From: Hermit (hidden@lucifer.com)
Date: Thu May 09 2002 - 03:06:30 MDT
Quarter of pew believers take God's word as gospel
Source: Sydney morning Herald (http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/05/06/1019441477510.html)
Authors: Kelly Burke (Religious Affairs Writer)
Dated: 2002-05-07
[ Hermit notes that the article below does not mention that the vast majority of Australians would rather not bother with church at all, and that the figures are carefully cited in an apparent attempt to seem to inflate the significance of churchgoers. Only 25% of them admit to attending church once or more times per month World Values Surveys 1998 Table 7 - Changes in Attendance at Religious Services (percentage attending religious services at least once a month) (http://www.umich.edu/~newsinfo/Releases/2000/Jan00/chrelig.html) (Summary at http://www.umich.edu/~newsinfo/Releases/2000/Jan00/r011100.html. To reflect that I have inserted a second figure, reflecting the percent in the population as a whole. Please note that this article is almost certainly easier to read on the BBS under "Upside down in Australia" at http://virus.lucifer.com/bbs/index.php?board=51. ]
God created the world in six days and the Antichrist is coming, say nearly one in four Australian church-going Christians. [<6%]
According to results released yesterday from the National Church Life Survey (NCLS), 24 per cent of those questioned believed that the Bible was the word of God and should be taken literally. [<6%]
The survey of 435,000 Australians from 19 big Christian denominations, conducted in the middle of last year, is considered the most comprehensive of its type in the world.
Surprisingly, the stronghold of fundamentalism - and specifically creationism - is youth. Nearly two-thirds of teenagers who attended church believe in creationism, according to an earlier NCLS report. [<16.5% of teen-agers - the largest group]
"The tendency has been for younger people not to go to church, so what's happening is that only those with conservative approaches to Christianity are staying in the churches," said Dr Philip Hughes, senior research officer with the independent Melbourne-based Christian Research Association.
Yet according to the latest NCLS findings, fewer than one in four young people aged between 15 and 18 who attended church felt "very satisfied" with the experience, and this level dropped even further for those aged 19 to 25. [<6%]
Such figures of doom, one would think, could hardly give cheer to those attending the release of the new survey.
However, there was some good news: 82 per cent of church-goers felt a close bond with their congregation [20.5%]; 74 per cent had experienced God's presence in church [18.5%]; and more than 60 per cent believed their parish was always willing to try something new. [15%]
Paradoxically, though, while 85 per cent [21%]felt their faith had grown in the year to mid-2001, only one in five credited this to their local church [5%].
And according to separate findings by the Christian Research Association, most believers felt their faith was more likely to be strengthened through closer relationships with family and friends - or by getting closer to nature - than attending church on Sunday. [>12.75%]
Rod Bullpitt, one of the survey's co-ordinators, suggested that God continued to work in mysterious ways and that, overall, the survey's results showed churches had established strong foundations to build on.
However, Dr Hughes appeared less optimistic.
"I'm not sure that overall it's all that encouraging ... but the downward trend is not as downward as I was expecting," he said. [A 15% drop in attendance from 40% to 25% of the population since 1981]
"There are some positive notes, so you could say the church is evolving ... we're just not sure exactly what it's evolving to."
---- This message was posted by Hermit to the Virus 2002 board on Church of Virus BBS. <http://virus.lucifer.com/bbs/index.php?board=51;action=display;threadid=25473>
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