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New Site is up and Running
My new web site which now hosts my blog posts is up and fully functional. You can check it out at andylawrenson.com . There is also a ...
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I have been attending church my entire life (43 short years) and in all those years the churches I attended had baptism services seemed like...
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Our family has grown! Our baby twins were born on January 7th. We had literally 1 week to prepare. It has been a whirlwind of a couple of...
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Some other really interesting stats from Pew Forum (which I've noticed you posted a little about back in April):
Religious Attendance
* 43.7% of freshmen frequently attend religious services.
25.4% of juniors frequently attend religious services.
* 20.2% of freshmen never attend religious services.
37.5% of juniors never attend religious services.
Measures of Spirituality
* 48.7% of freshmen say “attaining inner harmony” is “very important” or “essential.”
62.7% of juniors say “attaining inner harmony” is “very important” or “essential.”
* 41.8% of freshmen say “integrating spirituality in my life” is “very important” or “essential.”
50.4% of juniors say “integrating spirituality in my life” is “very important” or “essential.”
* 62.8% of freshmen agree with the statement “most people can grow spiritually without being religious.”
74.8% of juniors agree with the statement “most people can grow spiritually without being religious.”
Growth Rates
(factors adults entering and leaving each group)
* +700%= Agnostic
* +220% = Atheist
* +75.0% = Buddhist
* +33.3% = Muslim
* +16.7% = Jehovah’s Witness
* 0.0% = Hindu
* -4.8% = Protestant
* -5.6% = Mormon
* -10.5% = Jewish
* -23.9% = Catholic
Interesting Trends
* Men are significantly more likely than women to claim no religious affiliation. Nearly one-in-five men say they have no formal religious affiliation, compared with roughly 13% of women.
* Among people who are married, nearly four-in-ten (37%) are married to a spouse with a different religious affiliation. (This figure includes Protestants who are married to another Protestant from a different denominational family, such as a Baptist who is married to a Methodist.) Hindus and Mormons are the most likely to be married (78% and 71%, respectively) and to be married to someone of the same religion (90% and 83%, respectively).
* Jehovah’s Witnesses have the lowest retention rate of any religious tradition. Only 37% of all those who say they were raised as Jehovah’s Witnesses still identify themselves as Jehovah’s Witnesses. [Note: They still have an overall +16.7% growth rate because of new converts.]
At our church we're dealing with "Hot Potato" issues on a Wednesday night. About 2 weeks ago, the hot potato was abortion. A gynaecologist stood up and told us that in Europe just by pure birth ratios of "Christian" vs. Muslim, Muslim will be the dominant religion in about 10 - 20 years.
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