Tonight the CBS evening news opened an article on “Religion in the U.S.” [or America, I’m not sure] with the following statistic stated and even printed in large letters/numbers for us to see:
Of the 225 Million people in the US, 183 Million are affiliated with Religion.
They went on to say that this figure “shocks” experts…um…DUH!!!
This certainly seems to be another wonderful example of the “experts” living in some far distant ivory tower while the rest of us, go to work, raise our children, shop at the grocery store and…surprise..GO TO CHURCH! The “get to know you question” changes from area to area (in DC, it’s “what do you do”) and in much of the country, it is some variety of “where does your family go to church?” A quick walk into any American coffee shop in real-town America will reveal quickly this very fact - people go to church.
This is NOT a new phenomenon. Alexis de Tocqueville in “Democracy in America” devoted major portions of his musings on his journey across America to our faith and its practice even noting its necessity to the endurance of a free nation:
“For my own part, I doubt whether man can ever support at the same time complete religious independence and entire political freedom. And I am inclined to think that, if faith be wanting in him, he must be subject; and if he be free, he must believe.” [Volume II, Chapter V]
So, yet again, We The People are insulted by both the “experts” and “CBS News”. Not content to let us live and be happy, the news broadcast noted that for a developed nation it was very unusual for there to be such a high number of “believers” in one faith or another.
However, to add insult to injury, when going to the CBS news website, the article is now retitled as: Many in U.S. Drop Their Childhood Religion. While the on-air article focused on the large numbers of Americans who have a major belief, the article would like to immediately give us the impression that Americans are leaving their faith in droves. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/02/25/national/main3873100.shtml
If one reads the article, it becomes immediately obvious that mostly, folks are leaving one type of Christianity for another. Sometimes, it is even that people leave their church because (gasp!) they moved! Both of these facts merely seem to remind me of my own experience in “religion”. This experience is by no means unusual. As I grew up, I started to ask questions and do research. As my convictions were moved due to both reason and supernatural influences, my husband and I chose different places for our family to worship God. Also, as a military family, changing churches is a fact of life. I think the mere fact that people search out a new church after a move is a wonderful testimony to the amount of faith still very prominent in the United States!
Despite what we read in mainstream media, I think Alexis de Tocqueville would still be generally impressed. Mostly, I believe that our Sovereign God knows all about the foolishness of changing churches and of ridiculous articles intended to injure us regular folk.
