WHAT YOUR NEIGHBORS BELIEVE

You might be surprised by what some of the polls reveal about your neighbors. Would you have supposed, for instance, that Roman Catholics are more ecumenical than Protestants and that nine out of ten teenagers say they pray? If those findings do not send you, here is one that will: 89% of the unchurched say they believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and 68 % of the same group believe that Jesus was raised from the dead.

A new book by George Gallup and Daniel Poling on our nation’s religious faith, which is based on numerous polls conducted by Gallup and others, gives information for all of us to think about. We can relate to our communities much better if we know something about what is going on in people’s minds. The authors emphasize that the American people have a great hunger for meaning and direction in their lives. They want to be a part of a living, vibrant fellowship that deals realistically with the sensitive issues facing the world. The unchurched do not feel especially negative toward the institutional church, but they think the church is incapable of meeting the crises in the world and is far too concerned with its own well-being. And by referring to the unchurched we are talking about 41 % of the population --- 61 million souls!

The Roman Catholics have probably changed more in recent years than the rest of us. Almost 90% of them have positive feelings toward their “separated brethren” and almost that many think their church should relate more to other churches. Especially interesting is the “Ogden Covenant” that was entered into by Episcopalians and Roman Catholics in Ogden, Utah. They covenanted to pray for each other and to find occasions to worship together, as well as to cooperate in projects for social justice. This openness has been especially apparent since the days of Pope John 23rd, who had a propensity for opening windows. He was elected, because of his age, as merely “a caretaker pope,” but the church got more than it bargained for. He proceeded to lead his people to changes hardly before dreamed of, such as lay ministry, mass in English, modern garb for nuns, ecumenical outreach. So the Roman Catholics today are more open toward Protestants than Protestants are toward them.

It is what the polls reveal about the unchurched that interests me most of all. The world is not as “worldly” as we might think, not in terms of what they really want. Better than 90% of them want more emphasis placed on traditional family values, and almost that many want more respect for authority. The majority of them are opposed to so much sexual freedom, and they believe that extra-marital sex is always wrong. While they feel they were “over exposed” to church in their youth, fully 75 % of them want their children to have religious education. Though they no longer attend any church, a rather high percentage say they would consider joining a church. There are obstructions, the main ones being the time that goes to work and to sports.

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that 76% of the people out there in the world pray to God, and 45 % of them say they pray every day! One is left to wonder if maybe worldlings do not pray more than church members. Almost half of them believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God, and 25 % testify to having had a born-again experience. Still they belong to no church.

Pollsters have been at work among the teenagers, both in and out of the church. Nine out of ten say they pray, and 40% say that religion plays an important part in their lives. They believe in God more than their parents do. In recent years they have been especially influenced by Yoga, TM, charismatic movements, faith healing, and Eastern religions. In fact 27 millions of Americans, many of them teenagers, have been touched in one way or another by these cults.

Teenagers and young adults are sensitive to injustices and feel that the church is unconcerned. They want to live a good life and grow spiritually. They have a strong desire for a life of humanitarian service and fully one-third of them would like to get into some kind of social outreach as a career. Love and sincerity are the virtues they most admire. And our youth go to church more than the youth of 11 other nations that were surveyed. In Japan, for instance, 74% of the youth said they had no interest in religion. Nor do the youth of other nations think they should go out of their way to help others. When presented with the case of a person who has lost his way, the youth of other nations said they would help him if he asked for the help, while our youth indicated they would volunteer to help without being asked.

As Gallup and Poling look to the church of the future, they suppose the “electric church” will have to be reckoned with, for this is “church” to many. And they are raking in the money. Main-line denominations will garner 20-30 millions a year from their congregations for their varied ministries, while a single TV evangelist is a piker if he doesn’t do better than that. Jerry Falwell anticipates one million a week this year; Oral Roberts takes in 60 million a year, and this increases 25 % a year; the Armstrong empire, before it began to crumble, took in 75 million a year. Billy Graham runs back in the herd with a moderate 30 million a year. Some theologians, such as Martin Marty, consider the electronics church a threat to “real life” Christianity.

One reason for the success of the electric preachers is that there is a definite turn toward orthodoxy across the land. The younger clergy believe in a real Adam and Eve, a real resurrection, and a real heaven, much more than their older counterparts. Fully 87 % of the younger preachers believe that Jesus Christ is the only hope of heaven.

On and on these revelations go, surprising us with what our neighbors really believe. I was surprised to learn, for instance, that the majority of whites would welcome blacks to their churches, though fully one-half of all white churches still have not a single black.

And I was displeased to have my fear confirmed that many children born today will grow up in a single parent home --- fully half of them, if you can believe it.

I was pleased to learn that so few girls growing up want to be a “career girl,” only 9%. The vast majority want a home, children, family life.

The home today and in the future is handicapped with so few grand-parents living in. They are mostly in nursing homes. We are reminded of Arnold Toynbee’s plug: “Grandparents and grandchildren are allies against a common enemy,” and so they need each other more than they have each other. But the home still hangs in more than we might think, with 42 % still saying grace at the table and 44 % still talking about God and religion with their children.

All this says a great deal to us in the church. We need to move in. Or maybe we need to move out and touch our world. It appears to be ready when we are. --- the Editor