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Religious practices

U.S. poll results

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Quotation:

"There does not seem to be revival taking place in America. Whether that is measured by church attendance, born again status, or theological purity, the statistics simply do not reflect a surge of any noticeable proportions." George Barna. ₃₈

Topics covered in this essay:

	Firmness and reliability of poll data
	Poll results: Personal items Gender differences Church organization
	Religious behaviors that are: changing/not changing over time surprising
	Definitions of terms
	Related essays
	References

Firmness and reliability of poll data:

	Truthfulness: Poll data on religious behavior and practice are notoriously unreliable. Individuals often describe their own behavior inaccurately; they answer questions according to what they think they should be doing. For example: 17% of American adults say that they tithe (give 10 to 13% of their income to their church). Only 3% really do. 16 Many polls indicate that the percentage of adults who regularly attend a religious service is about 40% in the U.S., 20% in Canada, and perhaps 10% or less in Europe. But when noses are actually counted, the true figures are about half the stated figures (about 20% in the U.S. and 10% in Canada.) The 50% error also appears to apply in the UK. Author Monica Furlong commented: "...people questioned about how much they go to church, give figures which, if true, would add up to twice those given by the churches." 40
	Selection of respondents: Reliability of public opinion data is also affected by the way in which the respondents are selected.   The Barna Research Group, Gallup Organization, USA Today, CNN and similar polls typically interview over 1000 randomly selected adults for each survey.   Many polls appear on the Internet and are answered to by self-selected individuals. 18 Unfortunately, people who answer polls on the Internet may well well hold opinions that are different from Internet users generally. Internet users come form a variety of cultures, may cover a wide age range, and probably differ from the average American adult in other ways. More details.
	Wording The precise makeup of the question can produce widely variable results, particularly in questions about religious belief.

Personal items

* Evaluated by interviewer on basis of the respondent's current personal commitment to Jesus, and a belief that they will go to Heaven because of having first been saved.

** Estimated by George Barna of Barna Research Group.

Gender differences:

A telephone poll was conducted by Barna Research during 1999 and the first two months of 2000 among 4,755 adults over the age of 18 who reside in the 48 contiguous U.S. states. The sampling error is within 2%. They have found a major difference in the practices of men and women. ₃₇ Some of their findings are: 

* This is a reduction from 55% in 1991. Attendance data are grossly inflated. Independent studies that count actual participation have revealed that the actual attendance values are typically one half of those found by polls. People tend to respond to pollsters according to how the feel they should act, or according to how they feel society expects them to act, not according to how actually they do act.

Church organization:

How religious behaviors have changed in recent years:

Some religious behaviors are relatively stable: Numbers of American adults who do volunteer work at church over the past week (24%). 15

Other religious behaviors are changing: There were major shifts in home religious study. The percentage of adults who read the Bible dropped from 40% to 37% between 2000 and 2001. Similarly the percentage of adults who had a private time to pray and read the Bible and devotional literature dropped from 53% to 49%. 39 Average attendees at Protestant Sunday services dropped by 11% from 1992 to 1998 7,12 Annual church budgets declined 15% from 1997 to 1998 13 Church attendance over the previous week dropped from 49% in 1991 to 41% in 1999 15

Religious behaviors that surprised us: ₁₆

	A larger percentage of born-again adults have been divorced at sometime during their lifetime than have non-Christians (27% vs. 23%)
	The King James Version (KJV) of the Bible is 5 times more likely to be read during the week than is the New International Version (NIV).
	58% of adults believe that the Bible is totally accurate in all that it teaches. We would have expected this to be about 40%.

Definitions of terms:

Many of the above data come from the Barna Research Group. For the purpose of its studies, Barna does not ask its subjects to identify themselves as "born again" or "Evangelical." Barna has adopted certain definitions:

A "born again Christian" is a subject who said that:

 "they have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in their life today and who also indicated they believe that when they die they will go to Heaven because they had confessed their sins and had accepted Jesus Christ as their savior."

"Evangelicals" are subjects who met the "born again" criteria, and who also state that:

"their faith is very important in their life today;...they have a personal responsibility to share their religious beliefs about Christ with non-Christians; ...Satan exists [as a living entity]; ...eternal salvation is possible only through grace, not works; ... Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth; ...God [is]...the all-knowing, all-powerful, perfect deity who created the universe and still rules it today." 

Related essays:

More practices: Religious practices menu

Beliefs: Polls of religious beliefs of American adults Divisions among Protestant denominations There are at least two Protestant Christendoms. Differences between Roman Catholicism and conservative Protestantism There are major gaps; and they are growing. Beliefs in the US compared with other Christian nations How Christians interpret the Bible  Their beliefs differ because of how they view the Bible.

References:

1. George Barna, "The Index of Leading Spiritual Indicators", Word Publishing, Dallas, TX (1996)
2. MetroVoice of Central New York, newspaper, Jamesville NY, 1996-MAY
3. Maranatha Christian Journal, 1997-APR-22
4. Fax Service, Pastor's Weekly Briefing, Focus on the Family, Colorado Springs CO, 1996-APR-12.
5. Barna Research Group has a home page at: http://www.barna.org/ViewFrames.htm
6. "Angels are in; Devil & Holy Spirit are out," results of a survey conducted in 1997-JAN. Accuracy: within 3% points, 19 times out of 20. See: http://www.barna.org/PressAngels.htm
7. "An inside look at today's churches," results of a survey conducted in 1997-AUG. Accuracy: within 5% points, 19 times out of 20. See: http://www.barna.org/PressInsideChurches.htm
8. "Protestant pastor profiles," at: http://www.barna.org/Presspastors.htm
9. "Christianity showing no visible signs of a nationwide revival," results of a survey conducted in 1998-JAN. Accuracy: within 3% points, 19 times out of 20. See: http://www.barna.org/PressNoRevival.htm
10. "The Cyber church is coming," See: http://www.barna/org/PressCyberChurch.htm
11. "How Americans See Themselves," results of a survey conducted in 1998-JAN. Accuracy: within 3% points, 19 times out of 20. See: http://www.barna.org/PressHowAmericansSeeThemselves.htm
12.  "Profile of American churches," results of two surveys conducted in 1998-JUN/JUL. Accuracy: within 3-5% points, 19 times out of 20. See: http://www.barna.org/PressAmericanChurchesLosingGround.htm
13. "Pastors and laity hold divergent views about spiritual revival," results of two surveys conducted in 1998-JUN/JUL. Accuracy: within 3-5% points, 19 times out of 20. See: http://www.barna.org/PressDivergentViews.htm
14.  "One out of three adults is now unchurched," results of two surveys conducted in 1998-JUL. Accuracy: within 3% points, 19 times out of 20. See: http://www.barna.org/PressOneThreeUnchurched.htm
15. "Annual survey of America's faith shows no significant changes in past year."  See: http://www.barna.org/PressNoSignificantChanges.htm
16. "Answers to frequently asked questions," at: http://www.barna.org/PageStats.htm
17. Thomas C. Reeves, "The Empty Church: Does Organized Religion Matter Anymore?" Simon & Schuster: New York, NY (1998), Page. 64." Cited in http://www.adherents.com/Na_169.html under the topic "religious - modestly"  
18. "Religion", Misterpoll web site, at: http://www.misterpoll.com/religion.html
19. "Is there a God," Misterpoll web site, at: http://www.misterpoll.com/2293779424.html
20. Emerging Trends, 1999-SEP, Princeton Religion Research Center, at: http://www.prrc.com/et.html
21. Roper Center for Public Opinion Research at: http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu/
22. A poll conducted for Newsweek magazine in 1999-JUN.
23. "Study of worldwide rates of religiosity, church attendance," 1997-DEC-10 at: http://www.umich.edu/~newsinfo/Releases/1997/Dec97/
24. "Church Attendance 1970 - 1996," National Election Studies at: http://www.umich.edu/~nes/nesguide/toptables/ 
25. Gallup Organization poll in 1994-DEC. Quoted in George Bishop, "What Americans really believe," Free Inquiry, 1999-Summer, Pages 38 to 42.
26. International Social survey Program (ISSP), 1991 & 1993. Quoted in George Bishop, "What Americans really believe," Free Inquiry, 1999-Summer, Pages 38 to 42.
27. George Bishop, "What Americans really believe," Free Inquiry, 1999-Summer, Pages 38 to 42.
28. pissedOff religion poll at: http://www.pissedoff.com/religionpoll.shtml  Data was captured on 1999-AUG-27 when 333 Internet surfers had voted.
29. 1999 Poll by the Survey Research Center at the University of California at Berkeley CA. Reported in the Globe and Mail (Toronto, ON) newspaper on 1999-OCT-9.
30. T. Hargrove & G.H. Stempel III, "Poll indicates a haunted nation." Nando Times, 1999-OCT-27. Describes a poll by Scripps Howard News Service and Ohio University during 1999-SEP/OCT. Margin of error: 4%
31. Millennium Study by Taylor Nelson Sofres Intersearch. Reviewed by Maranatha Christian Journal for 1999-DEC-13 at: http://www.mcjonline.com/news/news3707.htm Church attendance data at: http://www.intersearch.tnsofres.com/gia/US_Religion.pdf This is an Acrobat PDF file. You can obtain a free software to read these files from Adobe.
32. USA Today-CNN-Gallup poll for 1999-DEC, as reported in ReligionToday on 1999-DEC-29.
33. "Christians are more likely to experience divorce than are non-Christians," Barna Research Group, 1999-DEC-21, at: http://www.barna.org/cgi-bin/
34. "Survey says Irish church attendance at lowest level,"  CWNews.com, 1999-DEC-18
35. AANews, #699, issued by American Atheists on 2000-JAN-2.
36. 1998 study by the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research.
37. "Women are the backbone of the Christian congregations in America," Barna Research Group, Ltd., at: http://www.barna.org/cgi-bin/ 
38. "The state of the church, 2000," Barna Research Group, Ltd., at: http://www.barna.org/cgi-bin/PagePressRelease.asp
39. "Annual study reveals America is spiritually stagnant," Barna Research Group, Ltd., at: http://216.87.179.136/cgi-bin/PagePressRelease.asp?
40. Monica Furlong, "C of E: The State It's in," Hodder & Stroughton, (2002), Page 216. Order this book safely from Amazon.com online book store.

Copyright © 1999 to 2007 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Originally written: 1999-MAY-13
Latest update: 2007-AUG-10
Author: B.A. Robinson 

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