What Americans Really Believe

1. Church-Going: Labels Matter

17 church-going Labels Matter 1 I n recent years there have been a number of attempts made to minimize the actual rate of church attendance in America, some of them remarkably impassioned (one of the more prominent proponents of this claim actually broke into sobs when his views were questioned at an academic meeting). No one disputes that a significant number of Americans who tell pollsters that they go to church every Sunday, probably only go most Sundays and therefore that the consistent finding that about 35 percent are in church any given Sunday is a bit high. Of course, those determined to “prove” that America isn’t really as religious as it is made out to be and that faith is rapidly fading away are given to even greater exaggerations than the public when they suggest that the true rate of church attendance is well below 20 percent.1 More careful studies by more qualified researchers suggest that the overstatement of church attendance is quite small, being only about 1.1 times the actual rate of attendance, so the average rate probably is around 31 or 32 percent.2 Of course, as has been well documented, attendance varies by the weather and the season.3 In addition to claims that church attendance “really” is low and declining, many are the claims and tacit assumptions Stark Americans final.indd 17 9/9/08 10:06:28 AM 18 / Church-going Table 7 Income, Education, and Church Attendance Annual family income Attend weekly $20,000 or less 38% $20,000 to $50,000 36% $50,000 to $100,000 39% $100,000 to $150,000 38% Over $150,000 31% Education High school or less 40% Attended college 38% College graduate 37% Postgraduate 39% that, of course, intelligent, well-educated, affluent folks seldom attend—that the folks in the pews on Sunday overwhelmingly are poor, uneducated failures. That’s easy to check out. So much for these myths. As we see in Table 7 income has no apparent impact on church attendance, with the possible exception that those with incomes over $150,000 are a bit less likely to attend. As for education, there is no effect at all: those with postgraduate training are as likely to attend church as are those whose education ended at high school or sooner. While it is true that more conservative denominations generate high rates of weekly attendance, the differences are not huge—most groups have quite good levels of attendance, as Table 8 indicates. What else influences attendance? • Gender: Women (44%) attend more than do men (32%). • Race: African Americans (46%) attend at a higher rate than whites (37%). • Marital Status: Widows (who mostly are older women) are the best attenders (53%), followed by married people (44%), while the Stark Americans final.indd 18 9/9/08 10:06:28 AM Labels Matter / 19 Table 8 Denomination and Church Attendance Attend weekly Unitarian 7% United Church of Christ 27% Lutheran 32% Methodist 36% Episcopalian 41% Presbyterian 46% All Liberal Protestants 36% Pentecostal 48% Baptist 53% Assemblies of God 61% All Conservative Protestants 54% Roman Catholic 41% Latter-day Saints (Mormon) 85% Jewish 13% divorced (21%) and those living together, but unmarried (10%), have the lowest level of attendance. • Age: As noted in the introduction, people under 30 are most likely to never attend, but they are not less likely to attend weekly. Only people over 60 differ in terms of their frequency of attendance —48 percent attend weekly. • Politics: Those who voted for George W. Bush in 2004 are far more likely (49%) to attend weekly than are Kerry voters (27%) or those who favored Ralph Nader (18%). • Region: Not surprisingly, attendance is higher in the South (45%) and Midwest (41%) and lower in the West (33%) and East (32%). Stark Americans final.indd 19 9/9/08 10:06:28 AM 20 / Church-going Conclusion Why are Americans such frequent church attenders? For the same reason that such a high proportion belong to a church: denominationalism . As was discussed in the introduction, the singular thing about American religion is an unregulated religious economy free from the stifling effects of a lazy, state-supported church—American churches must recruit or perish. The result is that literally tens of millions of Americans are on the look out to recruit new people for their congregations and work hard to keep them coming back...