Monday, September 18, 2006

An article in the LA Times tells of a new survey called, "American Piety in the 21st Century," that reveals that Americans believe in four basic types of deity. The survey was conducted by the Gallup Organization for Baylor University.

According to the survey, 85-90% of Americans answered "yes" when asked if they personally believe in God.

But the study went further by asking respondents what sort of God they believed in. The results put the perennial debate over the role of religion in public life in a new light.

The survey identifies four conceptions of God, which it labels A, B, C and D.

A is the Authoritarian God, worshiped by 31.4% of respondents. This deity is highly involved, responsible for Earthly events such as tsunamis or economic upturns and "capable of meting out punishment to those who are unfaithful or ungodly."

B is the Benevolent God, the choice of 23% of respondents. He also is involved in human affairs but isn't in the smiting business. This God is "mainly a force of positive influence in the world and is less willing to condemn or punish individuals."

C is the Critical God, who "really does not interact with the world." But believers in this God — 16% of the sample — still watch their Ps and Qs because God C "views the current state of the world unfavorably" and will punish evildoers "in another life."

Last but not least is D, the Distant God. Twenty-four percent of respondents endorsed — "embraced" is probably too strong a word — this version of the deity, "a cosmic force which set the laws of nature in motion" but has no interest in human activities.

Finally, there are the atheists, who accounted for 5.2% of respondents. (They aren't dignified with an abbreviation. F for faithless?)

This seems just a little too simplistic to me. If I had been polled, I wouldn't have chosen any of those options because God can't be limited to a simple label like these. The closest thing to who I think God is a combination of both A and B. And even that is still too simplistic for my taste.

One good thing I think this survey does is to dispel the notion that the religion of Americans is uniform.

From the actual findings:

Americans may agree that God exists. They do not agree about what God is like, what God wants for the world, or how God feels about politics. Most Americans pray. They differ widely on to whom they pray, what they pray about, and whether or not they say grace.

I must admit I am surprised at the numbers given in this study. According to the study, barely 1 in 10 Americans is NOT affiliated with a congregation; fewer than 5% of the US population claim a faith outside of the Judeo-Christian mainstream; and Fully a third of Americans, roughly 100 million people, are Evangelical Protestant by affiliation.

This study even found that those who claim to be unaffiliated still have some traditional forms of faith. The majority of Americans not affiliated with a religious tradition believe in God or some higher power; Almost a third of those unaffiliated with organized religion pray at least occasionally; Religiously unaffiliated people are unlikely to attend church. Nine out of ten report never attending religious services; and at least one in 10 religiously unaffiliated Americans has no doubt in the existence of God, believes Jesus is the son of God, and prays daily or more.

This is fascinating stuff to me. They even surveyed these folks on what term they think best describes them and nearly half of them called themselves "Bible believing." Only 15% call themselves "Evangelical" and only 2 in 100 believe that is the best description.

This is only a small sampling of the findings, as the document is 74 pages long.

My question is this: It's obvious that American religion/Christianity is incredibly diverse. So 1) When will people start recognizing that fact and stop lumping everyone together under the title "Fundamentalist" and 2) If this many people really do believe in God, Jesus, and attend church, where are the fruits of it?

Posted by Amanda at 9/18/2006 11:40:00 AM

6 Comments

 Jim Jordan posted at 9/18/2006 12:54:00 PM  
Thanks for pointing out this poll. Fascinating stuff. It begs the question which of these multiple choice Gods is closest to the real One. My answer would have been B although none of them appear the be precisely the true biblical God.

There are fruits from being a Christian nation. While we aren't perfect, my experience in traveling abroad is that we are light-years ahead of other countries. The reason is that the public at large is more honest and less transparently selfish than they are elsewhere. I recall some of my wife's old friends telling us in Venezuela (after having lived for several years in the States)how impossible it would be to have newspaper machines there. They marveled at the fact that Americans put their quarter in, open the machine, and take ONE paper. In Venezuela, they said the first customer would put in his quarter and take all the papers and resell them. The truth is I've never seen a poor person do that here in the US. But we've been trained that it's not politically correct to speak badly of another country's people.

I think that the pounding we take from political correctness in the media blinds us to the awesome reality of how great this country is. Why would so many people risk their lives for a chance to live here?

Did you see the poll about Christians saying they are American first and Christian second? Albert Mohler discussed it on his radio show here. I found it quite embarrassing as Christians should know where their citizenship ultimately is.

 Randy posted at 9/18/2006 01:48:00 PM  
Very interesting poll.

 Carmel posted at 9/18/2006 02:02:00 PM  
Well the good thing about the country being so evangelical as well as one of the weathiest countries in the world is that we are able to send missionaries to other countries that don't know the word so much.

So while you may not see the fruit growing... it is. We don't have an idle God. :)

I can't say I would pick any of those choices for God. Because you're right, it would be like limiting God and putting Him in a box.

 Musicguy posted at 9/18/2006 05:54:00 PM  
Unfortunately, the "powers that be" in this country are currently pandering to the "fundamentalists". Since those in Congress "speak for the people", it's very easy to lump everyone together.

If you want people to seperate Christians from the fundamentalists, you first have to say that Congress (including the Republicans) are not serving the people of this country, but rather a very small base, who for some reason, has a tad too much power and control at the present time.

Thankfully, the pendulum has begun to swing. November should bring some great changes to our nation's capitol.

You can bet that I'm praying to my diety for that!

 ontheedgeofmyseat posted at 9/20/2006 11:31:00 AM  
Musicguy, great point about the election. You can be sure I'm reading up on candidates.

For those of us non-fundamentalist Christians, Musicguy also has a great point - we need to let our elected officials know what we really think! How can they represent us if they don't know what we want?

 Jeremy Pierce posted at 9/20/2006 09:18:00 PM  
My problem with this survey is that the categories seem to be really strange. I'm not sure if I could say A, B, or C. They all have something of the truth, and not one of them expresses it well. D is clearly out, but the other three all seem inadequate. I imagine most evangelicals would have similar reactions. Doesn't that taint the data?

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