http://apologeticspress.org/APContent.aspx?category=7&article=2329
Religion in America Fading
| by | Dave Miller, Ph.D. |
While it is extremely difficult to measure the extent to which religion impacts Americans, one polling organization has attempted to do so using four criteria. The poll was designed to acquire a sense of how the 50 states compare with each other on the matter of which has the most religious population. The four criteria used were the importance of religion in people’s lives, frequency of attendance at worship services, frequency of prayer, and absolute certainty of belief in God (“How Religious...?,” 2009). As one might expect, more Americans in the “Bible Belt” states indicate that religion is very important in their lives. Mississippi has the highest percentage of its population so indicating (82%), followed by Alabama and Arkansas at 74%, Louisiana at 73%, Tennessee at 72%, South Carolina at 70%, Oklahoma and North Carolina at 69%, Georgia at 68%, Kentucky and Texas at 67%. The states with the lowest percentage of its citizens indicating that religion is important in their lives are New Hampshire and Vermont with 36%. Sadly, the national average is 56%. Think of it. Only 56% of Americans say that religion is important to their everyday living. Specifically, only 39% of Americans say they attend worship at least once a week, only 58% say they pray at least once a day, and only 71% say they believe in God with absolute certainty.
So what? What does it matter if the Christian religion has less and less impact on Americans? Quite simply, the nation will unravel and culminate its illustrious existence in disaster. So said the Founders of the Republic (cf. Miller, 2008), and so says the Bible (e.g., 2 Chronicles 7:14-22).
REFERENCES
“How Religious Is Your State?” (2009), The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, December 21, [On-line], URL: http://pewforum.org/docs/?DocID=504.
Miller, Dave (2008), The Silencing of God: The Dismantling of America’s Religious Heritage(Montgomery, AL: Apologetics Press).