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More Americans switching cornerstones

03 May 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

While today’s psalm speaks of how the “stone rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone,” when it comes to their faith Americans tend not to completely reject cornerstones but simply drift from one to another. According to the results of a survey released Monday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, researchers found that almost three-quarters of Catholics and Protestants who have become unaffiliated with a religion said they had “just gradually drifted away” from their faith. The same number of Catholics and half of Protestants currently unassociated with a faith said that over time they stopped believing in their religion’s teachings. Pew Forum senior fellow John C. Green said that result surprised researchers, who had expected policy disputes or disillusionment over internal scandals--such as the clergy sex-abuse crisis in the Catholic Church--to play more of a role in people’s decision to leave a faith. Among former Catholics who became Protestants, one in five cited the sex-abuse scandal as one of several reasons why they had left the church. But only a small percentage--2 to 3 percent--cited it as the lone reason. “It suggests that what leads people to leave their faith is that, somehow for some reason, it isn’t meeting their needs . . . . Religion becomes less plausible to the person,” Green said. Researchers interviewed non-Christians but focused their analysis on Christians, which provided them with large enough groups to permit close scrutiny, said Pew research fellow Gregory A. Smith. Researchers discovered that the “churn” between denominations among the faithful and formerly faithful was 56 percent. They also found that up to one-third of people who have left their childhood faith have jumped around among three or more other faiths. At the same time, the large and growing number of people who report having no religious affiliation are surprisingly open to religion, researchers said. Contrary to the popular perception that many have embraced secularism, a significant percentage appeared simply to have put their religiosity on pause, having worshiped as part of at least one faith already, and about 3 in 10 said they have not yet found the right religion. “We tend to think that when people leave [religion] they leave,” said Stephen Prothero, chairman of the religion department at Boston University. “But a lot of these unaffiliated are unaffiliated for now.” Source: An article by Jacqueline Salmon for the Washington Post.

religion united states stephen prothero gregory a smith john c green surveys pew forum on religion public life
More (spiritual) is less (religious)

01 Nov 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

In the reading from Revelation this Sunday heavenly beings gather around the divine throne and worship God. While the number of Americans who are praying is increasing, more of them say they have no formal religious affiliation, a survey of religious trends has found. The twin trends suggest a growing number of people are "spiritual but not religious," said study author Tom W. Smith, director of the General Social Survey at the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago. "Americans' attitudes toward religion are growing more complex," Smith said. While fewer people identify with a particular religion, belief in God remains high. "When asked simply about belief in God, most people include a range of God images, from a personal God to believing in a 'higher power' or a 'spirit or life force,' " he said. Although belief in God remains strong, the survey found that 22 percent of people said they had never attended a religious service, compared with 9 percent in 1972. In the most recent survey, 16 percent of people reported "none" when asked about their religious preference, a figure that stood at 5 to 8 percent in surveys taken between 1972 and 1991. "The number of people identifying as 'spiritual but not religious' has been growing perhaps for three decades. This of course has implications for traditional religious institutions, which may feel pressure to revitalize or altogether repackage their spiritual offerings," said Omar M. McRoberts, associate professor of sociology at the University of Chicago and cochair of the Working Group on Spirituality, Political Engagement, and Public Life at the Social Science Research Council. Source: University of Chicago News Office, via Newswise.com

god religious affiliation spiritual religious tom w smith general social survey omar m mcroberts university of chicago surveys belief Prayer religion americans
Not your father’s generation of Catholics

21 Feb 2010 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Saint Paul’s assertion in the Letter to the Romans that “there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all” was controversial at the time. A new survey designed to measure attitudes of “Catholic millennials” (American Catholics under 30) reveals that they hold some rather controversial positions. For instance, 61 percent said they believe it is OK for Catholics to practice more than one religion. Catholics under 30 share the commitment of older generations to philanthropy and volunteerism, the survey commissioned by the Knights of Columbus said, but are more likely to believe that morals “are relative.” The survey, conducted by the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion in Poughkeepsie, New York, asked a wide range of questions about ideology, religious practices and beliefs, and life goals and feelings about the nation’s future. Researchers compared the answers across generations and among Catholics at large, practicing Catholics who attend services at least once a month, and Americans in general. When asked to choose among five long-term life goals, 31 percent of millennials chose “to be spiritual or close to God” as their top goal, the highest among any generation. Sixty-seven percent of all millennials and 71 percent of Catholic millennials said they had volunteered their time in the past 12 months, roughly equal to the percentages among other generations. A majority of Catholic millennials had donated money to a charity in the past year, and 65 percent were very or somewhat interested in learning more about their faith. But the survey also found a surprising 82 percent of Catholic millennials agreed with the statement that “morals are relative; that is, there is no definite right or wrong for everybody.” And only 25 percent of Catholic millennials said they attended religious services at least once a month. An article by Nancy Frazier O’Brien for Catholic News Service

catholics surveys catholic millennials
Hispanics lag in Internet usage

27 Feb 2011 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The psalmist has great confidence, speaking this Sunday of God as “the rock of my strength; my refuge.” In a new survey, Hispanics express a lack of confidence in their Internet abilities, which could set back the nation’s fastest-growing ethnic group as more employment, educational, and health-care opportunities migrate online. Hispanics are less connected to the Internet than whites and blacks, using websites less frequently and expressing more discomfort with computers and technology in the workplace, according to the Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation-Harvard University survey. Only 72 percent of Hispanics say they use the Internet, lower than the percentages of whites and African Americans, while 57 percent of Hispanics say they don't have enough knowledge about computers and technology to be competitive in the current job environment. Language is a factor. Among Hispanics who were interviewed in English, 88 percent said they use the Internet or email at least occasionally. That figure falls to barely more than half--53 percent--among those who chose to take the poll in Spanish. The trends, however, may be changing across generational lines. Among Hispanics age 18 to 34, 87 percent are online compared with 37 percent for those ages 60 and up. Source: An article by Cecilia Kang and Krissah Thompson for the Washington Post

internet surveys hispanics
Journalists need to study, religiously

29 Apr 2012 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The author of this Sunday’s second reading explains to “the children of God” that “the world does not know us” because it does not really know God. Perhaps the news media is partially to blame. A majority of both the public and reporters agree the media “does a poor job of explaining religion in society,” and two-thirds of the public says religion coverage is too sensationalized, a new survey reveals.Fewer than 20 percent of journalists surveyed said they are “very knowledgeable” about religion, and most reporters with that level of knowledge say they are mainly familiar with their own religious traditions, not the wider array of faiths and practices found in society.The results came from a first-of-its-kind survey of both reporters and the audiences they serve by the Knight Program in Media and Religion at the University of Southern California and the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron.“News organizations are rightly worried about creating smart business plans and developing cutting-edge technology. But they’re overlooking their most basic resource: knowledgeable reporters,” said Diane Winston, Knight Chair in Media and Religion at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. “News consumers want more reporting on authentic religious experience and a lot less on polarizing religious politics. But reporters can’t do that if all they know about religion is what they hear in church or—ironically—what they read in the news.” Source: A news release from USC Annenberg News

religion surveys journalists reporters diane winston
Clergy believe revisions to Roman Missal fall short

26 May 2013 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Wisdom has been God’s “delight day by day” since it was established, the Sunday reading from the Book of Proverbs tells us. More than a year after revisions to the prayers and rubrics of the Catholic Mass were established, Catholic clergy are not quite as delighted, according to a new survey.In a poll from St. John’s University School of Theology, nearly 60 percent of priests surveyed said they did not like the new Roman Missal. One-third of priests (34 percent) strongly disagree that the new translation of the Mass is an improvement and 80 percent say that some of the language is “awkward and distracting."The new translation, which went into effect in the nearly 18,000 parishes in the U.S. in November 2011, was years in the making but took longer than expected when, critics say, the process was taken over by Vatican-backed conservatives who wanted to make the language sound more like literal translations of the original Latin.That resulted in formulations that supporters said were more authentic and expressed a grandeur and mystery appropriate for the sacred rites. Critics said the new phrasings are stilted and often incomprehensible. One reason that priests seem to take a dimmer view of the new translation than the laity in surveys could be that priests have to use it every day and have many more passages to recite than lay people. They paid closer attention to the translation process, which may explain why many of them said they were just as upset with the way the revision was undertaken and implemented as they were with the end result. More than six in 10 of the priests surveyed said they wanted a revision of the revisions, and they are not the only ones. “While we don’t want to ‘throw the baby out with the bathwater,’ the new missal needs corrective surgery and this should take place without delay,” Bishop Robert Brom of San Diego said.Homily hint: How have the revisions to the Roman Missal been accepted in your own faith community? Perhaps they offer an opportunity for some education on the history, form, and function of the liturgical celebration of the Mass. To examine the survey report in detail, see the Executive Summary of the 2013 Survey of U.S. Priests on the New Roman Missal. Source: An article by David Gibson for Religion News Service

priests surveys roman missal robert brom st john’s university school of theology mass translation