Americans Have Lost Faith In Religious Leaders And Church Attendance, New Book Says

[trotsky]

When surveyed, almost all Americans say they believe in God, a majority say they pray and more than a third say they go to religious services every week.

But in a new book on religious trends in the United States, a Duke University professor says this picture of an unflinchingly faithful America is not quite accurate. At least when it comes to traditional religious practices, Americans' belief has faded in recent decades, says professor Mark Chaves.

...

Perhaps more striking is the evidence that many Americans exaggerate their church attendance. About 35 to 40 percent claim to attend church, but only 25 percent actually do. That's based on comparisons between the General Social Survey and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' American Time Use Survey, which ask, respectively, what Americans generally spend their time doing and what Americans actually spent their time doing on a specific day.

...

“Several decades ago there was not a strong correlation between how religiously active you were and whether you voted Republican or Democrat,” Chaves says. “Now, there is. If you’re religiously active, you’re now more likely to vote Republican.”

Source: HuffPo

[WhiteTara]

1. Again, proving that Democrats are smarter

than Republicans. If you know that your "pastor" is a fraud, then you pretty much figure the whole game is a fraud too. Repubs don't really ever think, but like lemmings they follow the leader no matter where it leads.

[get the red out]

2. Churches are big businesses

Republicans like big businesses. They also like strict controls on people, churches try to create those.

[atreides1]

3. Martin Luther wasted his time

Caused a schism in the church so that people would be able to read the Bible without someone else telling them what to believe. And it was all a wasted effort, because if it had worked then con men like Pat Robertson would be managing a 7-11.

Just goes to show that some people willingly give up their "God" given rights without question!

[_ed_]

4. This shouldn't be a surprise

Religion requires you to believe fantastic things without a whiff of evidence. This is the Republican party playbook: they never need evidence for their claims that global warming is fake, that tax cuts create jobs, that markets work better free of regulation, that evolution is fake, etc.

If you're willing to "believe" things with no evidence, you fall right into conservative politics.

[Kurmudgeon]

5. Don't need a church or a congragation, just faith in Christ's Word.

[trotsky]

6. Which word(s) would that be?

Which translation?

Which version?

Which compilation?

[_ed_]

7. Like Luke 19:27?

"But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them--bring them here and kill them in front of me.'"

Some Prince of Peace you guys have...