Interesting Stats from Barna

The Barna Group is an evangelical Christian organization that does surveys and research to better understand what Christians believe and how they behave. Many times their results run counter to popular Christians beliefs and their end-of-the-year report is no different.

Barna reports:

Born again adults who have been married are just as likely as non-born-again adults who have been married to eventually become divorced. Because the vast majority of born again marriages occurred after the partners had accepted Christ as their savior, it appears that their connection to Christ makes less difference in the durability of people’s marriages than many people might expect.

Faith has had a limited affect on people’s behavior, whether related to moral convictions and practices, relational activities, lifestyle choices or economic practices. Evangelical Christians, who are just 7% of the national population and less than 10% of those who consider themselves to be Christian, are the exception.

Born-again Christians are just as likely to divorce as anyone else (except atheists, who divorce at much lower rates)... so how are they an exception to the idea that faith has a limited impact on behavior? Examples offered include things like discuss political or moral issues with others, but is that really more important than divorce?

The sources of people’s greatest spiritual fulfillment are relatively bland in nature. Elements that reflect more intense personal involvement in faith or a relationship with Christ are among the least common sources of people’s spiritual fulfillment.

Born again Christians and adults who attend Christian churches are more likely than atheists, agnostics, and adherents of non-Christian faiths to buy lottery tickets.

There seems to be a consistent degree of attrition of men from the Christian faith. The numbers of men who are unchurched is rising, while the numbers of men who are “deeply spiritual” and those who possess an active faith (attend church, pray and read the Bible during the week) is declining.

These and the other figures cited in the report are all indeed very interesting. The marriage issue is particularly interesting given the fact that these are the same Christians who seem most likely to raise an alarm about the state of marriage in society and want to deny gays the right to marry on the assumption that gay marriage is a "threat" to the institution of marriage.

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