Americans less dogmatic about religion than you might think

[nancylebov]

http://www.pewtrusts.org/news_room_detail.aspx?id=40664

From a big survey:

Although many Americans are highly religious, they are not dogmatic in their faith. Seventy percent of Americans with a religious affiliation say that many religions - not just their own - can lead to eternal life. Most also think there is more than one correct way to interpret the teachings of their own faith.

Almost two-fifths of Americans report meditating at least once a week. This practice is particularly common among Buddhists, but nearly half of evangelical Protestants and Muslims say they meditate at least weekly. About one-quarter of the unaffiliated report weekly meditation. These patterns may incorporate elements of both Christian and non-Christian traditions.

Comments

[bradhicks.livejournal.com]

They also turn out to almost entirely not be evangelicals. A couple of links I was saving for my own blog: Debra Dickerson, "The Myth of the Moral Majority," Mother Jones, May/June 2008, reviewing Christine Wicker, The Fall of the Evangelical Nation. Checked via several independent sources, it turns out that evangelical Americans who religiously agree with the Religious Right, and care about it enough to have attended any religious services at all recently, total not 100 million, not 30 million, but barely over 4 million: 1 out of every 75 or so Americans. All this fuss is over a highly vocal but very, very tiny minority.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

That's encouraging data, but the fact remains that regardless of their actual numbers, evangelical protesants have a huge voice in national politics. Also, if the recent data about 1 in 6 science teachers believing in Creationism and 1 in 3 Americans not believing in evolution, I'm not certain how much that actual number of true fundys matters.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

For what it's worth, I've heard there's a cycle. Evangelicals are apt to believe that politics is too corrupt for the godly, and then they try politics, and then yet another generation gives up on it.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

I vividly hope that this is happening now.

[dr-zrfq.livejournal.com]

evangelical Americans who religiously agree with the Religious Right, and care about it enough to have attended any religious services at all recently...

It is fairly clear from my own observations that this group, while never nearly as large as some in the media made it out to be, has been experiencing a significant decline in numbers. Whether this decline is due to the increasing stridency of the message of intoleration the fundies seem to preach, or to people drawing a mental connection between the fundies and the idiots in Washington ("Where are the clowns? Send in the clowns... don't bother; they're here."), or to something else entirely, I don't know.

Mind you, they are numerous and vocal enough to sway the opinions of many who are far less dogmatic... as long as the issue doesn't involve religion per se. (The fundies don't hold a monopoly on that. They are, however, the most obvious example right now. 35 years ago the picture was rather different, at least in some parts of the country.)

[gildedacorn.livejournal.com]

Where did they get the idea that Christians don't meditate in the first place?

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

Sorry no source, but I've seen something about some Christians believing that meditation is extremely dangerous-- clearing your mind is an invitation to devils. I have no idea whether any significant number of Christians believe this. There seem to be some who are very afraid of devils.

I thought meditation was exotic enough that I'm surprised it's so common in mainstream America, but anything 2/5 of Christians are doing has to be fairly mainstream.

[dcseain.livejournal.com]

Probably the same people that do not understand prayer as the form of meditation that it is.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

My take away from the NYT article that I saw data in was the Mormons are (as a whole) significantly scarier than I'd imagined, Protestants are about as scary and I thought, while Catholics are notably less so.