What Do Americans Really Believe?

A religion blogger at Beliefnet muses on some statistics on American religious beliefs, and struggles to relate them to his experience…

Have You Had These Religious Experiences? – O Me of Little Faith.

“Have you had the following religious experience?” That’s the question asked by the 2008 Baylor Religion Survey, authored by Dr. Rodney Stark and others, in an extensive look at the “depth and complexity” of America’s religious landscape. The survey’s findings are revealed in the book What Americans Really Believe, by Rodney Stark.

And to be honest, the statistics really surprise me. But maybe they shouldn’t. The surveyors spoke to 1,648 adults chosen randomly from across the country. When asked the question about having certain religious experiences, this is how many Americans answered YES:

• I heard the voice of God speaking to me: 20%
• I felt called by God to do something: 44%
• I was protected from harm by a guardian angel: 55%
• I witnessed a miraculous, physical healing: 23%
• I received a miraculous, physical healing: 16%
• I spoke or prayed in tongues: 8%

Whoa. This is why, around certain religious people, I feel like a spiritual weakling. Because I can barely identify with these experiences.

As an ordinary layperson in a mainstream, quite liberal Protestant Christian denomination, I myself find it difficult to relate to the above list of “common American religious experiences.” Does this make me a spiritual weakling? Am I of little faith? I don’t think so – because my experience tends to be personal and subtle, it’s not something that I feel comfortable talking about with total strangers (or blogging about, for that matter). I suspect that it’s not that unusual a case in many parishes like St Nicholas, either – we Episcopalians tend to avoid a fuss, or displays of great emotion or mystical transport.

This does not, however, mean that we won’t occasionally have priests dancing or playing the banjo, or people blowing bubbles in church (this actually happened last Sunday).

Jason Boyett goes on to say:

What’s the purpose of my personal commentary on these stats? Is it for me to point out that people who answer yes to these questions about religious experiences are crazy?

No. Not at all. It’s to say that my religious experiences don’t match up. I don’t fit in with these believers. It is hard for me to identify with them. The only religious experience I could honestly have owned up to is the second one about God’s calling — and then only with disclaimers and footnotes.

The problem is semantics and certainty. I just have trouble talking about God that way. I’m not willing to speak of God’s activity in and around my life with such concrete, this-is-how-it-is terms.

But some people don’t share my hang-ups. These are the people who answered YES in this survey. As a Christian, these are supposed to be my people. But I’m not like them.

I live and worship in a world where people hear from God, are protected by angels, and get healed. This doesn’t happen to me. Am I a spiritual weakling?

It’s not necessary to experience all the things on this list in order to consider yourself a religious person, or a strong believer; many people are not comfortable expressing their beliefs in so straightforward a manner.

And of course, many people would never darken the door of a church, because that would mean admitting that they have a spiritual inner life that they want to explore, but don’t know how.

None of us think we fit in anywhere, but sometimes we do find a place that becomes comfortable – and we’re not spiritual weaklings if we’re strong enough to admit that we’re different from the statistical norm of believing Americans. There’s a forum for questioning and rational discourse – even in church.

Such a forum takes place whenever the Book Club meets, for example – which was what we ended up with when the Adult Education forum finished discussing world religions.

Episcopalians Helping (Re)New Orleans

Fans of the HBO series “Treme” might be interested to know that there’s an Episcopalian angle:

[Episcopal News Service] Close to five years post Hurricane Katrina there are still some 60,000 blighted homes on the property roll in New Orleans, approximately half of them belonging to homeowners displaced by the August 2005 hurricane.

Counted among the displaced are Silva and Anthony Blanchard, long-time residents of the Gentilly neighborhood of New Orleans who, with the help of Episcopal Community Services of Louisiana’s rebuild program and sweat equity of volunteers, are just a housing inspector’s OK away from moving back into their home.

But it almost didn’t happen. In mid-April, ECSLA launched a fund-raising campaign aimed at collecting $60,000, enough money to finish the eight homes remaining under construction in the rebuild program, said Nell Bolton, ECSLA’s executive director, in a telephone interview, adding that the organization has since raised more than $75,000.

via Episcopal Life Online – DIOCESAN DIGEST.

One Bread, One Body

The Newsletter of

St. Nicholas Episcopal Church
May 27-June 6, 2010

Where did our prayer list go?
candle

Beginning in June, we will publish a monthly prayer list while picking up any new prayers or pastoral needs in the weekly edition.

One Bread, One Body will remain weekly, but will be more concise and readable. Let us know what you think.

Memorial

Day

2010


mem day 3

A time to remember all who have given selflessly in service of our country, and especially to remember those who have sacrificed their lives.

Calendar

May 27-31

Thursday, May 27

Noon AA meeting

7 pm GA meeting

Friday, May 28

Noon AA meeting

Saturday, May 29

1 pm AA meeting
8:30 pm AA meeting

Sunday, May 30

Happy Memorial Day

9 & 11 am Worship
7:30 pm AA meeting

Monday, May 31

Noon AA meeting
7 pm AA meeting

You will receive a monthly calendar for June

in a separate email

Stephen Martz
St. Nicholas Church

Join Our Mailing List

mem day 2

trinity 1

Jesus said to the disciples,
“I still have many things to say to you,
but you cannot bear them now.
When the Spirit of truth comes,
he will guide you into all the truth.

— from the gospel of John

This Week’s News

Belated congratulations…
…to Emma Santana and Patrick Brouillette, who were married at St. Nicholas on May 15 by Pat’s father, our very own Paul Brouillette.

Congratulations as well…
…to the bishop elect of Utah, Chicago’s very own Scott Hayashi. Scott is currently serving as canon to the ordinary here in Chicago a post he has held for the past five years. His consecration as the 11th Bishop of Utah — in which he previously had served as a parish rector — will be on November 6.

Food Pantry update
Thanks to Paul Brouillette, Bob Kalicki, Mike Mydill, Jay O’Reilly, and Manny Borg for traveling to Romeoville and/or unloading two vanloads of food on May 25.
Meanwhile, Bob Kalicki reports that we have urgent need for these items for our next Pantry date, which in June 2:

  • canned corn
  • apple juice
  • spaghetti sauce
If you can bring some of these on Sunday, May 30, our patrons will eat better the following weeks. Thanks!!

Mark your calendar for 6.6

On Sunday, June 6, we’ll hold a parish meeting after the 11 a.m. liturgy. Rather than meet as a parish only for the canonically required annual meeting in January, we try to meet several other times during the year. This meeting will conduct a bit of business, include a potluck, and give us a chance to talk about how we can welcome newcomers to St. Nicholas — especially during the Fall season.
Celebrating fathers
As our celebration of mothers concludes, Manny is inviting us next to celebrate fathers during June. If you’d like, bring a photo of your father — or of anyone who has been like a father to you — and place it on the table set aside for photos.

Signs & Wonders

GOODBYES….AND, I HOPE, SOME HELLOS

Steve Martz
I don’t know about you, but I’ve had enough farewells for a while. Of course I am terribly excited for Deb Seles as she heads toward Idaho to become rector of a parish in Twin Falls, and I am delighted for Ethan Jewett as he officially leaves St. Nicholas to take the next steps in his journey toward ordination.

But I shall miss them both a great deal. They are two incredibly wonderful human beings and I have felt graced by their presence in my life. As I said at Deb’s farewell May 16, she is one of those people who were here before I came in 1995, and she and her late husband Emory were much involved in the early days of seeking to rebuild St. Nicholas.
Those were special years in my own life as, full of enthusiasm — and even greater naivete — I embarked upon the great adventure of parish ministry for the first time. Of course, I did a lot of dumb things — and a few good ones — and Deb was a kind witness to them all.

One of the most enjoyable memories of those years was shepherding her through the initial stages of her discernment process and helping in some small ways to set her on the road that now leads to Twin Falls. I could never have imagined that our conversations would eventually lead her to the edge of the desert. Our God is indeed a God of surprises!

* * *
As I said May 23, what I have appreciated so much about Ethan is the way our minds and our-push-the-boundary theologies came together and made so much possible during the last six years.
I think one of my strengths for parish ministry is that I truly am able to enjoy each person who is part of this community. It is rare for me, however, to have encountered, as I did in Ethan, someone whose theological orientation and way of seeing the world is so close to my own. It made for a unique gift to me in my parish work.
At our best, we fed each other’s imagination and made one another’s ideas and approaches much stronger. The work with Ethan, and also with Mary Anne, especially in 2007-2008, was stimulating and creative and downright fun.
So, yes, it is exciting and delightful that Deb and Ethan are setting forth on new paths. But it is also, for me personally, difficult to bid them farewell. I can only hope — and trust that those goodbyes will be more than balanced in the years ahead by wonderful people to whom I — and we — will say hello.

Steve