02.06.08
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Dead Horses Population Sustained Oprah-Ization of American Christianity
More Charismatics
Football Coach to Writer
More Than a Storefront Donors Skip Giving The Book Industry Study Group New Max Mailed Donations Big Brother or Safety The Church Leaders Intelligence Report is compiled and edited by Gary D. Foster. He may be contacted by email.
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An Ellison Research study finds 90% of Americans feel the law should support religious groups renting public property, such as a public school gym or a library room, for meetings if non-religious groups are allowed to do so. 89% say it should be legal for a public school teacher to permit a “moment of silence” for prayer or contemplation for all students during class time. 88% believe it should be legal for public school teachers to wear religious symbols during class time. 87% say voluntary student-led prayers at public school events should be legal. 83% believe the display of a nativity scene on city property should be legal. 79% say it should be legal to display a copy of the Ten Commandments inside a court building. Surprisingly, a high proportion of non-religious Americans and those with a more liberal political viewpoint share this perspective. For instance, 92% of people who regularly attend religious worship services believe voluntary student-led prayers at public school events should be legal, but 83% of those who do not regularly attend worship services also believe this.
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The tribal wisdom of the Dakota Indians says when you discover you’re riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount. However, in modern business and ministry, because of the heavy investment factors, other strategies are often tried with dead horses, including: buying a stronger whip; changing riders; threatening the horse with termination; appointing a committee to study the horse; arranging to visit other sites to see how they ride dead horses; reclassifying the dead horse as “living-impaired”; hiring outside contractors to ride the dead horse; harnessing several dead horses together for increased speed; donating the dead horse to a recognized charity and deducting its full original cost; doing a time management study to see if lighter riders would improve productivity; declaring a dead horse has lower overhead and therefore performs better; and promoting the dead horse to a supervisory position.
For the first time in 35 years, the U.S. fertility rate has climbed high enough to sustain a stable population, solidifying the nation’s unique status among industrialized countries. The overall fertility rate increased 2% between ’05 and ’06, nudging the average number of babies being born to each woman to 2.1. While unwelcome news to some environmentalists, the so-called “replacement rate” is generally considered desirable by demographers and sociologists because it means a country is producing enough young people to replace and support aging workers without population growth being so high it taxes national resources. Europe, Japan and other industrialized countries long have had fertility rates far below the replacement level, creating the prospect of labor shortages and loss of cultural identity. In contrast, many developing nations' birth rates far exceed the replacement rate, fueling poverty and social unrest. Experts speculate the reasons for the U.S fertility rate are a complex mix of factors, including lower levels of birth control use than in other developed countries, widely held religious values that encourage childbearing, social conditions that make it easier for women to work and have families, and a growing Hispanic population. The nation’s total fertility rate hit a high of nearly 3.8 in ’57 during the post-war baby boom. But it fell sharply through the ’60s and ’70s. The rate dipped below replacement level in ’72. Some of the increase is explained by immigration. Hispanics have the highest fertility rate - about 2.9 - followed by blacks (2.1), Asians (1.9) and whites (1.86). Mark Mather of the Population Reference Bureau says, “We’re going to be growing for quite some time at a fairly fast pace.”
Commenting on recent findings, LifeWay Research’s Ed Stetzer said, “We found a real openness to hearing about matters of faith, but the study also clearly documents what I call the Oprah-ization of American Christianity. It’s very much a generic ‘big guy in the sky’ view of God and a ‘you believe what you believe, I believe what I believe’ viewpoint on theology. People say, ‘Who am I to judge?’”
In ’97, 30% of adults claimed to be Pentecostal Christians compared to 36% in ’07. While just 8% of the U.S. population is evangelical, 49% of evangelical adults fit the charismatic definition. 51% of all born-agains are charismatic as are 46% of all adults who attend a Protestant church. 23% of U.S. Protestant churches are charismatic congregations. 80% have a full-time, paid pastor, and the average weekly adult attendance is 82, equivalent to other Protestant bodies. 36% of all U.S. Catholics are charismatic as are 7% of Southern Baptist and 6% of mainline churches. 65% of America’s charismatic churches are predominantly African-American vs.16% of white Protestant congregations. Non-charismatic church operating budgets average $149,000 vs. $136,000 for Pentecostals. 70% of non-charismatic senior pastors have a seminary degree vs. 49% of Charismatics.
Quiet Strength, by Indianapolis Colts head coach Tony Dungy, has sold more than one million copies. Written with Nathan Whitaker and published by Tyndale House, it is now one of the best-selling sports-related books in history.
Roughly 6 in 10 U.S. households contribute to charity routinely, according Indiana University’s Center on Philanthropy Panel Study. The ongoing survey asked the same 8,000 families about their charitable gifts made in ’00, ’02 and ’04. While the total percentage of gifting households was similar in all 3 years (67% to 69%), it was not always the same households. The study found that nearly one third of gifting households shift between donating and not donating.
Direct mail appeals sent by charities are not producing as much money as they did in years past because the number of people who give through the mail is declining. Charities have increased the amount raised per solicitation, but not enough to make up for the failure to recruit new donors through the mail.
