{"id":6390,"date":"2010-06-04T12:18:49","date_gmt":"2010-06-04T12:18:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/2010\/06\/judging-god-engaging-god.html"},"modified":"2010-06-04T12:18:49","modified_gmt":"2010-06-04T12:18:49","slug":"judging-god-engaging-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/06\/judging-god-engaging-god.html","title":{"rendered":"Judging God, Engaging God"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Baylor Survey of Religion study (What Americans Really Believe<\/a>\"\"
\n<\/strong><\/em>) examined the correlation between one’s view of God and one’s commitment to religious practices. It measured American religious commitment by prayer, church attendance, religious experience, Bible reading, identification as a religious person and witnessing to strangers.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
It asked questions, to begin with, to discover whether or not one’s view of God was more benevolent and engaging vs. a God who is more judging and severe. To do this, it asked questions about God’s concern with the world’s well-being, one’s own personal well-being, direct involvement in the world’s affairs, angered by human sin and angered by my sins. Here’s how I would read his conclusions:<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
God as distant (17%) and ever-present (85%). God as critical (26%) and punishing (38%). God as severe (26%) and wrathful (30%).<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The big issue here is how one’s view of God impacts one’s religious practices. Are people, in other words, more religious out of fear or gratitude?<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The answer… after the jump:<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
“It isn’t even close. Conceiving of God as benevolent and engaged is very highly correlated with a variety of aspects of commitment… seeing God as judgmental is only very weakly related to these aspects of commitment” (78).  <\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Here are some correlation numbers: prayer (.647 vs. .185), church attendance (.588 vs. .211), religious experiences (.646 vs. .176) … <\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
“people respond far more strongly religiously to a carrot than to a stick” (78).<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Here’s the big download pastorally: One’s view of God is perhaps the most significant dimension of one’s religious practices. Get a good biblical grasp of God … <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Baylor Survey of Religion study (What Americans Really Believe ) examined the correlation between one’s view of God and one’s commitment to religious practices. It measured American religious commitment by prayer, church attendance, religious experience, Bible reading, identification as a religious person and witnessing to strangers. It asked questions, to begin with, to discover…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gospel"],"yoast_head":"\nJudging God, Engaging God - Jesus Creed<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/06\/judging-god-engaging-god.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Judging God, Engaging God - Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Baylor Survey of Religion study (What Americans Really Believe ) examined the correlation between one’s view of God and one’s commitment to religious practices. It measured American religious commitment by prayer, church attendance, religious experience, Bible reading, identification as a religious person and witnessing to strangers. It asked questions, to begin with, to discover…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/06\/judging-god-engaging-god.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-06-04T12:18:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=jescre-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1602581789\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Judging God, Engaging God - Jesus Creed","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/06\/judging-god-engaging-god.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Judging God, Engaging God - Jesus Creed","og_description":"The Baylor Survey of Religion study (What Americans Really Believe ) examined the correlation between one’s view of God and one’s commitment to religious practices. 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