Religion In American Life

Title	Religion In American Life
# of Words	760
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	3.04

Religion In American Life

Religion In American Life

Dave Ross
SOCI 250/2
2/18/97
Computer Assignment #1

Religion used to be a very important component in an American's life.
Protestantism was as American as Mom and apple pie.  Families would don their
"Sunday best" and go to church early on Sunday mornings.  However, this
situation has changed quite a bit.  After reviewing the 1994 statistics I
gathered from the Micase system and comparing them to the statistics received in
class, I discovered a trend away from traditional religious beliefs and
practices, and one toward atheism or alternative religious beliefs. After a
resurgence in the 1970's and early 1980's, the Roman Catholic church began
experiencing a slow, yet steady, decline in membership.  As membership in the
more orthodox Roman Catholic church decreased, membership in Protestant churches
increased.  In recent years, the Catholic Church has become politically active
and more vociferous concerning its views on moral issues such as war, abortion,
and euthanasia.  It is my feeling that many Catholics are searching for sects
that will allow them to retain their faith in Christ without a central body
(i.e., the Vatican) speaking on behalf of them on issues that they are capable
of rationalizing for themselves. Among Catholics and Protestants, there is a
trend toward less rigid attendance of religious services.  If we examine the
figures from Stark and Glock's 1968 survey, 54% of Americans surveyed at the
time attended church more often than once a month.  This figure shrank to 40.7%
in the 1994 survey.  Though the Catholic church insists on weekly attendance of
church, weekly attendance dropped from 52% in 1978 to 49% in 1986.  Then,
attendance plummeted, with only 28.3% of Catholics surveyed in 1994 claiming to
have attended church in the last seven days.  Even among those who remain with
the traditional Christian sects, attendance is diminishing. Christianity used to
be an integral part of most family and community customs and traditions in
America.  It seems that as Americans' lives become more complex, less time is
available for formal religious commitments.  Also, one may theorize that the
exponential growth of technology and education has rendered traditional
religious teachings, such as creationism, obsolete and people are leaving the
Christian churches because their teachings do not agree with their personal
beliefs. However, not everyone is leaving the Catholic church for Protestant
denominations.  In the last thirty years, the number of peo...

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