Church attendance among women has dropped dramatically

[dawn9476]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/0 ... 16604.html

[mirele]

From the article:

They found that the percentage of women who strongly believe the Bible is accurate in all it teaches declined by 7 percentage points to 42 percent. And those who view God as "the all-knowing, all-powerful and perfect Creator of the universe who still rules the world today" dropped from 80 percent to 70 percent.

"Women used to put men to shame in terms of their orthodoxy of belief and the breadth and consistency of their religious behavior," wrote Barna. "No more; the religious gender gap has substantially closed."

I suspect, but have no proof, that this has to do with the rising levels of education among women in the USA. I am not saying that going to college threatens a person's faith, because I know very devout people (including my boyfriend) who are college grads in demanding disciplines and regular churchgoers. I'd like to see the crosstabs on this survey (the drilldown) because it might show interesting stuff like X percentage of women who were formerly Baptist are now "unchurched." However, that's where Barna makes his money, selling those crosstabs to denominations and businesses trying to figure out where to go next, so we peons are not likely to see those anytime soon.

The following is a rant and can be disregarded as Strictly My Personal Opinion. If you're offended easily, do not read further:

As far as Barna's rhetoric about "orthodoxy of belief," from my perspective, it's really hard to have "orthodoxy of belief" when you delve into the history of Christianity and see how much of it is a construct, particularly at the expense of women. Again, some women have no problem with Christian doctrines, but I am one woman who bailed because I could no longer deal with the idea that God sent his son to die for my sins (sounds like cosmic child abuse to me) and that as a woman, I am somehow defective and thus limited in the roles available to me.

(End of rant.)

[O Latin]

This doesn't apply to women in particular, but I think there is an increasing reluctance to believe anything is "accurate in all that it teaches." I think a lot of people are less and less inclined to see things in such black and white terms, and, while they might still consider themselves religious in some sense, wouldn't feel comfortable agreeing with a statement like that.

[kpmom]

I suspect, but have no proof, that this has to do with the rising levels of education among women in the USA. I am not saying that going to college threatens a person's faith, because I know very devout people (including my boyfriend) who are college grads in demanding disciplines and regular churchgoers.

(End of rant.)

I agree with your hunch. But isn't it funny how some of the fundies we talk about here won't send their kids to college for that very reason.

[apple1]

I agree with your hunch. But isn't it funny how some of the fundies we talk about here won't send their kids to college for that very reason.

It is entirely possible that a co-factor to the above may be:

As education levels rise, employment rises, and number of hours worked outside the home rises. Coincidentally, number of hours worked at home generally does not decrease. For some (including myself at the place I am in my life right now), Sunday morning is the only opportunity to sleep a little later, stay in pajamas until noon, and generally kick back and recoup. "Just plain tired" wins out. So for me, right now, church attendance is an exception.

Sometimes I feel bad about this, and I really believe that I will eventually return to more regular attendance. (Historically- I spent 41 years being a church accompanist. This meant that I was in attendance for every service, plus choir practice, plus other special musical practices, etc). I have been taking a break from that for about a year and a half now. Coincidentally, my professional/work commitment has been extremely heavy during this same time and something had to give.

FTR I am Christian, not "fundy", and a long time college graduate.