Parade magazine (that thing that comes in the paper) recently had a poll about spirituality in America. I thought the results were interesting:
On the positive side
- 67% of Americans believe in God
- 77% pray
Perhaps not so positive
- 50% of respondents never attend worship services
- 49% would not call themselves religious
40% of the poll respondents said that religion "is a source of truth", religion was not defined and 27% of respondents said they didn't practice religion of any kind.
Polls are always interesting and should be viewed with healthy skepticism, however, polls like this continue to confirm some truths about American spirituality.
America has been and likely will always have religion and spirituality as a fundamental part of our fabric (no amount of liberal, historic revisionism can remove it from our history.) However, we would be amiss to claim that fundamental Christianity has exclusive rights in the spiritual department. Intertwined in America's ethos is an independent, smorgasbord view on spirituality...we like to pick and choose what religion means to us (check out what Thomas Jefferson did with his Bible!)
Polls like this confirm that current trends continue to support the idea that while most Americans believe in God, prayer, religion, and spirituality...those concepts are very personally defined and often fluid.
This should challenge us to redefine how we seek to encourage spiritual growth and discipleship.
You can read more here, see the poll here, and take the poll here.
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