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Who Goes to Church?
Older Southern Women Do; Many Catholic Men Don't
Ed Note: by Dalia Sussman, ABCNews.com
NEW YORK, March 1
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Been to church this week? If you're an older woman in the South, chances are
you have. Not counting weddings and funerals, 38 percent of Americans say
they go to religious services at least once a week. But there are big
differences across demographic groups, with self-reported attendance peaking
among older people, women, Southerners and Baptists, among others.
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The biggest gap is between the oldest and youngest age groups. Sixty percent
of people age 65 and older report attending religious services at least once
a week; among 18 to 30 year olds, just 28 percent go that often. Previous
ABCNEWS polls, similarly, have found that religious belief and practice
increase with age.
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There are other factors. Nearly half of Southerners attend services weekly,
substantially more than elsewhere. Forty-four percent of women go weekly,
compared to 32 percent of men. It follows that, among Southern women age 45
and up, weekly church attendance soars to 68 percent.
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Forty-seven percent of Republicans attend church regularly, compared to 38
percent of Democrats and 29 percent of independents. And there's a big
difference between Catholic women (49 percent go to church weekly) and
Catholic men (26 percent attend every week.)
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For most Americans, going to religious services means going to church, since
83 percent of adults in this country are Christians. Forty-six percent of
Protestants attend church at least weekly, peaking at 52 percent of
Baptists. Just over two-thirds of Baptists are in the South, far more than
elsewhere (the Midwest is next, at just 17 percent). That's one reason
church attendance in the South is higher than elsewhere.
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Gender Gap
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Fewer Catholics, 38 percent, report attending church on at least a weekly
basis. Men are the reason: As noted, 26 percent of Catholic men say they
attend church that regularly, compared to 42 percent of Protestant men.
There's no such difference between Protestant and Catholic women - about
half in each group say they go to church at least once a week.
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*****Weekly Church Attendance*****
** All Men ....................32 %
** All Women ...............44 %
** Catholic Men ............26 %
** Catholic Women .......49 %
** Protestant Men .........42%
** Protestant Women ....50%
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Half the respondents in this survey identify themselves as Protestants, 23
percent as Catholics and 10 percent as members of other Christian
denominations. Eleven percent say they have no religion. Adherents to all
other religions combined comprise just 5 percent of the adult population -
not enough for separate analysis in a poll of 1,000 people.
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Methodology
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This ABCNEWS/Beliefnet poll was conducted by telephone Feb. 19-20, among a
random national sample of 1,008 adults. The results have a three-point error
margin. Fieldwork was conducted by TNS Intersearch of Horsham, PA.

I always thought one of the weak defenses of not ordaining women was because the priest was acting in the person of Christ, who is the Bridegroom of the Church, and therefore must be male. The failure in this assertion is that it would seem that by the same thinking, the Church, who is the Bride, should then be female. In fact, the laity of the Church come in both genders.

I wonder, however, if this weak thinking has had an impact, resulting in men getting the signal that its women's job to play the Bride at Church?

K.

I feel the young people drift away after high school, get busy building their lives, and come to think of the Church as something their parents do--or older people--and it becomes something that isn't important to them until they begin building families. Then, some of them have drifted so far away that they never return, some drift towards their spouses' faith, and some return to the Church.
I think that the Byzantine Church MUST do more to stay in touch with our young people who go to college, or at least after they graduate from high school, and let them know that people care about them. And, it is important to build that relationship as the children are growing up within the Church, so that a connection is made between the lives of the people and their faith/religion/Church.
So often, people drift away because the Church/religion seems to be "something extra" to do.... And, the leadership of the Church often does very little to foster the "Good Shepherd" example given to us by Our Lord.
Relationships breed commitment.

"I think that the Byzantine Church MUST do more to stay in touch with our young people who go to college, or at least after they graduate from high school, and let them know that people care about them."


Is it a situation where the church must do more, which usually ends up being more pizza parties as a form of bribery?

The key is to instill in our youth the idea that THEY must do something more ... like actually go to church on their own to worship God for the sake of worshipping God.

Can this idea be possible in our cultural climate today where traditional religion can mean absolutely nothing, therefore the message never sinks in?

Much of the problem is the lack of fathers attending church with their wives and children. How many women do the 'church thing' all alone while Daddy does his thing? Many women have given their utmost in trying to teach the faith and keep it all going. Unfortunately, it ends up failing when everyone doesn't pray together.

With all the talk about the church being patriarchal, Christianity in America, according to the sociologists and cultural gurus, has become feminized. This is not saying it is right or wrong, good or bad; it just reinforces the newer idea that men need not be involved in religion and church, hence the lack of turnout compared to the female population. And many men take this as a good opportunity to do their own thing since their voice is no longer needed.

When the youth see this, then Mommy has no right to try to keep them in church. The children just have to point no farther than Papa to make their case to do their thing too.

That something MORE begins at home. They Church is not a baby-sitting service to pamper, bribe and chase after deliquent Christians. The doors are always open; it depends if the youths of today are mature enough to knock on them.


Joe

Joe,

I concur. But then I'm a male in the South and I used to be Protestant.

Dear Friends,

I wanted to share an experience I had when I was a Saturday religion teacher.

I would knock myself out preparing for classes, tried to "wow" the heck out of the students by practically doing three-ring circuses during the periods, told jokes (I had better material then ).

And I would never back down from a fight.

A student once asked if it was true the Church had discouraged sexual activity during the Great Fast.

When I said that was true, he then quickly asked, "And why, Sir?"

I could see the boys snickering under their breath . . .

I then calmly replied, "That is because when the Church said, "No meat" during Lent, it meant "No meat of any kind."

Afterwards, I saw these same kids in Church with their parents.

Some of them came to me, beaming from ear to ear.

"John insisted on coming to Church with us today - you know we don't make him come with us if he doesn't want to - but he said he wanted to grow up to be like you, Alex."

I still get that warm, fuzzy feeling retelling this story . . . sniff . . .

Yours truly

Alex, I have heard some stories about your teaching from some students of yours. This story fits in with one of the topics they said you always talked about. Will you share something about aliens with us?

Daniil

Dear Daniil,

I already have on the thread about possession et al.

It was all "up in the air" so to speak .

But it got the little devils' attention!

Alex

Having taught high school for three years and then community college for 18 (part time), I am convinced that there are two separate aspects to "Church". One is the communal thing; the other is the spiritual.

Women like to socialize and meet in groups. Men do things either alone or with small groups of other men, i.e., golf, football/baseball games, fishing, etc. Church is big and social; women like it. Men oftentimes find it less than enthralling.

On the spiritual plane, I think the gender gap is less than significant. Once a person has had to confront major life-shaking experiences, he or she has got to find a firm foundation upon which to build his/her life. Death (of a parent, sibling, or close friend) raises all sorts of questions. And a faith structure that can explain this appeals to people. So, they come and they become more spiritual. Religion is an 'adult' thing. Young folks are "ten foot tall and bullet proof" as an elderly Baptist lady told me at an AIDS training. This is natural; growing up means finding your own identity and strutting about like a peacock. But when the stuff hits the fan, all of a sudden, there are questions and serious needs. And then, faith becomes not just a 'religious' thing, it becomes the paradigm to answer the big questions.

So non-churchgoing college kids doesn't faze me at all. It's expected. They're strutting.

But we need to be there when things start to confront them in their later years. One would hope that the foundations given to them during their pre-high-school years will rise to the surface and inspire them to re-examine their faith heritage. Thus, we should continue to do religious education for the young ones, even though they have no 'real' idea of what is going on. Hopefully, once they have passed through the strutting stage, when stuff hits them upside the head, they'll remember that they have the tools available to deal with this.

And then, of course, there's the Holy Spirit......

Blessings!

Dear Dr. John,

You've been away from here too long! Whenever you are, it seems that I get myself into hot water all over the place!

Thank you for sharing your learned insights. I am blessed to be able to continue to have a relationship with a number of my former religion students who call me to talk over philosophy homework, dating problems (I didn't know I was such an expert . . .) and the like.

Just yesterday, two of them came to see me at my place of work.

I introduced them to my boss and they said that "Alex is our psychologist."

I still have problems trying to figure out young people. Am I that old, do you think?

Alex

I was a little amused by Dr. John's post - of course, he was speaking in generalities and I think what he said is generally true. For the record, I'm frankly terrified whenever a women's group other than my running club calls me and asks me to do something - because I can generally guess that it will involve something "big and social."

Now, my husband goes every Sunday and sometimes more often, like to Vespers or he just pops in church to reflect and pray. But he does have this odd urge to flee as soon as a service is over on Sunday. Drives me nuts at time. Its definitely a Sunday thing.

I had mentioned this urge to flee to the abbott at our local Ukr. monastery after Vespers one Saturday and he asked us to come to Liturgy the next a.m. And, so, when my dear hubby tried to make his "escape" after the Liturgy, the clever and surprisingly spry abbott intercepted him in the hall, did his best wounded look , and said, "But, PLEASE, you MUST to stay and EAT with us and TALK to us - people here would like to meet you!" And to my surprise he did cheerfully stay, for quite some time. Monks can be so very clever as well as holy!

Dear Anne,

You are right - you have to watch out for those Monks of ours! God bless 'em!

My daddy-in-law runs a "coffee shop" for after the Liturgy at his parish.

The people now hang around the church hall for three hours minimum each Sunday!

There are sandwiches, coffee, tea, doughnuts (he gets a good discount at the local doughnut shop) the UCWL makes cakes and so on.

Whenever someone has a birthday, not only are they feted with a special cake, but my wife's father has the priest announce this in Church!

But I think they stay afterwards because of the cake!

And there is the man himself going from table to table, asking who has a membership in the parish and, if you don't, why not sign up now?

He has a microphone and he walks around with it making little announcements.

I saw him go up to a couple who were Russian Orthodox. He asked them to join the parish. They said they were Russian Orthodox, and he said "That's O.K., we're all East Slavs etc." Nestor got that line from Reader Sergius in a post that I showed him a while ago!

And it worked! They said, "Da!" And then Nestor took his microphone and immediately announced that "And we have another couple who have taken the decisive step to join our Parish - let's give them a round of applause, shall we?" (applause)

So many Orthodox have joined the parish where they attend for convenience' sake but go to Confession to an Orthodox Church downtown.

Father is a Basilian and he commemorates St Josaphat at the end of each Liturgy.

He once told me most people, new immigrants, don't know who St Josaphat is.

He asked me if he should dedicate a sermon about him.

My advice was, "Perhaps not yet."

(Am I a little devil, or what?)

Alex