States with the highest church attendence

[Plutonic Panda]

Utah- 51%
Mississippi – 47%
Alabama – 46%
Louisiana – 46%
Arkansas – 45%
South Carolina – 42%
Tennessee – 42%
Kentucky – 41%
North Carolina – 40%
Georgia – 39%
Texas – 39%
Oklahoma – 39%


- Frequent Church Attendance Highest in Utah, Lowest in Vermont

[Chadanth]

I'm a little surprised texas and Oklahoma came in so low.

[Zuplar]

If that graph doesn't depict the bible belt and buckle I don't know what does. Just goes to show that church is still a booming business in the south.

[Oh GAWD the Smell!]

I'm a little surprised texas and Oklahoma came in so low.

Same here.

[PennyQuilts]

Oh, jeeze. Let's track down and "expose" where the Muslims and Quakers have taken over, too. What is this religion obsession? Someone please explain why this is even a thing.

[Jersey Boss]

I read this article awhile back and it offers a somewhat different view. The article mentions the "halo effect" and how folks tend to over report things such as church attendance as well as under report things such as frequency of drinking alcoholic beverages. It appears that there are other factors in play also when arriving at church attendance numbers and how Gallup which reports that 40% of Americans are regular church goers.

7 Startling Facts: An Up Close Look at Church Attendance in America

[Motley]

Gallup takes polls on all kinds of topics. A more interesting site is Nate Silver's fivethirtyeight.com in which they analyze the meaning of the polls.

[CuatrodeMayo]

Then there's Utah...

[kelroy55]

Oh, jeeze. Let's track down and "expose" where the Muslims and Quakers have taken over, too. What is this religion obsession? Someone please explain why this is even a thing.

Please explain why most the posts on here is even a thing. It seems you're the only one that is upset about this thread.

[Chadanth]

Oh, jeeze. Let's track down and "expose" where the Muslims and Quakers have taken over, too. What is this religion obsession? Someone please explain why this is even a thing.

Wow, I didn't even start mocking religion yet and you got worked up.

[Bunty]

Oh, jeeze. Let's track down and "expose" where the Muslims and Quakers have taken over, too. What is this religion obsession? Someone please explain why this is even a thing.

Simply go to the State Capitol and view the Ten Commandments monument. Instead of that thing, I'd far rather see a monument to the Bill of Rights, considering how often it is that the legislators pass unconstitutional bills and leave the taxpayers the bill from defending them. But then maybe religious right Republicans would think that's a bad idea since it would constitute worshiping government.

[PennyQuilts]

Wow, I didn't even start mocking religion yet and you got worked up.

It's an honest question, C - why in the world is there such obsession over it? Who cares? And why? I don't get it. It made sense for competing churches who actually believe to be interested in what other churches are saying. But so many people who don't even go to church seem so fixated with the whole concept? Why?

[Tigerguy]

It's an honest question, C - why in the world is there such obsession over it? Who cares? And why? I don't get it. It made sense for competing churches who actually believe to be interested in what other churches are saying. But so many people who don't even go to church seem so fixated with the whole concept? Why?

Ummm...am I missing something here? I see a map about which states go to church, and that's it. It's just an interesting statistic. I got no vibe that somebody was trying to lay out the bait for a conversation about a war on religion, or some such thing. I don't even know what to call it because I definitely didn't infer any of that from the infographic or the initial comments.

[kelroy55]

Ummm...am I missing something here? I see a map about which states go to church, and that's it. It's just an interesting statistic. I got no vibe that somebody was trying to lay out the bait for a conversation about a war on religion, or some such thing. I don't even know what to call it because I definitely didn't infer any of that from the infographic or the initial comments.

Reactions like PQ's is why a lot of religious people say there's a war on religion when in fact there isn't one.

[Mel]

Wasn't surprised at all to see Utah as No. 1 and cali not even mentioned.

[bchris02]

Whenever you have a fundamentalist religious sect wanting to enshrine a narrow interpretation of their sacred text into law and legally discriminate against non-believers, there is going to be some pushback. Religion is a personal matter and a true conversion to Christianity happens in the heart of the believer, as a personal commitment between the believer and God. It is NEVER by force or by rule of law. The Catholic Church in medieval Europe didn't get it and the Fundamental Baptist church in America doesn't get it today.

[PennyQuilts]

Ummm...am I missing something here? I see a map about which states go to church, and that's it. It's just an interesting statistic. I got no vibe that somebody was trying to lay out the bait for a conversation about a war on religion, or some such thing. I don't even know what to call it because I definitely didn't infer any of that from the infographic or the initial comments.

Why would anyone care enough to even post it? And, presumably, it wasn't found in some obscure book on a shelf - someone no doubt placed it on social media somewhere to get picked up and posted here. My question remains - why on earth does anyone care?

[PennyQuilts]

Whenever you have a fundamentalist religious sect wanting to enshrine a narrow interpretation of their sacred text into law and legally discriminate against non-believers, there is going to be some pushback. Religion is a personal matter and a true conversion to Christianity happens in the heart of the believer, as a personal commitment between the believer and God. It is NEVER by force or by rule of law. The Catholic Church in medieval Europe didn't get it and the Fundamental Baptist church in America doesn't get it today.

I get why the fanatics are interested - but surely you aren't suggesting it is mainstream to be nuts about this, are you? Why in the world would a healthy adult care how many people go to church in a given state? Are they afraid of these people, or what? The stats mean little. Look at the map - is anyone really worried that those states with highest church attendance are going to take over? Seriously?

[PennyQuilts]

From the article:

Ten of the 12 states with the highest self-reported religious service attendance are in the South, along with Utah and Oklahoma. The strong religious culture in the South reflects a variety of factors, including history, cultural norms and the fact that these states have high Protestant and black populations -- both of which are above average in their self-reported religious service attendance. Utah's No. 1 position on the list is a direct result of that state's 59% Mormon population, as Mormons have the highest religious service attendance of any major religious group

[Jersey Boss]

Good god, if you don't like the show that's on, you are free to watch another channel, or turn off the television. If you don't like the thread, go to a different one or turn off the viewing device.

[Tigerguy]

Why would anyone care enough to even post it? And, presumably, it wasn't found in some obscure book on a shelf - someone no doubt placed it on social media somewhere to get picked up and posted here. My question remains - why on earth does anyone care?

Because they thought it might be interesting to see a snapshot about churchgoers in the United States, maybe? Why does anybody post in the political forum if nobody's going to change their minds? Why does anybody rant about OU or OSU or the Thunder when Stoops, Gundy, and Presti aren't going to do anything based on their rants? Heck, it opened a few eyes that, for as religious as Oklahoma is held up to be, the number is only 39%.

If they wanted to start that kind of conversation, I think the OP would have enough courage to come out and say so instead of just leaving a picture and an article hanging out in the open. Or, there's this, Gallup's reason for conducting all of these polls in the first place:

"This story is part of Gallup's annual "State of the States" series, which reveals state-by-state differences on political, economic, religion and well-being measures."

Maybe people care because they like to see how the country looks state-by-state on political, economic, religion, and well-being measures.

[PennyQuilts]

Here's my question, not answered. Why is this interesting? Is there a connection to the nonstop Christian bashing or just pure Intellectual, idle curiousity? A number of posters on this thread seem to be aghast that I ask the question. I'm getting eyebrows raised - but if someone posted similar graphs on Muslim mosque goers, let's get real - the posts would come hot and heavy suggesting there was some sort of agenda leading to posting it.

[turnpup]

Penny, I'll answer your question directly. I don't know about anybody else on here, but I just thought it was interesting to see the distribution of people who regularly attend religious services throughout the U.S. I found it curious that the New England states were the least likely to have regular worshippers. I wonder why? And, as somebody else said, surprised that California and Washington and Oregon were not in the grey category. So for me, there was some basic non-politically charged information to be gleaned from that article and graphic.

By the way, if you read the article linked to the original post, it asks whether you attend "church, synagogue or mosque", so presumably it would include andy Jews or Muslims who were part of the survey. So this isn't only about Christians.

[Motley]

My guess is most people on this blog like factoids for intellectual reasons. There are polls and lists out on all types of trivial information. Remember how USAtoday use to have the graph of the day full of useless information? Fun to read while wasting time at the airport.

Was Gallup commissioned to do this poll and publish the results by someone with an agenda? I don't know.

[PennyQuilts]

Penny, I'll answer your question directly. I don't know about anybody else on here, but I just thought it was interesting to see the distribution of people who regularly attend religious services throughout the U.S. I found it curious that the New England states were the least likely to have regular worshippers. I wonder why? And, as somebody else said, surprised that California and Washington and Oregon were not in the grey category. So for me, there was some basic non-politically charged information to be gleaned from that article and graphic.

By the way, if you read the article linked to the original post, it asks whether you attend "church, synagogue or mosque", so presumably it would include andy Jews or Muslims who were part of the survey. So this isn't only about Christians.

Very good point about how this wasn't limited to Christians. I was thinking Christian because of the categories listed and the use of the word Church rather than including synagogue or Mosque. The NE has been abandoning church attendance for quite a long time, which really is interesting when you consider they were the cradle of the Puritans and where so many landed seeking religious freedom. I've read about the progression of ultra religious to pretty secular in that region and it is quite fascinating.