I’m Un-What?
Evangelical polling organization The Barna Group has released a new survey that puts the number of “unchurched” individuals in America at close to 100 million.
“A new survey released by The Barna Group, which has been tracking America’s religious behavior and beliefs since 1984, reveals that one out of every three adults (33%) is classified as unchurched – meaning they have not attended a religious service of any type during the past six months. While that figure is considerably higher than the one out of five who qualified as unchurched in the early Nineties, it is statistically unchanged since 36% were recorded as having avoided religious services in the company’s 1994 study.”
Of course “unchurched” is such a broad category that it would apply to almost anybody who isn’t a dedicated Christian (or monotheist). Having not attended a public Pagan gathering in six months I would be considered “unchurched”, as would a Hindu who doesn’t live near a temple, or a Buddhist who is content with solo practice. In fact Barna makes a special note of the Asian “unchurched”.
“Some population segments are notorious church avoiders … Asians, however, doubled the national average: 63% were unchurched!”
Could it be that they are not interested in a “church” because they have other more fulfilling religious outlets? Which comes back to the problem of the Christian-centric classification of “unchurched”, an issue that Christian blogger John Morehead illustrates well.
“Imagine how evangelicals would feel if they read a report on a Neo-Pagan website that referred to evangelicals as “un-covened” or as “un-” or “non-Pagan” rather than as Christians or evangelicals. I understand the need for a general and all-encompassing term, but I prefer terminology that refers to a people group’s self-identity.”
The term is really useless outside of Barna’s narrow evangelical context. These surveys are really a goad to evangelical Christians to re-double their efforts at conversion, and a way to sell his latest books. “Unchurched” as a term seems to imply that “churched” is the natural state of things. This 100-million-strong number is just that, a number. It doesn’t mean anything, and it certainly doesn’t portray my religious world in any more depth than “nonquadruped” would. I certainly don’t need “churching” any time soon.
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