Well fancy that!
February 26, 2010
The Knights of St Columbus, a Catholic organisation, have just released the results of a survey of young Americans. The good news is that 85% of young Catholics believe in God, which, in terms of the proportion of reality to the ideal, brought to mind memories of the great Meatloaf song, `Two out of three ain't bad.' The survey also reveals distinct and entirely unsurprising shifts in attitudes to moral issues among both the general American population and Catholics. These are helpfully highlighted by a useful article in the National Catholic Reporter by Kate Childs Graham.
It is easy to smirk (as I am doing) at statistics that show only 85% of people committed to a certain faith which believes in God do actually believe that such a God exists; but I wonder if the real statistics even in confessional churches are actually that much better. It is almost impossible for a European to understand that churchgoing in America, even in a confessional context, can bring its own wider social kudos and, of course, psychological comfort of being in a community. It's one of the reasons why megachurches in the confessional fold struggle to plant congregations and often opt for the crypto-epsicopalian multi-campus, one whale of a big personality preacher model: people like the status of being where the action is, the big budgets are, and the head honcho puts in a regular appearance so that they can get a piece of the magic. Ask them to move to the suburb of Nowheresville with the Rev.Whohe Nobodaddy, and it's amazing how few people a 2 500 strong congregation feels able to spare. And this raises the question: how much of our Protestant church commitment arises out of real belief in the gospel? And how much of it from the collateral benefits of being in a large community? Not so much belonging before believing; more like belonging instead of believing.
It is easy to smirk (as I am doing) at statistics that show only 85% of people committed to a certain faith which believes in God do actually believe that such a God exists; but I wonder if the real statistics even in confessional churches are actually that much better. It is almost impossible for a European to understand that churchgoing in America, even in a confessional context, can bring its own wider social kudos and, of course, psychological comfort of being in a community. It's one of the reasons why megachurches in the confessional fold struggle to plant congregations and often opt for the crypto-epsicopalian multi-campus, one whale of a big personality preacher model: people like the status of being where the action is, the big budgets are, and the head honcho puts in a regular appearance so that they can get a piece of the magic. Ask them to move to the suburb of Nowheresville with the Rev.Whohe Nobodaddy, and it's amazing how few people a 2 500 strong congregation feels able to spare. And this raises the question: how much of our Protestant church commitment arises out of real belief in the gospel? And how much of it from the collateral benefits of being in a large community? Not so much belonging before believing; more like belonging instead of believing.
