Americans are More Religious than Previously Thought
September 11, 2006, 10:54 am
Posted by Cathleen Kaveny
See this article in USA TODAY.
What struck me is the dominant image of God: just, but not merciful, it seems.
What strikes me is that the people who are willing to answer question in surveys of this kind seem to be more confused than I would like to think people who are unwilling to participate are. I would like to know how many of those offered an opportunity to respond refused to do so.
People who take polls about Americans’ religious beliefs are people who clearly have too much time on their hands. What exactly are we all supposed to glean from these polls? That Americans are very religious? Duh. That Americans have differing views of God, many of which reflect no great theological sophistication? Will Herberg, in Protestant, Catholic, Jew, has been there and done that. Can’t the folks at Baylor and Gallup think of anything better to do than perform well-funded studies of the obvious?
Re the response rate, page 53 of the report states: “Of the 3,702 potential respondents contacted, 1,721 returned completed surveys, for an overall participation rate of 46.5%,” a respectable rate as surveys of this type go. The complete study can be found at: http://www.baylor.edu/content/services/document.php/33304.pdf
There are a couple of anomalies I noticed. Table 1 on page 13 shows that only 10.1% of respondents aged 18 to 30 are Catholic vs. 21.2% in all age groups, either the result of sampling error or evidence of a fairly substantial decline in the Catholic affiliation of younger respondents. Unaffiliated and Evangelical Protestants are over-represented in this age group. In a similar vein this table shows that 23.8% of males are Catholic vs.18.9% of females, a surprising discrepancy.
The study highlights an interesting pattern that confirms the conclusions of several other studies:
“Biblical literalism and religious service attendance are better predictors of political opinions than are Mainline Protestant or Catholic religious traditions.” Page 26 and Table 6.
Thanks Patrick! My faith, or at least hope, in the intelligence of the majority of the public is somewhat strengthened.