care Bears and Holly Hobbie brands. Strawberry Shortcake, which emerged in the early '80s, and Holly Hobbie, created in 1967, are traditionally “wholesome” characters, as are the Care Bears.

Other survey findings include:

-- Ninety-six percent of moms think young girls are too concerned about physical appearance.

-- Ninety-eight percent said they wished girls thought it’s okay not to look perfect.

-- When buying a doll for their daughter, 75 percent of moms surveyed said the girl's request for the doll was one of the most important factors in deciding what to buy.

-- Eighty-eight percent of moms worry that young girls want to emulate the look and style of “inappropriate” types of dolls.

-- Ninety percent say the most important factor is that the doll is wholesome.

Donna Mitroff, an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Communications, is an expert in children and the media. In a statement about the Synovate survey, she expressed relief that parents have begun to react to the “prevalence of provocative, hyper-sexualized images” in dolls and media.

“Several important research studies have pointed out that there is a prevalence of hypersexualized images and role models in both the media and consumer products made available to young girls,” she said. “These images and role models have a direct impact on the sense of self that young girls are developing during their developmental years.”

But besides affecting body image, promiscuous-looking dolls promote an unbiblical depiction of gender roles and identity, according to some experts.

|

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

Thursday, October 26, 2006

97% Are Having Conversations With God

According to a new Beliefnet/Spiritual Cinema Circle survey 97 percent of respondents talk to God. Almost as many, 91 percent, say God talks back in ways that range from the sound of one’s own thought to mystical signs and revelations, from visitations of heavenly angels to visits with friends.
The vast majority of the survey takers said God is more accessible outside a house of worship than within.

God speaks “through miracles that happen to me everyday,” one respondent wrote, “but seem too small to be noticed by anyone else around me. It happens between me and God.”

Another respondent said God sounds like “the voice of truth, a recognition beyond the every day chatter.”

And only a fraction, less than one percent, felt that clergy had “better access” to God than other people.

The survey asked, “If you could have a conversation with God, what’s the one question you’d most like God to answer?” Of the nearly 10,000 responses, some of the most popular included:

Is there an afterlife?
Is the Bible true?
What is my purpose in life?
When will there be peace on earth?
Why does there have to be so much suffering in the world?
How can I serve you best?

And then some people just wanted to know the winning lottery number for next week’s Powerball.

The survey was conducted among 9,866 Beliefnet/Spiritual Cinema Circle users over two weeks, from Sept. 25 to Oct. 9th. The respondents were self-selected and were not asked to identify themselves by age, gender or religious preference.

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

Survey reveals reasons people left church

Updated Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2006

Baptist Press

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - While a great deal of effort is made to attract new church members, LifeWay Research's newest study surveys the "formerly churched" to better understand why people drop out of congregational life.

In the summer of 2006, the research arm of LifeWay Christian Resources surveyed 469 "formerly churched adults" - those who regularly attended a Protestant church as an adult in the past but no longer do so. In addition to better understanding why people stop attending church, the survey also sought to better understand what it would take to bring them back.

According to the study, 59 percent of formerly churched adults left their church because of "changes in life situation." While this may suggest that most losses are outside of the church's control, the research indicates that is not necessarily the case, said Brad Waggoner, director of LifeWay Research.

"It is interesting that the most prevalent reasons come down to personal priorities rather than an external change in the person's life," Waggoner said.
In looking at the top two life-situation reasons adults stop attending -- "simply got too busy to attend church" (19 percent) and "family/home responsibilities prevented church attendance" (17 percent) - such reasons are more preventable than some of the lower-ranking reasons such as "moved too far from church" (17 percent), "work situation" (15 percent) or "got divorced/separated" (12 percent).

The second most common category of reasons why adults leave the church is "disenchantment with pastor/church," accounting for the withdrawal of 37 percent of the formerly churched. Three specific sources of disenchantment are sandwiched among the life-change reasons.

The formerly churched say church members "seemed hypocritical" (17 percent), "were judgmental of others" (17 percent) or "the church was run by a clique that discouraged involvement" (12 percent), indicating that the leadership and relational dynamics of a church can be obstacles that prevent involvement.

Notably, Waggoner pointed out that only two of the top 10 reasons are instances in which the formerly churched admit to spiritual causes, citing "church was not helping me to develop spiritually" (14 percent) and "stopped believing in organized religion" (14 percent).

Less than 1 in 5 formerly churched adults confess to being "a devout Christian with a strong belief in God" (19 percent) and a somewhat smaller number are wavering on Christianity (10 percent) or belief in God at all (6 percent).

Clearly, many of the reasons people no longer regularly attend church are interrelated. More than 80 percent of the formerly churched do not have a strong belief in God, perhaps explaining, for example, why work and family are a higher priority than church.

But would they be "too busy" to attend if they felt more welcome at church? Although many formerly churched adults stay away from their former church for the same reasons they initially left, some indicate that the church did not notice or care. Sixteen percent said "nobody contacted me after I left" and another 16 percent said "nobody seemed to care that I left."

Waggoner said some church practices might be contributing to low levels of church commitment and limited biblical knowledge.

"Christian leaders seem to be reluctant to (proclaim) the terms of discipleship that Jesus laid out," Ogden writes. "What are the reasons for our reluctance? We are afraid that if we ask too much, people will stop coming to our churches. Our operating assumption is that people will flee to the nearby entertainment church if we ask them to give too much of themselves. So we start with a low bar and try to entice people by increments of commitment, hoping that we can raise the bar imperceptibly to the ultimate destination of discipleship."

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

Monday, October 23, 2006

Pentecostal and Charismatic Numbers Surge

By Father John Flynn

WASHINGTON, D.C., OCT. 22, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Pentecostalism and other similar charismatic movements are among the fastest-growing sectors of global Christianity. So says a 10-nation study published by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. The Washington, D.C.-based research group released the study Oct. 5.

According to the study, around a quarter of the world's estimated 2 billion Christians are thought to be members of Pentecostal and charismatic groups, which emphasize the active role of the Holy Spirit in their daily lives.

The study was based on random surveys carried out in the United States; Brazil, Chile and Guatemala in Latin America; Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa in Africa; and India, the Philippines and South Korea in Asia.

The findings confirm the error of predictions about the demise of religion, comments Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life in the preface. "Talk of 'secularization' and of a 'post-religious' society has given way to a renewed recognition of religion's influence in people's social and political lives," he writes.

A case in point is Pentecostalism. It was born just a century ago and now ranks second only to Catholicism in the number of followers, Lugo noted. In Latin America, Pentecostals now account for about three in every four Protestants, according to the World Christian Database.

The study uses the general term of "renewalist" as a way to refer to Pentecostals and charismatics as a group. In some countries the number of renewalists reaches a high level.

In the United States the renewalists account for 23% of the population -- 5% Pentecostals and 18% charismatics. In Brazil it is just under half of the population, with 15% describing themselves as Pentecostals, 34% as charismatics. In Guatemala the total reaches 60%, made up of 20% Pentecostals and 40% charismatics.

Kenya has the highest number of Pentecostals, where they account for a full third of the population. Charismatics comprise another 23% of the count. The Philippines also has a high level of renewalists: Charismatics make up 40% of the population; Pentecostals, 4%.

Not all the countries studied, however, had high levels of the two groups. In India, for example, the combined numbers of the two only add up to 5% of the population. Nigeria, with a total of 8%, and South Korea, 9%, were also at the low end of the scale.

As a rule it is the charismatics who are by far the larger group, with the exception of Kenya and Nigeria. Pentecostal numbers are generally higher in Latin America and Africa than they are in the United States or Asia.

In six of the 10 countries the Pew surveys found that the combined numbers of Pentecostals and charismatics account for a majority of the overall Protestant population. In fact, in five nations -- Brazil, Chile, Guatemala, Kenya and the Philippines -- more than two-thirds of Protestants are either Pentecostal or charismatic.

The surveys found a number of characteristics regarding the religious experiences and practices of renewalists.

-- They are generally more fervent in their religious practice. The vast majority of Pentecostals say they attend religious services at least once a week. Majorities of charismatics in every country except Brazil and Chile also say they attend church at least once a week. These levels are generally higher than for other Christians. Renewalist members also come out on top of other Christians in practices such as daily prayer and reading the Bible.

-- Use of the media, mainly television and radio, to reinforce their religious faith is common among renewalists, particularly among Pentecostals in the United States, Latin America and Africa, where at least half say they do so more than once a week.

-- In seven of the 10 countries surveyed at least half of Pentecostals say that the church services they attend frequently include people practicing the gifts of the Holy Spirit, such as speaking in tongues, prophesying or praying for miraculous healing. These aspects are less common among charismatics.

-- Although many say they attend religious services where speaking in tongues is a common practice, fewer affirm that they themselves regularly do this. Moreover, in six of the 10 countries surveyed, at least 40% of Pentecostals say they never speak or pray in tongues.

-- In all 10 countries surveyed, large majorities of Pentecostals say that they have personally experienced or witnessed the divine healing of an illness or injury. In eight of the countries a majority of Pentecostals say that they have received a direct revelation from God.

-- In seven out of 10 countries Pentecostals say that they personally have experienced or witnessed the devil or evil spirits being driven out of a person. Generally, fewer charismatics report witnessing these types of experiences.

-- In eight of the 10 countries surveyed majorities of non-renewalist Christians believe that the Bible is the word of God and is to be taken literally. This view is even more common among Pentecostals.

-- Pentecostals also stand out, especially compared with non-renewalist Christians, for their views on eschatology. In six countries, at least half of Pentecostals believe that Jesus will return to earth during their lifetime. And more than 80% in each country believe in "the rapture of the Church." This refers to the belief that before the world comes to an end the faithful will be rescued and taken up to heaven.

-- Pentecostals also make a big effort to spread their faith. In eight of the 10 countries, a majority of say they share their faith with nonbelievers at least once a week. Charismatics tend to be somewhat less likely to do this.

-- At least 70% of Pentecostals in every country, with the exception of South Korea, believe that faith in Jesus Christ represents the exclusive path to eternal salvation.

The Pew study also devoted a section to analyzing the political implications of the growing numbers of Pentecostals and charismatics. Many of those surveyed affirmed that it is important that political leaders possess strong Christian beliefs.

The study describes the moral and social views of the Pentecostals as being "conservative," on a range of issues such as homosexuality, abortion, extramarital sex and divorce.

In general, a majority agree with the proposition that church and state should be separate. Yet, a sizable minority favor the idea that the government should take steps to ensure their state is a Christian country.

Nevertheless, while they agree that religious people and religious groups should be active in politics, relatively few spend much time actually discussing political issues. They concentrate mainly on religious practices -- with results that are spreading quickly.

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

Saturday, October 21, 2006

View of God can predict values, politics

The United States calls itself one nation under God, but Americans don't all have the same image of the Almighty in mind.

A new survey of religion in the USA finds four very different images of God — from a wrathful deity thundering at sinful humanity to a distant power uninvolved in mankind's affairs.

Forget denominational brands or doctrines or even once-salient terms like "Religious Right." Even the oft-used "Evangelical" appears to be losing ground.

AMERICANS AND FAITH: How we view God
Believers just don't see themselves the way the media and politicians — or even their pastors — do, according to the national survey of 1,721 Americans, by far the most comprehensive national religion survey to date.

Written and analyzed by sociologists from Baylor University's Institute for Studies of Religion, in Waco, Texas, and conducted by Gallup, the survey asked 77 questions with nearly 400 answer choices that burrowed deeply into beliefs, practices and religious ties and turned up some surprising findings:

• Though 91.8% say they believe in God, a higher power or a cosmic force, they had four distinct views of God's personality and engagement in human affairs. These Four Gods — dubbed by researchers Authoritarian, Benevolent, Critical or Distant — tell more about people's social, moral and political views and personal piety than the familiar categories of Protestant/Catholic/Jew or even red state/blue state.

For example: 45.6% of all Americans say the federal government "should advocate Christian values," but 74.5% of believers in an authoritarian God do.

• About one in nine (10.8%) respondents have no religious ties at all; previous national surveys found 14%. The Baylor survey, unlike others, asked people to write in the names and addresses of where they worship, and many who said "none" or "don't know" when asked about their religious identity named a church they occasionally attend.

• The paranormal — beliefs outside conventional organized religion — is immensely popular. Most people said they believe in prophetic dreams; four in 10 say there were once "ancient advanced civilizations" such as Atlantis.

• "Evangelical" may be losing favor as a way Americans describe themselves. About one in three Americans say they belong to denominations that theologians consider evangelical, but only 14% of all respondents in the survey say this is one way they would describe themselves. Only 2.2% called it the single best term. Top choices overall: "Bible-believing" (20.5%) or "born-again" (18.6%).

• Most Americans think their nearest and dearest are going to heaven. The pearly gates open widest for family (75.3% say they'll get in) and personal friends (69.3%). The survey did not ask whether people expect to go to heaven themselves.

• Religion-themed movies and books have a vast reach: 44.3% of those polled saw Mel Gibson's film The Passion of the Christ. More than one in 10 of all surveyed say they spent $50 or more in the past month on items such as religious books, music and jewelry.

A closer look at what people read finds that 28.5% of Americans say they've read The Da Vinci Code. Baylor also found 19%, including 25% of all U.S. women, have read the Rev. Rick Warren's Christian handbook The Purpose-Driven Life, and 19% overall have read at least one of the novels in the Left Behind apocalyptic fiction series.
These are part of the first wave of results from the random survey of Americans who completed and mailed in a 16-page questionnaire. Conducted in the fall of 2005, the survey is a statistically representative sampling of the USA by age, gender and race.

The Baylor team will spend two years digging through the findings and releasing reports on subtopics such as civic involvement and volunteerism, then repeat the core questions in fall 2007 to track trends. The research is funded by the John Templeton Foundation.

God's 'personality'
Baylor researchers determined the Four Gods breakdown by analyzing questions about God's personality and engagement.

The survey asked respondents to agree or disagree with any of 10 descriptions of their "personal understanding of what God is like," including phrases such as "angered by my sins" or "removed from worldly affairs." They could check off 16 adjectives they believe describe God, including words such as "absolute," "wrathful," "forgiving," "friendly" or "distant."

The four visions of God outlined in the Baylor research aren't mutually exclusive. And they don't include 5.2% of Americans who say they are atheists. (Although 91.8% said they believe in God, some didn't answer or weren't sure.)

Though 12.2% overall say abortion is wrong in all circumstances, the number nearly doubles to 23.4% for those who see an authoritarian God and slides to 1.5% for followers of a distant God.

The four categories
Highlights of Baylor's analysis:

• The Authoritarian God (31.4% of Americans overall, 43.3% in the South) is angry at humanity's sins and engaged in every creature's life and world affairs. He is ready to throw the thunderbolt of judgment down on "the unfaithful or ungodly."

They're also the most inclined to say God favors the USA in world affairs (32.1% vs. 18.6% overall).

•The Benevolent God (23% overall, 28.7% in the Midwest) still sets absolute standards for mankind in the Bible. More than half (54.8%) want the government to advocate Christian values.

But this group, which draws more from mainline Protestants, Catholics and Jews, sees primarily a forgiving God, more like the father who embraces his repentant prodigal son in the Bible.

They're inclined (68.1%) to say caring for the sick and needy ranks highest on the list of what it means to be a good person.

•The Critical God (16% overall, 21.3% in the East) has his judgmental eye on the world, but he's not going to intervene, either to punish or to comfort.

Those who picture a critical God are significantly less likely to draw absolute moral lines on hot-button issues such as abortion, gay marriage or embryonic stem cell research.

For example, 57% overall say gay marriage is always wrong compared with 80.6% for those who see an authoritarian God, and 65.8% for those who see God as benevolent. For those who believe in a critical God, it was 54.7%.

•The Distant God (24.4% overall, 30.3% in the West) Followers of this God see a cosmic force that launched the world, then left it spinning on its own.

This has strongest appeal for Catholics, mainline Protestants and Jews. It's also strong among "moral relativists," those least likely to say any moral choice is always wrong, and among those who don't attend church.

Only 3.8% of this group say embryonic stem cell research is always wrong, compared with 38.5% of those who see an authoritarian God, 22.7% for those who see God as benevolent and 13.2% who see God as critical but disengaged.

Some might question whether a survey by Baptist-affiliated Baylor has a conservative Protestant tilt. For example, there's no mention of communion or saints — central to Catholic believers. Also, questions often used "church," with no mention of synagogues or mosques. But Baylor researchers say their testing finds people view the word as generic for "house of worship."

Source: Baylor Religion Survey, margin of error +/- 4 percentage points

How the Baylor Religion Survey was done:
The Gallup Organization contacted 3,702 potential respondents on behalf ofBaylor University in fall 2005 and asked them to complete a 16-page booklet on The Values and Beliefs of the American Public — A National Study.The English-only survey included 77 questions with more than 350 possibleanswers. More than 46% of the surveys (1,721) were completed and returned.The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Posted on Sat, Oct. 21, 2006

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

IN THEIR OWN SELF-IMAGE - Acceptance from a higher power

In a recent national survey, the Barna Group of Ventura, Calif., found that most Americans generally hold high opinions of themselves. But their faith commitments had little bearing on their lifestyles, attitudes and self-perceptions.

And in an informal Kansas City Star survey many people had difficulty connecting their faith to their self-image.

The survey asked readers a series of questions similar to those on the national poll, including, “Do you feel accepted by God or a higher power?”

The Barna survey revealed that 88 percent of Americans feel accepted by God.

Likewise, in The Star survey, 89 percent felt accepted by God or a higher power. The large majority was unequivocal. Only 11 percent felt neither accepted nor rejected, including atheists who didn’t believe in God.

About 60 people responded to The Star survey, ranging in age from teenagers to 96 years old. They came from a wide range of religious affiliations, including most of the mainline Protestant denominations, Catholic, Unity, Pentecostal, Mormon, Hindu and also atheist.

The Barna survey also revealed that Americans generally hold high opinions of themselves. And local folks are no different.

When The Star asked, “What characteristics would you use to describe yourself?” 90 percent gave pretty favorable views. Only 10 percent either wavered between negative and positive views or didn’t answer the question. No one was completely negative.
This was consistent with the Barna results. Describing themselves in the national survey, 97 percent of respondents said they are a good citizen; 94 percent, friendly; 90 percent, generous; 83 percent said they feel at peace; 81 percent said they were clear about the meaning and purpose of their life; and 80 percent thought they were making a positive difference in the world.

Faith to the positive
The Star survey asked, “How does your faith, or lack of faith, affect how you view yourself?” Many local respondents said their faith affected their view of themselves and almost always in a positive way.

But most people had difficulty answering the question or completely avoided it. Others, instead of dealing with the specific question, used it as an opportunity to examine their faith in general. Some wrote long accounts; one was 13 hand-written pages.

And the wisdom to know
Despite the favorable views of themselves, most participants in The Star survey disclosed negative aspects of their personalities and lives they would like to change.

These included not being judgmental, not being self-conscious and not being critical and sarcastic.

Instead, they wrote, they would rather be more patient, stop jumping to conclusions about people, be able to say no more often, be more compassionate and caring, better manage their personal finances, and make more of an effort to be healthy.

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

Monday, October 16, 2006

God Hates Lying

Posted: October 14, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern

Recently, George Barna conducted a poll that asked adults if they agreed with the following statement: "There are no absolute standards for morals and ethics." Seven out of 10 people survey said they agreed with it! That means, in a room of 10 people, seven of them would deny that there are any objective moral rules that should govern their behavior!

With this kind of outlook so pervasive, it's easy to see why lying and deception are so much a part of our culture:

65 percent of high school students say they have cheated on an exam in last 12 months;

24 percent of college students say they would lie to get or keep a job;

47 percent of adults would accept an auto body repairman's offer to include unrelated damages in an insurance claim.

If there's no objective truth about our moral choices, then the basis for our decision to be truthful in any given circumstance will always depend on self-serving reasons.

But unlike the moral relativism of most people, God absolutely hates – that is, regards as personally offensive – a lying tongue and "a false witness who pours out lies." God hates these things because they are so destructive:

"Telling lies about others is as harmful as hitting them with an ax, wounding them with a sword or shooting them with a sharp arrow." (Proverbs 25:18)

God hates lying because He is the Source of truth. In fact, Jesus used that very word to describe His character when He testified, "I am the Way and the Truth and the Life." (John 14:6) Scripture further tells us that "it impossible for God to lie" (Hebrews 6:18), since God Himself is the standard and ground of all that is real in the universe.

In dramatic contrast, Satan is called the "Father of lies." (John 8:44) When we lie, we are behaving more like children of the devil then children of God. Have you been telling lies about others lately? God says of the liar, "I will not allow deceivers to serve me, and liars will not be allowed to enter my presence." (Psalm 101:7)
We know lying is wrong, so why do we do it?

Often because we have been caught doing something wrong or embarrassing. An article from the Washington Post magazine on lying pointed out that people lie 92 percent of the time "to save face." The same article goes on to say that people lie 98 percent of the time to keep from offending someone else.

We have all been faced with those situations when telling the truth was not easy. We try not to state the obvious and yet not lie outwardly.

When the wife asks her husband, "Honey, do I look fat in this?"

When you're a guest at someone's home and the meal was horrible. "How was it?" "I have never eaten anything like that in my life!"

Then there are those "little white lies" that can lead to bigger ones:
When you instruct the kids to say you're not home when they answer the phone.

When you say, "I forgot" – but you really didn't.

When you exclaim, "It's good to see you!" – but you don't mean it.

When you say, "I love your outfit" – but you really find it repulsive.

When you promise, "I'll be praying for you" – but you have no intention of doing so.

Maybe you think to yourself that you never lie like this, but perhaps you are overlooking other common ways of deceiving yourself and others.

Consider the issue of gossiping, or talking about other people behind their back. Gossips love to share private (and usually unsubstantiated) information about other people, sometimes using such pretenses as:

"Have you heard ...?"

"Did you know ...?"

"I don't know if it's true, but I just heard that ..."

"I wouldn't tell you, but I know it won't go any further ..."

Christians can even rationalize the sin of gossip by saying things like, "I am telling you this so you can pray ..."

Another common way we lie is through flattery. Flattery is perhaps the subtlest forms of deceit. A good definition of flattery is "saying something to a person's face that you would never say behind his or her back."

It's tempting to flatter someone to get something from them, but saying insincere things is just another form of lying. Would you consider a two-faced person to be honest?

Yet another way we lie is through exaggeration. This is especially easy to do, since we often feel the (insecure) need to impress other people. We may tell some pals about that "giant fish" that got away, or we might hype our skills with the hope of getting that job promotion.

Finally, we can lie by keeping silent when we should be speaking up. For example, we might hear someone say something we know for a fact is untrue, yet we remain quiet. Or we might turn a blind eye to a case of injustice and let it be "someone else's problem." Slander by silence ... complicity by passivity.

Christians are called to be truth-tellers in a world that "loves to live a lie." (Revelation 22:15) Unlike the majority of others around us, "we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ." (Ephesians 4:15)

May God give us the courage and grace to live our lives as true witnesses for Him.

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

Sunday, October 15, 2006

Charismatics impact mainstream religions

NEW YORK (AP) — A new 10-nation survey of Pentecostal and charismatic Christians, considered the fastest-growing stream of Christianity worldwide, shows they are deeply influencing the Roman Catholic and mainstream Protestant churches and are poised to make a big impact on global affairs.

The poll released Thursday by the Washington-based Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life found that "spirit-filled" Christians, who speak in tongues and believe in healing through prayer, comprise at least 10 percent of the population in nine of the 10 surveyed countries.

The surveys were conducted over the spring and summer in Brazil, Chile, Guatemala, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, India, the Philippines, South Korea and the United States.

The survey estimated that Pentecostals and charismatics together comprise at least half the population of Brazil, Guatemala and Kenya, and 44 percent of the Philippines.

They make up about one-third of the population of South Africa and Chile and nearly one-quarter of Nigerians and U.S. residents.

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

Friday, October 13, 2006

Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life Releases Results from a 10-Country Public Opinion Survey of Pentecostals

The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life today released the results of a 10-country survey of pentecostal and charismatic Christians, two large and fast-growing groups whose socially conservative views are impacting religion and politics worldwide.

"This survey demonstrates that pentecostal beliefs and practices are literally reshaping the face of Christianity throughout the developing world,” said Luis Lugo, the director of the Pew Forum. “And with religion playing an increasingly prominent role in global affairs, we need to pay closer attention to pentecostalism – arguably the most dynamic religious movement in the world today.”

At least a quarter of the world’s 2 billion Christians are thought to be renewalists, an umbrella term referring to pentecostals and charismatics as a group. Still, little is known about their religious, political and civic views. To address this gap, the Pew Forum -- with financial support from the John Templeton Foundation – recently conducted surveys in the United States, Brazil, Chile, Guatemala, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, India, the Philippines and South Korea.

The surveys find that renewalists ….

· Are prevalent: In every nation surveyed except India, at least 10% of the population can be described as renewalist; in three countries ( Brazil, Guatemala and Kenya ) membership in the renewalist movement approaches or exceeds 50%. In the U.S., the survey showed nearly one-in-four people ( 23% ) are renewalists. Nearly three-in-ten U.S. Protestants interviewed indicated they were either pentecostal or charismatic, and more than three-in-ten U.S. Catholics can be classified as charismatic. In the three Latin American countries, more than three of four Protestants are renewalists.

· Have distinctive experiences: In seven of the 10 countries surveyed, at least half of pentecostals say that the church services they attend frequently include people practicing the gifts of the Holy Spirit, such as speaking in tongues or prophesying. In all 10 countries surveyed, large majorities of pentecostals ( ranging from 56% in South Korea to 87% in Kenya ) say that they have personally experienced or witnessed the divine healing of an illness or injury. In the United States, 62% of pentecostals and 46% of charismatics say they have witnessed divine healings, compared with 29% of the U.S. population as a whole and 28% of non-renewalist Christians.

· Are intense in their beliefs: In eight of the 10 countries surveyed, majorities of pentecostals say they share their faith with non-believers at least once a week. Charismatics tend to be somewhat less evangelistic. Pentecostals’ active evangelism is consistent with their views on salvation. In every country except South Korea, at least 70% of pentecostals completely agree that belief in Jesus Christ is the only way to be saved from eternal damnation. This view also is common among charismatics and other Christians, but here, as in other areas, pentecostals often stand out for the intensity of their belief.

· Support political engagement: In nine of the 10 countries, at least half of pentecostals and charismatics say that religious groups should express their views on day-to-day social and political questions. In the U.S., nearly eight-in-ten pentecostals ( 79% ) say that religious groups should do so, compared with 61% of the public as a whole. “That’s interesting, because pentecostals were once thought of as non-political, at least in the United States. That doesn’t seem to be the case anymore,” said John Green, the Pew Forum’s senior fellow in religion and American politics. More than half ( 52% ) of American pentecostals say that the government should take special steps to make the U.S. a Christian country, compared with only 25% among Christians overall.

· Are morally conservative, with a few twists: The percentage of pentecostals who say that abortion can never be justified ranges from 64% in the U.S. to 97% in the Philippines. Majorities of pentecostals in nine countries ( all except the U.S. ) say that drinking alcohol can never be justified. While majorities of pentecostals in three countries ( Guatemala, Kenya and South Korea ) say that AIDS is God’s punishment for immoral sexual behavior, majorities in five countries ( the U.S., Brazil, Chile, South Africa and the Philippines ) do not believe AIDS is God’s punishment. In five countries ( Guatemala, Kenya, Nigeria, the Philippines and South Korea ), pentecostals are more willing to allow women to serve as pastors or church leaders compared with other Christians.

On Friday, Oct. 6, Lugo and Green will make the first public presentation of the survey findings at “Spirit in the World,” an international symposium on pentecostalism. Funded by the Templeton Foundation and hosted by the USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture, the Los Angeles event brings together international scholars who track the social, political and economic impact of pentecostals around the world.

The report is now available at www.pewforum.org.

The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life delivers timely, impartial information to national opinion leaders on issues at the intersection of religion and public affairs; it also serves as a neutral venue for discussions of these matters. The Forum is a project of the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan “fact tank” that provides information on the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world.

Contact: Burke Olsen, bolsen@pewforum.org or 202-419-4564

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

Survey Sees Pentecostalism Growing

A new 10-nation survey says Christian Pentecostalism is growing, and that Pentecostals, known for their exuberant style of worship, are also becoming more active in politics. Mike O'Sullivan reports from Los Angeles, where modern Pentecostalism was born 100 years ago, and where scholars met at the University of Southern California to assess the movement's impact.

There have been times in Christian history when believers experienced what they said were gifts of the Holy Spirit -- an ecstatic form of expression called speaking in tongues, divine healing, and utterances of prophecy, which are messages they believe come directly from God.

The prototype for the experience is seen in the New Testament Book of Acts, which says the spirit of God descended on the followers of Jesus on the feast of Pentecost.

In the early 1900s, there were scattered episodes of Pentecostal enthusiasm -- in Wales in southwest Britain and near Pune, India. But in 1906, a major movement erupted in Los Angeles to which historians trace the rise of modern Pentecostalism.

On the 100th anniversary of the birth of the modern movement, the new study of Pentecostals shows they are numerous. Together with charismatics, they may make up one-quarter of all Christians. They are nearly one-fourth of the U.S. population, according to the study, and almost half the population of Brazil.

The study of the Pentecostal movement was conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. It suggests that more than half of the people of Kenya are Pentecostals or charismatics, and 60 percent of the people of Guatemala.

Pew Forum Director Luis Lugo says the study has some surprises.

He said, "One, to me, was the extent to which Pentecostal beliefs and practices had made their way into these non-Pentecostal churches. In several of these countries, the percentage of charismatics was at least double that of Pentecostals."

Those countries include Chile, South Africa, and South Korea.

In the Philippines, the number of charismatics, most of them Catholic, is 10 times the number of Pentecostals. The study groups all of them together under the term renewalists.

John Green of the Pew Forum, says Pentecostals and charismatics, like other traditional Christians, have a high regard for the Bible and attend church often. Surprisingly, he says, they are also interested in worldly matters.

"They are very interested in politics. They are very interested in the free market. They are very interested in social welfare programs," he said. "These are very different than the common stereotype of Pentecostals as being other-worldly."

The Pew Forum's Luis Lugo says the study gives hints as to why Pentecostalism is growing. He says renewalist churches offer a joyful form of worship and the sense that God is really present.

Pentecostalism has also adapted to local cultures, blending its enthusiastic form of expression with Christian beliefs and practices in indigenous African churches. Through the charismatic movement, it has also enlivened the ritual of older denominations.

Finally, he says Pentecostals are building a sense of community by reaching out to the displaced, including migrants to the city, providing a spiritual home in a world that is quickly changing.

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

20-somethings shy away from that old-time religion

Regardless of faith, today's young adults generally don't like attending traditional worship services, where their numbers are down. And they shy away from labels, increasingly identifying with no specific religion or, if they are Christian, calling themselves non-denominational.

Yet in conversations and in academic surveys, Generations X and Y still demonstrate an overwhelming belief in God and an interest in how all things spiritual relate to their lives and the world around them, particularly since Sept. 11, 2001.

Many reject dogma and large institutions; they are reaching out for personal and convenient ways to find answers. They send prayer e-mails, look for love on jdate.com, join smaller college ministry groups, and help fuel an industry of spiritually inspired books, movies and music.

About 80 percent of college students say they believe in God, according to a 2005 University of California study. But more than a third of adults 18 to 29 don't identify with one religion in particular, and another quarter classify themselves as nondenominational Christians, rather than identifying with a group like Baptist or Methodist, according to a 2001 American Religious Identification survey.

This worries some, like Tim Elmore, president and founder of Growing Leaders, a faith-based leadership group in Atlanta.

"There is a huge number that will say, `I want a little bit of this and a little bit of that. A little bit of Buddhism and a little bit of Jesus,'" Elmore said. "They have been preached tolerance with a capital T so much that there is no critical thinking going on. Having an unexamined OKness with everything can be very damaging."

Their aversion to labels is simple. Many do not see religion as a tradition to cut and paste from one generation to the next. They see it as a personal relationship they can tailor to their needs.

Growing up around increasing religious and ethnic diversity, few experience pressure to conform to a particular religion, as many of their parents did.

Some young adults turning toward religion also consider themselves backlash babies, rebelling against an American culture obsessed with sex and money, or against parents who never gave them direction.

Studies have long found that once young people marry and have kids, they are more likely to return to traditional religious institutions and practices, said Nancy Ammerman, professor of Sociology of Religion at Boston University.

In the meantime, while they are discovering who they are, research shows religion is mostly likely to strike a chord with them if it does so on a more personal level, according to a survey by Reboot, a New York-based nonprofit organization. This includes college ministry clubs that are smaller and less formal and worship that is individualized and on demand, such as talking to friends about God, praying, or sending out an inspirational e-mail.