9.19.2006
The "Other" In The Survey
The Revealer has been publishing some great commentary about the recent Baylor study on American religion. The study has been getting a lot of press for the new "Four Gods" (Authoritarian, Benevolent, Critical or Distant) categorization of American faith.
"One area that emerged from the survey that has excited the researchers is what they call the "Four Gods." Depending on how engaged people think God is in the world and how angry God is with the world. "If you think about people perceiving God as high in anger, low in anger, high in engagement, low in engagement, it results in four different types of gods," said Froese."
While this new meme is being chewed over by pundits, S. Brent Plate of The Revealer wonders how deep this survey really is. Can it escape a decidedly Christian bias?
"This group of Baylor scholars set out to show the diversity of US religion, and it is indeed a great addition to the canon of surveys already out there, and a needed antidote to certain trivial perspectives from without. However, I'm not sure we get more than two inches here."
The survey seems to only give a passing glance to anything non-Christian.
"The survey begins broad, asking "With what religious family do you most closely identify," providing boxes for "Hindu," "Muslim," and "Buddhist," and about 30 options for flavors of Christianity (depending on how one counts such things). No diversity within Buddhism is possible, however, nor is there any difference between Lubavitch or Reform Judaism, nor is there seemingly anything more specific than Orthodox Christianity, which on this survey includes Eastern, Russian, and Greek strands. By questions three and four, we are already firmly into Christian-only territory, with options for religious identity tags being: "Born-Again," Bible-Believing," "Fundamentalist," "Mainline Christian," et al., and nothing corresponding to a non-Christian identification..."
My personal favorite line from the commentary.
"If we non-Christians were not feeling left out enough, in question 13 our options for prayer are limited to the possibilities: A) Pray to God, B) Pray to Jesus, C) sometimes God/sometimes Jesus, or D) "other (please specify)." (I love getting the chance to specify my favorite deity in a box the size of my fingernail.)"
Remember folks, in a pinch, "Pan" is only three letters long! This commentary leads well into another by freelance writer Ibrahim N. Abusharif. Abusharif is rankled by Islam being thrown into the "Others" category of the survey (even though some of his best friends are "Others").
"Baylor's survey sample is obviously too small, and some rigor alarms should have gone off when the sample respondents did not include a sufficient number of Muslims to have made a separate demographic treatment. So Muslims got shoved here: "Other: A collection of non-Christian and smaller Christian groups that do not fit in any other category. Representative groups include Buddhist, Christian Science, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon), Hindu, Jehovah's Witnesses, Muslim, Orthodox (Eastern, Russian, Greek), and Unitarian Universalist." I have no problem with "others". I like them, in fact. I have "others" for friends, and my dentist is a devout "other". And I've been published in an "other" newspaper of national repute."
What should modern Pagans and Heathens take from this? Only what we knew all along. Surveys of religion in America are still skewed towards the dominantly Christian population and it will most likely be a long time before we have decent statistics on our community. One can hope that future surveys dig deeper for a picture of religion in America, until then I console myself in knowing that I have a lot of good company in the "Other" box.
Labels: Paganism
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