Of statistics and spirituality

My friend Linda recently posted links to two different studies related to Americans and religious belief. One study from the Barna Group reports statistics on the number of Christians with a biblical worldview. Here is an excerpt from the study:

George Barna, who has directed this tracking research since the early Nineties, pointed out, “There are a several troubling patterns to take notice. First, although most Americans consider themselves to be Christian and say they know the content of the Bible, less than one out of ten Americans demonstrate such knowledge through their actions. Second, the generational pattern suggests that parents are not focused on guiding their children to have a biblical worldview. One of the challenges for parents, though, is that you cannot give what you do not have, and most parents do not possess such a perspective on life. That raises a third challenge, which relates to the job that Christian churches, schools and parachurch ministries are doing in Christian education. Finally, even though a central element of being a Christian is to embrace basic biblical principles and incorporate them into one’s worldview, there has been no change in the percentage of adults or even born again adults in the past 13 years regarding the possession of a biblical worldview.”

The other study was reported on by USA Today and looks more generally at trends of religious affiliation. Traditional religious affiliations are dropping dramatically.

These studies are not really that alarming, the signs have been there. The question is, how do we respond to this?