[A-List] Self Government

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

The main social distinction regarding religion that is of interest to
US leftists who are thinking about the question of rebuilding a Left
is not one between secular and religious, among different faiths and
denominations, etc., but one between the "churched" and the
"unchurched": the latter are far more likely to be male,
single-never-married, etc. than the former.*  Americans who join
religious congregations and regularly attend church, mosque,
synagogue, etc. are less individualist than religious Americans who
don't and secular Americans who don't have any comparable institutions
that they sustain themselves.

As leftists, we should be more interested in Americans who have and
are developing capacities to join others in common endeavor, religious
or otherwise, than those who haven't and aren't.

Religious organizations in the United States -- especially those of
Islam, Judaism, and Protestantism and to a lesser extent those of
Catholicism -- are essentially the only large-scale exercises in self
government in this country.  As most leftists who disagree with Robert
Fitch say, without dues checkoff, most trade unions in the USA,
realistically, are almost certain to shrink drastically and perhaps
vanish into nothingness rather than to overcome their clientelism,
business unionism, etc. which is Fitch's intent in arguing against the
checkoff (unlike trade unions in France, which, without dues checkoff
and at a very low level of unionization, continue to wield power, due
to France's singular revolutionary political tradition and labor and
other laws that extend unions' gains to the non-unionized).  _The
ability to govern themselves collectively is the most important
ability for workers to develop._  Organized religions in the USA, as
well as in many other countries, should be understood as institutions
through which many workers gain and develop that most important
ability.


* <http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=Topic&TopicID=38>
Definition

The following is how we define an unchurched adult for our research:
an adult (18 or older) who has not attended a Christian church service
within the past six months, not including a holiday service (such as
Easter or Christmas) or a special event at a church (such as a wedding
or funeral).

How Many?

* There has been a 92% increase in the number of unchurched Americans
in the last thirteen years. In 1991 there were 39 million unchurched
Americans compared with 75 million currently. (2004)

Who?

* Although they comprise slightly less than half of the national
population, men constitute 55% of the unchurched. (2006)
* The average unchurched person is 41, which is younger than the
national norm of 45. (2006)
* One-fifth of American adults (21%) are single-never-married, whereas
nearly one-half of the unchurched fit that definition (48%). (2006)
* The highest concentration of unchurched adults is in the West where
43% of adults are unchurched and the Northeast (40%), compared to 28%
residents in the South and Midwest who are unchurched. (2006)

Spiritual Commitment

* More than three out of five (62%) unchurched adults consider
themselves to be Christian. (2006)
* 44% claim they have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that
is still important in their life today. (2006)
* In a typical week, 19% of unchurched people read the bible compared
to 47% of all adults who do so. (2006)
* In a typical week, 66% of unchurched people pray compared to 84% of
all adults who do so. (2006)
* Three-fifths (61%) of the churched population has accepted Jesus
Christ as their savior, compared with one out of every five unchurched
adults (21%) who has done so. (2006)

Beliefs

* 64% of the unchurched say that Satan is not a living being but is a
symbol of evil. (2006)
* 63% of unchurched adults state that a good person can earn his or
her way into Heaven. (2006)
* Slightly less than half (48%) of the unchurched define God as the
perfect, all-powerful, all-knowing Creator of the universe who
continues to rule His creation today. (2006)
* 51% of the unchurched assert that when Jesus Christ lived on earth,
He committed sins. (2006)
* 27% of the unchurched firmly believe that the Bible is totally
accurate in all that it teaches. (2006)

--
Yoshie