Dr. Forbush Thinks

Baylor University has recently conducted a new detailed study of Religion in America. I discovered it because of an editorial column I read in this mornings San Jose Mercury News. But instead of relying on the editorial page I thought that I might find the raw data, well maybe officially condensed data and come to my own conclusions. You may read the Baylor press release of September 11, 2006 which also gives a link to the entire report.

There is so much here that one should read the report themselves, and they will come to their own conclusions. This study is a paradigm shift in how we look at religion and politics, so anyone who wants to appeal to the religious side of America should take a look.

On the first page of the study the author tells us that it was “common knowledge” that secularism was growing in America based on two General Social Surveys of religion conducted in 1988 and 2004. These two studies showed that in 1988 8% of Americans had no religion and in 2004 14.3% of Americans had no religion. Obviously, the conclusion was that America was becoming more secular. But, the more careful Baylor survey shows that it is more likely that many small churches don’t show up on the choice list in the survey. Therefore, the rise of people attending unaffiliated religions is falsely interpreted as a rise in secularism in America. They point out that the naming of some churches actually interferes with the accuracy of the survey, so in the Baylor survey the name and address of the place of worship was collected in order to provide an accurate classification of American religion.

So, it turns out that 10.4% of Americans are non-affiliated, but only 3.7% actually don’t believe in God. It seems to me that 96.3% is a large majority of believers, and is no where near the crisis advertised in alarmist publications.

So, this begs the political question, if there are so many believers how can Democrats be classified as secular non-believers? The truth is also in the survey. First of all, some people believe in God, but they just don’t go to church. But, this isn’t news, because even the Republicans have latched onto this fact because those who attend church more often are more likely to vote Republican. However, the Baylor survey goes into even more detail, asking people to sort themselves with other terms such as: Bible-believing, Evangelical, Mainline Christian, Born Again and more. And, as a curiosity more people in actual mainline Christian denominations claim to be Evangelical than those that are members of Evangelical Churches. So, the point here is that some people don’t know what label actually describes the church that they attend.

However, we still don’t know the answer to the question: where are all the religious Democrats? If they don’t go to church, but they are still religious, then how do we reconcile this dilemma?

The answer to this question seems to lie in the emergence of another piece of religious research. It turns out that America believes in four distinctly different Gods. These researchers have named these different Gods the Authoritarian God, the Benevolent God, the Distant God and the Critical God. These names refer to the way we imagine God’s place in the Universe. Do you believe that God is judgmental? Do you believe that God is engaged in the world? Thirty one percent of Americans believe that God is judgmental and he punishes wrongdoers; they believe in the authoritarian God. Those who believe in an Authoritarian God tend to be less educated and more likely to be from the South. And, these people tend to identify themselves as conservative.

On the other hand, twenty five percent believe that God is not judgmental but engaged in the world; they believe in a Benevolent God. The Benevolent God is prevalent in the Midwest. Twenty three percent believe that God is not judgmental and not engaged, or a Distant God. The image of the Distant God is most common in the West. And, sixteen percent believe that God is judgmental but not engaged, or a Critical God. The Critical God image is common in the East. The majority of believers in the four regions of the country have four different ways of imagining God.

And, there is the key to the political dilemma. Democrats believe that society needs to make society work, because God isn’t going to do anything about it. Democrats believe that they should create a government that helps those in need, because if society doesn’t help them, who will. Therefore, Democrats have their strong hold in the areas where God is viewed as being less engaged, therefore prompting people to make things right. It might also explain that Democrats don’t attend church as much as those who believe that God might retaliate for your absence.

Obviously these images of God are more common in some religions than in others, but since these are images that each person creates in their own imagination they exist in all regions of the country. These images are shaped by experience. They begin with what your parents teach you, and then what you learn from your peers. These images are also shaped by spiritual experience that are found in nature, in society and in the church itself. When you are told that God is like a father, you imagine your own personal father and how he behaves. When you are told that God loves everyone, your idea of that love is based on your personal experience of love. There is evidence for all of these aspects of God in the Bible, and the passages that you focus on are generally based on the passages that resonate with your experience. If you expect to find God by being yelled at in church then the preachers yelling could be comforting in knowing that there is a God who will make everything work out as He planned. On the other hand, if you expect to find God in the quiet of nature as you wonder at his marvelous creation the quiet will comfort you in knowing that God set everything in motion and it is your job to do your part to make the world a better place.

I highly recommend that everyone who is interested in these sorts of things should look at the Baylor survey, because it gives everyone insight into the connection between politics and religion. I didn’t even touch on the abortion, gay marriage, Iraq War or War on Terror. But the report has unparalleled insight into these issues as well.

In conclusion, 96% of Americans believe in God. The majority of Democrats and Republicans believe in God. Republicans and Democrats believe in these four different Gods, but more Republicans believe in the Authoritarian God, while Democrats are more likely to believe in one of the three non-authoritarian Gods.








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Don't forget what Stephen Colbert said, "Reality has a well-known liberal bias."


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