TruthBook Religious News Blog

Friday, 19 September 2008

WASHINGTON (ABP) -- A new survey by Baylor University researchers suggests that megachurches are more intimate, believers less gullible and atheism less prevalent than popular stereotypes would suggest.

The survey found that members of such churches tended to have more friends within their congregations, hold more conservative or evangelical Christian beliefs, share their faith with friends and strangers more often, and be involved in volunteer work more frequently than their counterparts in churches with less than 100 in average attendance.

An additional factor suggested by the survey: Megachurches are far more likely than small churches to be conservative evangelical congregations. Meanwhile, smaller churches had a higher rate of affiliation with what the survey called a “liberal Protestant denomination,” or with mainline church bodies such as the United Methodist Church and the Episcopal Church.

The survey also found that active religious believers -- and particularly conservative Christians -- were less likely than the general public to believe in the occult and paranormal.

“The Baylor Survey found that traditional Christian religion greatly decreases credulity, as measured by beliefs in such things as dreams, Bigfoot, UFOs, haunted houses and astrology, with education having hardly any effect,” the survey’s authors said.

For instance, as measured against an index of belief in occult and paranormal beliefs researchers constructed, only 14 percent of respondents who described themselves as “evangelical” rated high on the index. Meanwhile, 30 percent of those who rejected the “evangelical” label scored high on the same index.

Those who described themselves as “theologically liberal” were actually more likely than evangelicals -- and than the public at large -- to believe in such things as the ability to communicate with the dead, the existence of mythical creatures such as Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster, and alien encounters with Earth.

The survey, of 1,648 English-speaking American adults, used detailed questionnaires mailed in the fall of 2007. Collected by the Gallup Organization and analyzed by Baylor researchers, it has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percent.

It was funded by the Templeton Foundation, and is the second wave of a three-part survey project. The first set of results was released in 2006. The final set, researchers said, will be released next year.

Labels: Baylor Religion Survey, evangelicals, John Templeton Foundation, megachurches, paranormal

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Friday, September 19, 2008

How different faiths view major issues

By CATHY LYNN GROSSMAN • USA TODAY •
September 18, 2008

God is punishing us.

Guardian angels protect us.

The Earth is in grave danger.

So finds Baylor University’s newest survey on Americans’ religious beliefs and practices.

The survey, to be released today, is based on interviews with 1,700 adults conducted in fall 2007. Among the highlights:

Environment

Evangelicals less worried about global climate change

Most respondents to the Baylor Religion Survey agree that “if we do not change things dramatically,” global climate change will be ”a disaster” (67%); coal, oil and natural gas will be exhausted (70%) and most plant and animal life will be destroyed (57%).

But evangelical Protestants are significantly less likely (55%) than other religious groups to be alarmed about global climate change or to forecast destruction of life unless changes are made (49%).

While 56% of U.S. adults say the government is not spending enough to improve and protect the environment, fewer evangelicals do — 41%, says Baylor sociologist F. Carson Mencken.

Indeed, evangelicals are at least twice as likely as any other major religious group to say the government is already spending too much. Most likely to say spending is too little: Jews, 81%, and people with no religious affiliation, 79%.

Environmentalism has been controversial among evangelicals. When the National Association of Evangelicals launched a “Call to Action” on climate change in 2006, some religious conservatives, led by James Dobson of Focus on the Family, strongly opposed it.

Gender and politics

Are women suited for politics? Americans are deeply divided

The survey reveals deep divisions over women’s roles in society, splits that may play out in the November elections.

For example, 33% of Americans say ”Most men are better suited emotionally for politics than most women.” But 44% of evangelical Protestants agree, more than other Christians and markedly higher than Jews (29%), other religions (23%), and those with no religion (14%).

The Baylor data was gathered in 2007, when Sen. Hillary Clinton was seeking the Democratic nomination, but long before Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was named to the Republican vice-presidential ticket, putting motherhood and gender in the spotlight. Palin is a mother of five, including an infant with Down syndrome.

Both Republican candidates are evangelical Protestants (John McCain is Baptist and Palin non-denominational). Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama is a mainline Protestant (United Church of Christ), whose running mate, Sen. Joe Biden, is Roman Catholic.

The survey also finds:

• 41% say a preschooler suffers if the mother works (54% of evangelicals say so, nearly double for other groups).

• 31% say “it’s God’s will that women care for children” (48% for evangelicals).
Will these views shape votes?

Tragedy and evil

Dealing with evil: Candidates disagree

God either causes or allows “major tragedies to occur as a warning to sinners,” say 20% of U.S. adults.

While 43% say most evil is caused by the devil, 47% disagree — a statistical tie.

But most (68%) would not say human nature is basically evil.

So where does evil dwell — in the devil or in mankind? The Baylor survey allows for overlapping views; it finds 36% strongly agree with both statements.

"Those who believe God causes or allows bad things to happen did not speak in terms of tragedies being God’s fault,” says Baylor sociologist Christopher Bader.

Bader says people told him that “tragedies are our fault. We have sinned as a nation and God has stood aside and allowed terrible things to happen.”

Among the questions that the Rev. Rick Warren asked both presidential candidates at his Saddleback Civil Forum on the Presidency was, ”Does evil exist?” Both candidates said yes.

Sen. Barack Obama said it is “God’s task” to ”erase evil from the world” but “we can be soldiers in that process.”

Sen. John McCain said, ”Evil must be defeated,” and linked it entirely to “the transcendent challenge of the 21st century — radical Islamic extremism.”

Labels: Barack Obama, Baylor Religion Survey, Cathy Lynn Grossman, environmentalism, evil, John McCain, politics, women

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Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Faith and Values: Your World Is Colored by Who Your God Is

By Sally Santana
Saturday, September 13, 2008

Last month, Pastor Rick Warren got Barack Obama and John McCain to sit down with him and answer some questions on faith because "we do not believe in the separation of faith and politics because faith is just a world view and everybody has some kind of world view and it's important to know what they are."

You can have a world view about God, too.

In 2006, some findings from The Baylor Religion Survey were released. Long story short, it produced four views, or filters, of God. In 2008, many of us are familiar with them. They are called Authoritarian, Benevolent, Critical and Distant (see www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2006-09-11-religion-survey_x.htm) Writer Cathy Lynn Grossman says, "These Four Gods 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."

The kind of God you're trained to believe in doesn't have to be the kind of God you end up with.

What kind of God do you believe in, and how does that color your world?

Labels: Authoritarian, Baylor Religion Survey, Benevolent, Critical, Distant, God, Sally Santana, worldview