wfn.org | Gallup: U.S. Religious Attitudes Similar to Those of 1947

[PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org]

21-May-1997 
97208 
 
    Gallup: U.S. Religious Attitudes Similar to Those of 1947 
 
                     by Religion News Service 
 
WASHINGTON, D.C.--A new Gallup report shows Americans say they are just as 
religious today as they were in 1947, despite widespread belief society has 
become more secular in recent decades. 
 
     Based on several surveys conducted in recent months, 96 percent of 
Americans today say they believe in God, 71 percent profess belief in an 
afterlife, 90 percent say they pray, and 41 percent say they attend 
religious services frequently ("almost every week" or "at least once a 
week"). 
 
     In a landmark 1947 Gallup survey, 95 percent said they believed in 
God, 73 percent professed belief in an afterlife, 90 percent said they 
prayed and 41 percent said they attended religious services frequently. 
 
     "A comparison of the religious climate today with that of 50 years ago 
 ... does not support the contention of social observers who maintain that 
America is far less attached to religion than a half-century ago," says the 
report in the April edition of Gallup's "Emerging Trends" newsletter. 
 
     Rather, the report continues, the new findings "support the contention 
that the last 50 years have been the most  churched' half-century in U.S. 
history." 
 
     However, the report also notes that while Americans may profess broad 
belief in religious ideas, their faith appears to lack depth. 
 
     In an interview May 14, George Gallup Jr., executive director of the 
Princeton Religion Research Center, which publishes "Emerging Trends," said 
his organization's past surveys have identified three "gaps" that point to 
a lack of religious depth. 
 
     Americans, he said, do not generally live up to the ethical standards 
of their faith ("the ethics gap"), nor are they generally aware of their 
faith's basic teachings ("the knowledge gap").  The third gap, said Gallup, 
is "between believers and belonging," which contrasts the number of 
Americans who profess a belief in God with the number who frequently attend 
religious services. 

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