Comparing Pew Study with CRC Survey

A researcher who helped to conduct an extensive survey of the Christian Reformed Church says people should be cautious about interpreting a recently released study indicating that people in the U.S. are increasingly mixing religious practices from different traditions.

That study by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life was based on a telephone survey conducted in August among 4013 adults in the United States.

"I'd love to analyze that data myself, but given 4,000 respondents, the Pew data probably includes 0 to four CRC people, so it's not going to be possible to use it to compare the CRC to other traditions,” says Neil Carlson, one of the researchers who helped put together “Spiritual and Social Trends in the Christian Reformed Church in North America."

But, says Carlson, people should read the Pew survey with some questions in mind.

"In interpreting the results of the Pew study, I'd caution against a … 'sky is falling'" reaction, he says.

The Pew study reports that 26 percent of the people surveyed believe in spiritual energy as found in such things as mountains, trees or crystals, while 25 percent said they believe in astrology.

Nearly one-third of those surveyed told researchers that they "have felt in touch with someone who has died," with nearly 20 percent saying they have felt they have been in the presence of a ghost.

"We have to resist the temptation to take survey answers as if they were carefully reasoned doctrinal positions," says Carlson, assistant director of the Center for Social Research at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich.

"I would guess that, in most cases, the 'belief in' these phenomena or practices are no more than casual acknowledgments that there's something 'real' about them. That is, if survey respondents were pressed further on their 'belief in' astrology or yoga or the 'evil eye,' I doubt we would learn that the commitment is very deep or considered.

"Most respondents are giving the best quick answer they can. For example, some fairly strong Christians may say they 'believe in' astrology in the sense that they believe there's spiritual or even demonic power behind astrological systems—whether their beliefs put them in danger of falling deeply into paganism is another matter," says Carlson.

Slightly more than one-third of the respondents to the Pew survey said that they "regularly" or "occasionally" attend religious services at more than one place, sometimes in a non-Christian place of worship.

The 2007 CRC survey report did find declining decline in loyalty to denomination and local churches, with the "proportion of respondents who are 'very loyal' to the denomination falling from 63 percent in 1997 to 53 percent in 2007," and loyalty to local churches dropping from 70 percent to 65 percent in the same period.

Twenty-four percent of those surveyed by Pew said they believe in reincarnation, while 23 percent "believe in yoga not just as exercise but as a spiritual practice", the study determined.

While the CRC survey didn’t ask about New Age beliefs or practices, it did ask people about the frequency of traditional devotional practices, finding that the number of those who read the Bible, pray, have family devotions and personal devotions every day have all fallen since 2002.

"It's not good news, since people often have equally casual knowledge of Biblical doctrine, but it's not likely that most of those who 'believe in yoga as a spiritual practice' are actually open to Buddhism per se, Those who attend services for a 'different faith' are genuine religious syncretists (people who fuse different beliefs into their faith)," says Carlson.  

"According to Pew's report, most of the ‘interfaith’ attendance is between Protestants and Catholics; a person who still considers him- or herself 'Catholic' but attends a Protestant church would be counted as an ‘interfaith’ attender, as would a Protestant who occasionally attends Catholic services with a relative. Given the ongoing ecumenical dialog among Protestants and Catholics (discussed in recent Banner article), this may be a good sign, not a disaster."