Posts

Showing posts from February, 2009

Religion: More or Less Interested

For the last few decades, sociologists of religion have studied the phenomenon of religion in the United States with particular interest in answering the question of whether the people who live here are more or less religious in their belief and practice over time. There are simultaneously indicators of both the increasing strength and the decreasing influence of religion in our nation, so the answer given to the question depends on which indicators are found to be the most credible or compelling. Diminishing worship attendance in some churches is offset by the explosion of attendance at others. Congregations going out of business and liquidating assets are offset by new-church starts and the construction or expansion of facilities. The absence of knowledge or familiarity with a religion’s beliefs and practices is offset by the proliferation of religious publishers and the sale of religious books, magazines, music, movies and other iconic objects. For every pollster that concludes t