People who say they go to church are probably lying

How many Americans say they attend religious services every week?

How many actually do that?

According to Gallup polling, 21 percent of us say we attend religious services weekly; 41 percent say they attend at least monthly.

However, the data says otherwise.

Devin Pope, a business school professor at the University of Chicago, studied geodata from cell phones of more than two million Americans to investigate their behavior regarding religion. He found that only 5 percent attended services weekly, and only 21 percent monthly. As one article about Pope’s research headlined, “People who say they attend religious services every week are probably lying.”

The story raises a cultural question: Why would so many people claim to attend religious services so much more often than they actually do?

Religion is twice as popular as sport

According to Gallup, about three in four Americans identify with a specific religious faith. Religious commitment therefore trumps a number of other important characteristics in our culture:

• 28 percent of Americans identify as Democrats, 28 percent as Republicans and 41 percent as independents.
• 60 percent of us have a job.
• 66 percent of us own a home.
• 37 percent of us say we follow sports extremely or somewhat closely.

In an increasingly secularized society, why is it still attractive for so many Americans to claim a religious identity and even say they often attend religious services?

British atheist Richard Dawkins recently made headlines by claiming to be a “cultural Christian.” He meant that he values ​​Christianity’s contribution to his country’s history and cultural heritage and prefers the Christian tradition to Islam or other options.

I think Dawkins speaks for many. Religiosity still equates to cultural, moral and traditional values ​​in our society.

But religiosity is not enough to meet the challenges we face today.

“A protection against bad things”

In his brilliant explanation Why politics failsOxford professor Ben Ansell identifies one of the greatest values ​​of democratic government: “There is nothing. . . that guarantees that democracies get good politicians. But at least ‘the people’ will be able to throw them away if they are terrible.”

Cultural commentator Jonah Goldberg agrees:

The greatness of democracy lies in the fact that it provides protection against bad things. (The record on insuring good things is certainly more mixed and contested.) The ability to fire people is essential to political competition. If a politician or a party messes up or starts looking out for their own interests more than the interests of the voters, the ability to kick them out is essential. This was one of the greatest innovations in human history. Monarchs and aristocracies can become selfish and self-centered. They always end up doing that. Politicians are susceptible to the same trends. But in a democracy you can eradicate them without swords or guns.

While we can be grateful for democracy’s ability to remove bad leaders, Ansell is right: democracy cannot guarantee good leaders. The people we take office next will be as fallen and flawed as those they replace.

And religiosity cannot make up the difference.

Only one of the 469 members of the current U.S. Congress admits to being religiously “disaffiliated,” while 87 percent claim to be Christian and another 6 percent say they are Jewish. America has never elected an outspoken atheist as president.

How does the religiosity of our leaders affect us?

Cultural Christianity is a contradiction in terms

We experience the transforming power of Christianity not by identifying with it as a religion, but by personally experiencing the living Christ. Saul of Tarsus was not changed by changing his religious identity from Jewish to Christian, but by encountering the risen Christ on the road to Damascus. He would later explain this reality to the rest of us: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old is gone; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

This is how all relationships work. Marriage changes your life not because you are ‘married’, but because you entrust your life to your partner and she to you. The same applies to parenthood, education or work: it is not about identifying with the institution, but about experiencing the relationship it offers.

However, this is especially true of Christianity. Unlike your spouse or parents, your Lord lives in you by his Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:16). Unlike your employer or professor, Jesus has the divine power to forgive all your sins (1 John 1:9) and transform your character into His (Romans 8:29).

Here’s the bottom line:

Cultural Christianity is a contradiction in terms, but Biblical Christianity transforms culture.

When was the last time the living Lord Jesus changed your life?

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Monday news to know:

Quote for the day:

“Christians are not only expected to tolerate change, or even benefit from it, but to cause it.” —Harry Emerson Fosdick