Survey: Barna releases year-end observations for 2009

CA – The Barna Group has just released four themes they see from their research in 2009.  Barna Research Group was founded by George and Nancy Barna in 1984. As a marketing research firm, it primarily served Christian ministries, non-profit organizations and various media and financial corporations. During its quarter century of service, TBG has carefully and strategically tracked the role of faith in America, developing the nation’s most comprehensive database on spiritual indicators.

Theme 1: Increasingly, Americans are more interested in faith and spirituality than in Christianity.
“Faith remains a hot topic in America these days,” George Barna commented, expanding on the theme. “Politicians, athletes, cultural philosophers, teachers, entertainers, musicians – nearly everyone has something to say about faith, religion, spirituality, morality, and belief these days. But as the fundamental values and assumptions of our nation continue to shift, so do our ideas about faith and spirituality. Many of our basic assumptions are no longer firm or predictable.

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“Our studies consistently demonstrate – as explained in unChristian, the book by my colleague, David Kinnaman – that being a Christian or associating with the Christian faith is not as attractive to Americans as it used to be…

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Some of the related survey results Barna cited from this year’s studies included:

• Just 50% of adults contend that Christianity is still the automatic faith of choice in the US
• Nearly nine out of every ten adults (88%) agreed either strongly or somewhat that their religious faith is very important in their life
• 74% said their faith is becoming more important in their life
• Substantive awareness of other faith groups is minimal; even simple name awareness of some groups, such as Wicca, is tiny (only 45% have heard of Wicca)
• Most self-identified Christians are comfortable with the idea that the Bible and the sacred books from non-Christian religions all teach the same truths and principles
• Half of all adults (50%) argue that a growing number of people they know are tired of having the same church experience

Theme 2: Faith in the American context is now individual and customized. Americans are comfortable with an altered spiritual experience as long as they can participate in the shaping of that faith experience.

“Now that we are comfortable with the idea of being spiritual as opposed to devoutly Christian,” Barna pointed out, “Americans typically draw from a broad treasury of moral, spiritual and ethical sources of thought to concoct a uniquely personal brand of faith. Feeling freed from the boundaries established by the Christian faith, and immersed in a postmodern society which revels in participation, personal expression, satisfying relationships, and authentic experiences, we become our own unchallenged spiritual authorities, defining truth and reality as we see fit.”

Some of the survey findings that related to this theme included:

• About half of all adults (45%) say they are willing to try a new church or even a new form of church
• 71% say they will develop their own slate of religious beliefs rather than accept a package of beliefs promoted by a church or denomination
• Barely one-third of self-identified Christians (36%) strongly agree that it is important for followers of Christ to maintain positive relationships with people who are not Christians
• Two-thirds of adults (64%) are willing to experience and express their faith in new or different environments or structures than they have in the past
• Only one-third (34%) believe in absolute moral truth

Theme 3: Biblical literacy is neither a current reality nor a goal in the U.S.

Barna’s findings related to Bible knowledge and application indicate that little progress, if any, is being made toward assisting people to become more biblically literate.

“Bible reading has become the religious equivalent of sound-bite journalism. When people read from the Bible they typically open it, read a brief passage without much regard for the context, and consider the primary thought or feeling that the passage provided. If they are comfortable with it, they accept it; otherwise, they deem it interesting but irrelevant to their life, and move on. There is shockingly little growth evident in people’s understanding of the fundamental themes of the scriptures and amazingly little interest in deepening their knowledge and application of biblical principles.

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Some of the survey-based results that led Barna to his conclusions included the following:

• Less than one out of every five born again adults (19%) has a biblical worldview, which is unchanged in the past 15 years
• Just half of all self-identified Christians firmly believe that the Bible is totally accurate in all of the principles (not the facts, just the principles) that it teaches
• Barely one-quarter of adults (27%) are confident that Satan exists
• An overwhelming majority of self-identified Christians (81%) contend that spiritual maturity is achieved by following the rules in the Bible

Theme 4: Effective and periodic measurement of spirituality – conducted personally or through a church – is not common at this time and it is not likely to become common in the near future.

“There are two levels on which evaluation of where we stand spiritually can take place,” noted the California-based author. “There can be external measurement, such as that conducted by pastors, teachers, coaches or peers, and there can be self-evaluation. At the moment, we’re seeing very little of either form of review related to a person’s spiritual condition.

“Not surprisingly,” he continued, “our research found that a majority of churchgoing adults are uncertain as to what their church would define as a ‘healthy, spiritually mature follower of Christ’ and they were no more likely to have personally developed a clear notion of such a life.

“It may well be that spiritual evaluation is so uncommon because people fear that the results might suggest the need for different growth strategies or for more aggressive engagement in the growth process. No matter what the underlying reason is, the bottom line among both the clergy and laity was indifference toward their acknowledged lack of evaluation. That suggests there is not likely to be much change in this dimension in the immediate future. In other words, as we examine the discipleship landscape, what we see is what we get – and what we will keep getting for some time.”

(Source: The Barna Group – The Barna Group (which includes its research division, Barna Research Group) was started in 1984 by George Barna. It is a private, non-partisan, for-profit organization that conducts primary research on a wide range of issues and products, produces resources pertaining to cultural change, leadership and spiritual development, and facilitates the healthy spiritual growth of leaders, children, families and Christian ministries. Located in Ventura, California, Barna conducts and analyzes primary research to understand cultural trends related to values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors. If you would like to receive free e-mail notification of the release of each new, bi-monthly update on the latest research findings from The Barna Group, you may subscribe to this free service at the Barna website (www.barna.org). Additional research-based resources, both free and at discounted prices, are also available through that website.)

Study: The State of religion…

WASHINGTON - Mississippi is the America’s most religious state, according to a Pew Forum study on the levels of devotion in America, which asked respondents whether religion is important in their lives. Eighty-two percent of Mississipians said ‘yes’ compared to 47% of Wisconsinites. The combined populations of New Hampshire/Vermont ranked last in the survey.

“That is not too surprising,” said William F. Lawhead, chairman of the religion and philosophy department at the University of Mississippi. “This is the Bible Belt. We are primarily made up of small towns . . . so most of the people are homegrown.”

The state is overwhelmingly Christian, he added, although an influx of Vietnamese immigrants who are involved in the state’s coastal fishing industry has brought in Buddhist adherents.

Alabama and Arkansas (both at 74 percent), Louisiana (72 percent), Tennessee (71 percent) and South Carolina (70 percent) follow. Noted among the least-religious with New Hampshire and Vermont are Alaska (37 percent) and Massachusetts (40 percent), which confirms other recent surveys that say New England is the “new Northwest” in terms of unchurched multitudes.

The Pacific Northwest used to be the country’s least-churched sector, but Oregon (seventh from the bottom at 46 percent) and Washington (11th from the bottom at 48 percent), have risen in the rankings.

The poll was released Monday (Dec 21, 2009) with data drawn from the Forum’s 2007 U.S. Religious Landscape Survey of 35,556 U.S. residents. It has an error margin of 0.6 percent.

The Survey

Respondents were asked four questions about:

1.  the importance of religion in their lives
2. their frequency of attendance at worship services
3. frequency of daily prayer
4. and absolute certainty of belief in God.

Mississippi polled highest on all four questions.  On the attendance question, 33% of Wisconsinites stated that they attend religious services weekly.   Mississippians polled at 60 percent.  Heavily Mormon Utah (57 percent) placed second with South Carolina (54 percent) rounding the top three.

Alaska is at the bottom of this list, with only 22 percent of respondents saying they attend weekly. New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine polled next highest at 23 percent.

Ed Vatagliano, research director for the American Family Association in Tupelo, pointed out that Mississippi’s 3 million residents are more likely to have been raised in church.  “Part of it is tradition,” he said. “My kids and all their friends are in church on Sunday. That’s the expectation. If you are a politician down here, you’re expected to have a church track record.”

On the question about frequency of daily prayer, Wisconsin ranked 38th with 49% indicating tha they pray at least once daily.  Mississippi occupied the top spot at 77 percent, followed by Louisiana at 76 percent and Alabama at 73 percent. Maine, at 40 percent, occupied the lowest rung, followed by Massachusetts and Alaska, each at 41 percent.

The fourth question, measuring percentage of those who believe in God, had Wisconsin at 34 with 68% answering ‘yes’ when asked whether they had absolute certainty in their beliefe in God.  Mississipians again ranked at the top at 91 percent, followed by South Carolina and Alabama at 86 percent. States with the lowest belief in God are New Hampshire and Vermont at 54 percent and Connecticut and Rhode Island at 57 percent.

For more details and information on this survey and the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life, visit http://pewforum.org/docs/?DocID=504.

(Soource: Pew Reserach Center)

STUDY: Prayer boosts forgiveness

CANADA - The power of prayer has long been controversial, but a new study in a leading psychological journal finds some of the first scientific evidence that it truly works – at least on the person doing the praying.

Christian Courier e-Paper breaks 400,000 monthly readers

Jun 2009	216109
Jul 2009	338618
Aug 2009	360757
Sep 2009	382905
Oct 2009	477777

The primary mission of the Christian Courier is to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ and to cover those events which demonstrate the unity we share in Him as believers upon His work at Calvary.

(Source and statistics provided by Sagacity LLC)

Survey: Female pastors double over past decade

USA — The Barna Group, a Christian research organization, found that there are twice as many female senior pastors as a decade ago, jumping from 5 percent to 10 percent.  A little more than 600 pastors were surveyed, matching the sample size of an identical study done in 1999.

Fifty-eight percent of women in the overall pastorate belong to mainline Protestant denominations such as the United Church of Christ, the United Methodist Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

Survey: Eternal bliss more persuasive than fire/brimstone

CANADA – Fire and brimstone may spice up doomsday prophecies, but a new study shows most people prefer to look on the bright side of afterlife.

When both heaven and hell are considered valid final destinations, researchers find the notion of eternal bliss is three times more powerful than that of eternal damnation in shaping church attendance and frequency of prayer.

The 32-country study of some 35,000 people  concludes that in the presence of the “largest possible stakes,” rewards are more persuasive than punishments.

“Fear as a motivator isn’t just religious; politicians, even in our own country, will use it to divide and manipulate by appealing to baser instincts,” says Rev. Kevin Flynn, a professor of theology at Saint Paul University in Ottawa’ Canada. “But this study suggests that over the long term, it’s the positive that’s going to offer more sustainable motivation.”

In a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, researchers from Spain’s University of Granada and Israel’s Bar-Ilan University report that belief in heaven and hell significantly increases church attendance and prayer habits, while disbelief has the opposite effect.

But the “carrot” of heaven had triple the effect on these behaviours than the “stick” of hell, with men’s religious practices more sharply affected by afterlife incentives than those of women.

The fundamental findings were consistent across the study’s more than one dozen faiths.

Experts such as Flynn believe the similarities make sense in because of shared core values.

“I’ll sometimes run into the hellfire-and-brimstone preachers on street corners who are trying to motivate passersby, scaring them into the kingdom,” says Flynn. “But in the end, both the source and the goal of human life is love, which is why I think people respond to it more wholeheartedly than fear.”

Rev. Gary Paterson, a minister at St. Andrew’s-Wesley United Church in Vancouver, suggests the effect works for the same reason positive reinforcement trumps the rod when parenting.

“Fear and guilt work in the short-term; you can often get big results when people are scared,” says Paterson. “But the image of bliss has so much more drawing power over the long haul.

In a nationwide survey of 1,000 adults, polling firm Ipsos-Reid this year found roughly half of Canadians believe in afterlife: 21 per cent in heaven and hell; 20 per cent in an afterlife that isn’t specifically heaven or hell; and seven per cent only in heaven.

(Source: Canwest  News Service)

Barna study: Evangelical Christianity spreading among Hispanics

NASHVILLE –The Hispanic population, the largest ethnic group in the United States, rapidly has been adopting the mainstream beliefs and practices of all Americans, according to a study by The Barna Group.

The study, released July 6, compared the faith of Hispanics today to their faith profile of 15 years ago and found 11 faith dimensions on which there had been substantial change.

Barna found that Hispanics’ alignment with the Catholic Church was down by 25 percentage points, and Hispanics who believe a good person can earn his way into heaven was down 9 percentage points.

Being a born-again Christian by Barna’s definition was up 17 percentage points among Hispanics, and having made a personal commitment to Jesus that is important in their lives was up 15 percentage points.

Church attendance among Hispanics in an average week had increased 10 percentage points, Barna said, and reading the Bible during a typical week was up 5 percentage points.

Hispanics who were surveyed also were more likely to claim to have a personal responsibility to share their religious beliefs with others (up 10 percentage points), believe that God is the all-powerful, all-knowing creator of the universe who still rules the world today (up 8 points), and believe that the Bible is accurate in all of the principles it teaches (up 6 points) when compared to those surveyed 15 years ago.

The survey also said the number of Hispanics attending a church of 500 or more people was down 6 percentage points.

“The influence of a dominant culture and its traditions has a powerful effect on people’s lives,” George Barna said. “While Hispanics have indisputably influenced American culture, these figures remind us that such transformation is a two-way street.”

Barna said the study reveals how significant faith is in the lives of Hispanics.

“Not only do most of them assert that importance, but the fact that so much is changing in their faith perspectives and practices underscores how much energy they devote to their spirituality,” he said.

“… You cannot help but notice the changing relationship between Hispanics and the Catholic church. While many Hispanic immigrants come to the United States with ties to Catholicism, the research shows that many of them eventually connect with a Protestant church. Even more significant is the departure of many second and third generation Hispanics from their Catholic tradition,” Barna said.

In the same study, The Barna Group compared the faith practices and beliefs of Hispanics with that of the total adult population and found few significant differences. Gaps were found in only a handful of areas:

– Hispanics remained somewhat more likely to believe that a good person can earn his way into heaven, researchers found.

– Americans, overall, were significantly more likely to claim that they are “absolutely committed” to Christianity.

– Hispanics were twice as likely as the total adult population to be aligned with the Catholic Church. Barna said 22 percent of the total population and 44 percent of the Hispanic population in America associate with the Catholic Church.

– Americans at large were slightly more likely to be born-again Christians based on their theological views rather than self-identification, Barna determined.

When Barna compared born-again Hispanics to the nation’s born-again population at large, researchers found relatively few differences between the two groups.

Among the differences, Hispanics were more likely to believe that even though their salvation was based on accepting Christ, it was also possible for a person to earn a spot in heaven though good behavior.

Hispanics who were born again were more likely than all born-again Americans to say they had been significantly transformed by their faith, Barna said.

The study compared national norms, revealing that Hispanics were somewhat less likely to describe themselves as “mostly conservative” on political and social issues yet were not more likely to say they were “mostly liberal.” The Hispanics surveyed gravitated toward a middle-of-the-road ideological stance on social and political issues, Barna said.

To conduct the survey, The Barna Group interviewed more than 9,200 people by phone in 2007-08 and asked if they considered themselves to be Hispanic. Nearly 1,200 adults fit in the Hispanic category, Barna said.

(Source: Baptist Press)