Monday, July 23, 2007

Just How Deep Does Christianity Run In America?

The waters of American Christianity might not run as deep as one is sometimes led to believe.

In a poll by the Barna Group, 83% of Americans identified themselves as Christians, but only 49% said they were absolutely committed to Christianity. Based on that and other results from the study, David Kinnaman, president of the Group, concluded, "Most Americans do not have strong and clear beliefs [because] they lack a consistent and holistic understanding of their faith.”

I've long suspected something like that might be the case. The country's noisiest Evangelicals and Fundamentalists have significantly large followings, but their messages are not so much spiritual as political. Real "God fever" doesn't seem to exist nearly as much as, say, the politics of opposing gay marriage on nominal religious grounds.

It seems to me the more you politicalize religion, the less the followers of it feel the spirit, so to speak.

3 comments:

B said...

Skin deep.

george.w said...

"Skin deep" - not bad since the skin is the largest organ in the body and plays a fundamental role in protecting against disease, and even turns sunlight into a vitamin. Besides, it's Nude Blogging Day, and you can't blog nude without skin. ;-)

/topic drift

The Dalai Lama said something like "most people are really not so concerned" with religion, and that was "as it should be." I guess he figured they'd make deeper commitments when it was time for them to.

B said...

"plays a fundamental role in protecting against disease"

But then, ringworm is also skin deep.