THE GALLUP POLL NEWS ARTICLE FROM APRIL 1, 2013 (My comments at the end of the article)
Provo-Orem, Utah, Is Most Religious U.S. Metro Area
The most religious cities are in the South and in Utah
by Frank Newport
PRINCETON, NJ -- Provo-Orem, Utah, is the most religious of 189 U.S. metropolitan areas Gallup surveyed in 2012, with 77% of its residents classified as very religious. Burlington, Vt., and Boulder, Colo., are the least religious, with 17% meeting that threshold. Most of the top religious cities are in the South -- the exceptions are Provo; Ogden-Clearfield, Utah; and Holland-Grand Haven, Mich. The least religious cities are clustered in the Northeast and on the Pacific Coast, with the exception of Boulder and Madison, Wis.
Relatively few metro areas match the national religiousness average, instead reflecting substantial diversity, with a 60-percentage-point range between the most and least religious cities. This generally mirrors the variation in the average religiousness among the states of the union. Mississippi is the most religious state (58% very religious), while Utah is tied with Alabama in second place. Vermont (19% very religious) is the least religious state. Complete data on religiosity for all 189 metro areas can be found on page 2.The cities referred to in this article are based on the Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) as defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget. In many cases, more than one city is included in the same MSA, and some MSAs cross state borders. All reported MSAs encompass at least 300 completed surveys, and Gallup has weighted each of these MSA samples to ensure it is demographically representative of that MSA.
Throughout the country in 2012, 40% of Americans were classified as very religious -- based on saying religion is an important part of their daily life and that they attend religious services every week or almost every week. Thirty-one percent of Americans were nonreligious, saying religion is not an important part of their daily life and that they seldom or never attend religious services. The remaining 29% of Americans were moderately religious, saying religion is important in their lives but that they do not attend services regularly, or that religion is not important but that they still attend services.
The most and least religious cities generally reflect the religiousness of the state in which they are located, although there are some interesting exceptions. Utah, for example, is one of the nation's most religious states, and two Utah cities -- Provo and Ogden -- are indeed among the most religious cities in the nation. But Utah's largest metro area, Salt Lake City, is significantly lower on the religiousness list (47% very religious) than the other two Utah cities. This most likely reflects Salt Lake City residents' more urban, less Mormon nature compared with other Utah metro areas. And, although Michigan as a state has below-average religiousness, that state's Holland-Grand Haven metro area is tied as the nation's fifth most religious.
Specific data on religious service attendance -- one of the two components of the religiousness index -- highlight stark behavioral differences between the two cities at the extreme ends of the religiousness distribution. Seventy-seven percent of Provo residents say they attend church weekly or nearly weekly, while 18% say they seldom or never attend. Residents of the Burlington area represent nearly a mirror image, with 18% saying they attend church weekly or nearly every week, and 76% saying they seldom or never attend.
The 77% level of frequent church attendance among residents of Provo is clearly exceptional; 63% of residents in Montgomery, Ala., second on the church attendance list, say they attend church on a weekly or nearly weekly basis.
Implications
America is a remarkably religiously diverse nation, and much of this diversity is geographically based. Residents in some areas and cities -- namely, those in the South and in Utah -- are two or three times as likely to be very religious as those living in cities in the Northeast, the Northwest, and other Western locations.
MY COMMENTS: It is clear from this Gallup Poll, the most scientific of polls, that the progressive nature of the west coast, the northeast and other parts of the country has a deleterious effect upon the religiosity of these communities.
Is liberalism harmful to the orthodoxy and orthopraxis of the Catholic faith. While there haven't been any really trustworthy polls on this, I think we can say that if we were to leave the "remaking" of the Church to the liberals, we would soon have a Church that is like the liberal protestants, all of which are in major decline, like the religiosity of the areas of our country that are the least religious.
What has liberalization of the Presbyterian, Lutheran, Methodist, Episcopalian and Church of Christ done for them? Nothing but lead them into irrelevance, decline and soon to be extinction.
20 comments:
"Religious..." You use the term loosely, of course...
"It is clear from this Gallup Poll, the most scientific of polls, that the progressive nature of the west coast, the northeast and other parts of the country has a deleterious effect upon the religiosity of these communities."
I think you inverted that: the lack of religiosity has resulted in the deplorable state of their societies. There are few people more challenged by difference than a liberal.
Ha!
I live in number 2, was born and raised in number three, and went to Mass in number 4 last Sunday!
Having lived most of my life in more liberal environs, I can aver that the more "progressive" one considers themselves, the more closed-minded they tend to be. Of course, many of the more hardened conservative ilk have a similar problem, but the difference is that you can usually TALK to a conservative. If you watch a talk show like, say, Sean Hannity's, you'll probably notice that it's usually the liberal guests who are most likely to start raising their voices or talking over the other guests. Not always, but usually. I have no idea why.
This also applies to priests. If you have a young, open-minded priest right out of the seminary, he is more likely to be open to other viewpoints and even rites and forms of the Mass. The older priests, especially those educated in the era of rupture, are more likely to dismiss traditionalists as "pharisees" or label the Extraordinary Form as "Hitler's Mass" (kind of ironic, since Hitler persecuted his fellow Catholics and didn't go in for attending Mass).
It's very nice that the Southeastern United States has remained so religious, but I fear that it could well be reaching the tipping point to where church attendance is more a reflection of a cultural norm rather than a deeper conviction. For one, evangelical Protestantism and mainstream Protestantism are both based on rebellion and separation when one disagrees. Many Catholics have reached this point too, reflected by the young couples who live in sin before marriage, yet insist on a Church wedding. After marriage, they attend Mass on Christmas and Easter only and insist on getting their children baptized. To appease their pastor, they'll start attending weekly Mass, but what does it mean?
If the south IS more religious, all the religious ritual and church attendance hasn't affected us much. Like everywhere else, we have high numbers of unwed pregnancies, high rates of abortion ("respectable" small communities allow the bigger cities nearby to do them), divorce, alcoholism and drug use.
In the end, we might fool our neighbors and even ourselves, but no one fools God.
I, sadly, grew up in 6th from the bottom- Fremont, CA. My mom can't even say the word 'religion' without sounding like she's gagging on it- literally.
Father and RCG are both right. Asking what came first, lack of religiosity or progressivism, is like asking what came first, the chicken or the egg. The only difference being the chicken and egg are an endless circle, while the lack of religiosity and progressivism is a downward spiral which ends in hell.
A small point - 'religiosity' is a pejorative term meaning sentimental or spurious religion. 'Religiousness', though an ugly word, is what is meant here.
"Religion is what happens to a man when he falls from grace." Karl Barth (Calvinist theologian)
Religion is sort of an indeterminate word that can mean several things. Theologically, it is most associated with 19th century liberal pietism, which based "religion" upon a "feeling of absolute dependence (a la Schleiermacher)." Basically, this theology denied the Resurrection of Christ, was Deist or agnostic, and led to a pretty much "existentialist" theology of self-realization based upon following the teachings of the man Jesus.
Sociologically, it has come to mean the institutionalized protestant church which has submerged theology in the "social gospel" of liberal protestant social ethics and meaningless feel-good theologies...everything from Joel Osteen to the Episcopal church.
It is a vague term which can mean most anything from believing in witchcraft, reading silly Western expressions of zen, such as Phillip Kapleau, or hanging out with old hippies and a bunch of granola crunching, Patchouli smelling, earth biscuits. I try to avoid the term...in fact, if I am asked if I am "religious, I say, "No, I'm a Christian." The freedom of the Holy Spirit and the Mystery of the Mass should not allow us to become "religious."
Our poor, Yankee brethren.
The South leads in religiosity. The South also leads in divorce (Alabama is #3, Arkansas is #3, Mississippi is #10) and teen pregnancy (Alabama is #2, Arkansas is #5, Louisiana is #8).
Those progressive "Yankees" might be able to teach the "religious" of the South a thing or two....
Gene, have you been at the single malt again?
PI, the Gallup Poll survey was on religiosity not the sinfulness of those who are religious. By religious I think they were looking at Church attendance.
However, your claim about divorce rates seems not to be based on any survey of particular regions. Can you quote a reputable poll on this as it concerns the various regions of our country?
Does no-one listen to a word I say? You are still using 'religiosity' in the wrong sense. And Fr McDonald has yet to come back to me concerning his rubrical changes to the 1962 Rite which only he could have(illicitly) authorized.
I would be very curious about the teen pregnancy polls. Are teen pregnancies reported only if the mother brings the child to term or is it also reported if the child is aborted. And the question of contraceptives also lingers. Are more teens contracepting successfully in some regions? Sexual acting out isn't always measured by pregnancy rates. Many teens engage in practices that, shall we say, do not follow the standard definition of sexual intercourse and consider themselves virgins because they don't satisfy their urges in the natural manner.
I'm just rambling. Polls like this really don't tell us much of anything about the effect of religion. Or am I missing something?
Maybe someone should do a poll on the frequency of confession and teen pregnancy rates.
John, perhaps the term is correct. The one good point the liberals make about the pre-Vatican II Church was how meaningless or distant from faith the "smells and bells" were. It was true that many, frankly, held superstitious views of the rites. The new gods of the liberals, government, science, etc., have replaced the Mass for many with processes, systems, and certificates. For these scoundrels faith is the last refuge when they have no compelling argument or when their pet program is unfunded. They invoke God as a shaman and condemn others on his behalf not to help or correct a soul, but to ensure their pet program continues through the next fiscal year.
"#27 by Father Allan J. McDonald on April 1, 2013 - 3:12 pm
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@Fr. Michael J. Kavanaugh – comment #26:
Look up the statistics yourself and report back..."
I would say you can do the same, Good Father.
But why why why? My childhood was the pre-V2 Church and my entire adult life has been spent in going out of my way in order to find decent liturgy and music. I will not accept Marty Haugen "masses". I have gone out of my way to learn Gregorian Chant, and sing it. Why did I have to be born in that benighted century which saw civilized nations reduced to barbarism and the Catholic Church falling over backwards to embrace secular relativism (which was what Vatican II was all about).
I don't despair, but I come close to it.
John, No, no single malt today. Religion is a vague and useless catch-all term... like "spiritual." Sometimes they will be combined in the same conversation:
"Hey, I have you a date with this really cool girl."
"Is she Catholic?"
"No, she isn't really religious, but she is very spiritual."
Hmm. Gene has had the same experience with 'spiritual' girls as I have. I have confessed and no longer deal with them. As far as PI's mention of divorce rates: I live in a very 'Catholic' area of the north and rates of divorce, if they are lower, are aided by the cohabitation and abandonment rate. Here, Catholicism is treated like an ethnicity or a political party.
Ironically, Gene, I have heard that comment about being a Catholic vice a Christian used in Washington state for evangelicals to distance themselves from Catholics.
John Nolan, the rubrical changes, as I recall you recounting them, are that I incensed the altar after reading the Introit, where as I should have done the incensing first, this was unintentional as I thought this was the way to do it.
The second is the role of the subdeacon and holding the paten, this was eliminated for pastoral reasons and, well, and as a gravitational pull on the EF from the noble simplicity of the OF.
Perhaps the subdeacon reading the Epistle in English, rather than chanting it in Latin comes from the Holy Father "emeritus" who said in a general way, without hinting as which type of Mass, that the readings could be in the vernacular. Lesser authorities have interpreted his remarks based upon the lower hierarchy of the Mass, rather than its highest, which I think is less than the Holy Father's general statement.
I hope this helps.
Our parish priests reread the epistle and the Gospel, in English, just before delivering the homily. This especially helpful as their homilies are invariably related closely to the particular Mass. Just a thought.
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