In Reality, Most People Who Say They Are Affiliated with Some Religion

[MineralMan]

71. Yes, I did write that. I also wrote that people should not bludgeon

others with their beliefs.

That was another thread, though. This thread's starting post was just descriptive of a sizable percentage of people. They answer poll questions about religion by saying that they're Catholics or Presbyterians or some other denomination. Sometimes they just say they're Christians. That does not mean that they practice their religion or even participate in church activities at all.

I suspect that everyone in this thread knows a number of people who are like that. They identify with some religion or denomination but do not make religion an active part of their lives. The numbers of such people are growing, to the dismay of many church leaders and individual pastors, who are seeing their attendance numbers go down. Declining attendance is a very popular point of discussion on the Internet at sites dealing with various faiths and denominations.

The number of nominal Christians, as I'm calling them, is increasing. You can see it in Pew Research Polls, Barna Polls, and in polls by anyone who does such polls about religious matters. Google will find all of that information quickly for you.

It's not a criticism of such Christians. It's simply a description. I'm not one to eschew criticism of religion either, as can be seen in other of my threads. But this one is just descriptive and seeks to put a label on people who claim religious belief but do not make it part of their lives. They are a significant minority in our population. They vote. They're of interest, politically, and in a number of other ways.

Nominal Christians do whatever they want to do. You'll find them in strip clubs, adult merchandise stores, and paying for the services of sex workers. You can even find them in high political office, even at the very highest levels. And yet, if you ask them about religion, they will identify themselves as Christians. They are counted as such by pollsters, and skew the poll results.

My post is about identification and polling. It's funny that it has been taken otherwise, I think.