{"id":6519,"date":"2010-07-09T06:08:10","date_gmt":"2010-07-09T06:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/2010\/07\/are-christians-really-4.html"},"modified":"2010-07-09T06:08:10","modified_gmt":"2010-07-09T06:08:10","slug":"are-christians-really-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/07\/are-christians-really-4.html","title":{"rendered":"Are Christians Really&#8230;.? 4"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/assets_c\/2010\/06\/BREWright-15794.html\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/120\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/06\/BREWright-thumb-333x335-15794.jpg\" width=\"333\" height=\"335\" alt=\"BREWright.jpg\" class=\"mt-image-left\" style=\"float: left;margin: 0 20px 20px 0\" \/><\/a><\/span><b> Are evangelical Christians poor, uneducated, Southern and white?<\/b> (Not that anyone has anything against any of the groups.)&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>This is the question Brad Wright asks and probes in the 4th chap of his excellent new book, <em><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0764207466?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=jescre-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0764207466\">Christians Are Hate-Filled Hypocrites&#8230;and Other Lies You&#8217;ve Been Told: A Sociologist Shatters Myths From the Secular and Christian Media<\/a><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=jescre-20&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=0764207466\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" style=\"border:none !important;margin:0px !important\" \/><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/em><br \/>\n.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Many people say these things. A WaPo writer, Michael Weisskopf, says &#8220;Evangelicals are largely poor, uneducated, and easy to command.&#8221;<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><b>If you had to connect one word to the word &#8220;Evangelical&#8221; what word would it be? (Is it accurate?)<\/b><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>So Wright asks who is in the church and how did they get there.<\/div>\n<p><!--more--><br \/>\nGender<\/p>\n<div>About 46-48% of church attenders are male; but among Black Prots the number is only 40%. But women participate in the Church and have a more intense faith than males. Muslims and Hindus are more male-represented.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Why? David Murrow famously argued Christianity appeals to women more and it is a feminized religion. But Rodney Stark contended that Christianity became a world religion because it valued women more than its surrounding culture.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Race<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Billy Graham is the one who observed, in 1950s, that the 11am hour is the most segregated hour of the week.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>1. 66% of American churches (large ones) are 80% White.<\/div>\n<div>2. 1 in 8 is 80% Black.<\/div>\n<div>3. 50% of churches do not have an Asian; 33% have no Hispanics.<\/div>\n<div>4. These numbers of racial segregation are improving.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>People gravitate to those who are like them; they prefer people who have their preferences; what makes the American church segregated is also what makes it strong.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>To use the image of another: the church in America is like a mall &#8212; most stores are specialized while there are a few general department stores.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Class<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Education is a good measure here. Here are the percents of college grads: Americans (27), Evangelicals (20), Mainline (33), Black Prots (16), Catholic (26), Orthodox (46), Jewish (58), Muslim (23), Buddhist (48), Hindu (73), Unaffiliated (29).<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Education tends to make evangelicals more certain of their faith. Thus, Wright encourages Christian parents to send their children to college. There&#8217;s a higher chance they will retain their faith.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Region<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>More evangelicals in the Midwest and South, with fewest in East and West, but these numbers are now shifting in a &#8220;regression toward the mean.&#8221;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Are evangelical Christians poor, uneducated, Southern and white? (Not that anyone has anything against any of the groups.)&nbsp; This is the question Brad Wright asks and probes in the 4th chap of his excellent new book, Christians Are Hate-Filled Hypocrites&#8230;and Other Lies You&#8217;ve Been Told: A Sociologist Shatters Myths From the Secular and Christian Media&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-evangelicalism"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Are Christians Really....? 4 - 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\/07\/are-christians-really-4.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Are Christians Really....? 4 - Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Are evangelical Christians poor, uneducated, Southern and white? (Not that anyone has anything against any of the groups.)&nbsp; This is the question Brad Wright asks and probes in the 4th chap of his excellent new book, Christians Are Hate-Filled Hypocrites&#8230;and Other Lies You&#8217;ve Been Told: A Sociologist Shatters Myths From the Secular and Christian Media&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/07\/are-christians-really-4.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-07-09T06:08:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/06\/BREWright-thumb-333x335-15794.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Are Christians Really....? 4 - 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\/07\/are-christians-really-4.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Are Christians Really....? 4 - Jesus Creed","og_description":"Are evangelical Christians poor, uneducated, Southern and white? (Not that anyone has anything against any of the groups.)&nbsp; This is the question Brad Wright asks and probes in the 4th chap of his excellent new book, Christians Are Hate-Filled Hypocrites&#8230;and Other Lies You&#8217;ve Been Told: A Sociologist Shatters Myths From the Secular and Christian Media&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/07\/are-christians-really-4.html","og_site_name":"Jesus Creed","article_published_time":"2010-07-09T06:08:10+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/06\/BREWright-thumb-333x335-15794.jpg"}],"author":"Scot McKnight","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/07\/are-christians-really-4.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/07\/are-christians-really-4.html","name":"Are Christians Really....? 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