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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TimF who wrote (10564)	4/5/2001 2:31:01 PM
From: Lane3	Respond to of 82486

But many non-atheists don't go to church regularly Karen. True. Of the 50 percent or so of those who identify with a religion but don't go to church regularly, some are religious and some are not. We don't know how many of each there are, but there are surely some of each. How many of what are called lapsed Catholics have become agnostics or atheists and how many are just taking a sinful break and will eventually return? Don't know. Here's an on-point article: <<Over the Back Fence By HANK HENRY Poll: Church attendance has slipped For many decades, the Gallup Poll and other organizations have surveyed Americans on religion's role in their lives, trying to discover how many of us really care about religion and how many regularly go to church or synagogue. The latest Gallup Poll I read said 39 percent of senior citizens say they go to church or synagogue every week. According to the same poll, just 26 percent of young adults and 32 percent of middle-aged people say they go to church every week. These numbers are down a bit from figures that date back several decades, when the numbers of regular church-goers hovered just above 40 percent. The most recent polls suggest church attendance and belief in religion are on a slow decline. Some organizations have questioned the accuracy of the polls, wondering whether the results are too optimistic. The pollsters tell us that 9 out of 10 people do indicate a religious preference, and about 70 percent say they attend church occasionally. Others say religion has a major role in their lives. Yet actual attendance on Saturday or Sunday is below 40 percent of the population. The holiest days still bring big crowds to church. Sunday was Easter and many occasional churchgoers dressed in spring finery to visit a place of worship. For some it was probably their only visit of the year. The polls tell us that more black Americans attend church than white Americans: 4 in 10 blacks, compared to fewer than 3 in 10 whites. Church attendance varies by region, too: the South has the most church-goers (38 percent of the population), followed by the East (34 percent), the Midwest (26 percent) and the West (19 percent). Several years ago I saw a poll that ranked states by church attendance. In that one, as I remember it, the state with the lowest percentage of people attending was Nevada. Next to last was Oregon. I haven't seen a similar breakdown lately. Are the figures in these polls to be believed? Last year, C. Kirk Hadaway and Penny Long Marler wrote an article for "Christian Century" in which they questioned the results of church attendance polls. Hadaway and Marler noted that people describe themselves as they would like to be when they talk to pollsters about their lives. For example, actual attendance at museums, symphonies and operas does not match survey results. And when people are asked how many times they dined at restaurants last week, or how frequently they have sex, or whether they voted in the last election, many report what they would like to do, or what they think someone like them ought to do. "It's no surprise," Hadaway and Marler concluded, "that people are not entirely accurate in other areas as well." They tried to verify surveys that reported church attendance has remained around 40 percent since the late 1960s. They went to Ashtabula County, Ohio, to measure Roman Catholic church attendance because an earlier poll had already measured attendance at Protestant churches. Their counts showed 24 percent of Catholics attended Mass during an average week. In a later poll of Ashtabula residents, 51 percent of Catholics said they attended church in the previous seven days. Follow-up questions designed to find out what people meant by "attending church" revealed that a few were counting things other than attending worship service. Some people were counting weddings, funerals, committee meetings, Sunday schools and choir practice as church attendance. One active Protestant church member told the authors that if the Gallup Poll called and asked about her church attendance, she would not consider her answer a lie. She said she typically did not go to church, but saying she went was a way of supporting her church. Many people seem unable to say that they did not attend church the previous week because that would identify them symbolically as non-church-goers. The authors concluded that "researchers who study how people answer behavioral questions represent more (or less) than `just the facts."' Polls can only report on how questions were answered. Finding the real answers is a different thing. (Hank Henry is a retired Jackson County commissioner and a former radio and television announcer. Call him at 772-9055.)>> mailtribune.com Karen