Sunday, January 23, 2005
Professed Christians vs. Professional Christians
I myself am not a Christian. I'm not really an atheist, either -- in part because the atheists can be just as messianically obnoxious as the worst of the alleged Christians. Besides, I do know a few genuine Christians out there. They are the sort who obey Jesus' injunction to pray in private, and not to do so publicly in a boastful manner. (Yeah, Jerry Falwell and SpongeDob StickyPants, I'm talkin' to you. Among others.) Mark Twain, who I gather had views roughly analogous to mine, wrote about the difference between "professing Christians" and "professional Christians". The professional Christians, alas, are in the ascendant now -- especially the particularly vile, half-bright, bigoted kind that Twain lampooned with such vicious accuracy in Huckleberry Finn. (That one book should be required reading for all Americans.) With all that as preface, here are some interesting poll findings concerning the "moral values" (i.e. bigoted Southern-Baptist/suburbanite white-flight) crowd:
Nonreligious Americans are less likely to divorce than any other belief group, according to a survey by Christian pollsters. The study, conducted by the Barna Research Group in late 1999, shows that one out of every four American adults has experienced at least one divorce. Among the characteristics that do not seem to be related to divorce are educational achievement, household income, and political ideology. But, to the surprise of the pollsters, Christians are more likely to divorce than unbelievers, and Baptists and born-again Christians experience more divorces than other Christians.Heh. I know a man who's the churchgoing son of a highly-"devout" Lutheran family who has missionaries for aunts and uncles. He's on his third marriage right now. He also likes to forward the most incredibly racist "jokes" in his e-mails. Of course, since this poll was done in 1999, the Fundies will blame it on Bill Clinton. (Who, by the way, is a Southern Baptist but has never been divorced, much less remarried.) But I digress:
Using statistics drawn from a nationwide survey of nearly 4000 adults, the data show that 27% of born-again Christians are currently or have previously been divorced, compared to 24% among adults who are not born-again. (Because of the large sample size involved, that difference is statistically significant.) The Christian denomination whose adherents have the highest likelihood of getting divorced are Baptists. Nationally, 29% of all Baptist adults have been divorced. The only Christian group to surpass that level are those associated with non-denominational Protestant churches: 34% of those adults have undergone a divorce. Of the nation's major Christian groups, Catholics and Lutherans have the lowest percentage of divorced individuals (21%). People who attend mainline Protestant churches, overall, experience divorce on par with the national average (25%). Among non-Christian groups the levels vary. Jews are among those most likely to divorce (30% have), while Mormons are no different than the national average (24%). Atheists and agnostics are significantly below the norm (21%).From the same poll: "Ninety-five cents of every dollar donated by evangelicals went to churches." Churches, not charities like OxFam or the IRC. Bear that in mind when conservatives talk about how "generous" they are.
More blogs about politics.
