Pew Research Center surveyed 10,211 U.S. adults from July 13 to 19, 2020.to help understand how the coronavirus outbreak has impacted the worship habits of Americans. It is part of a panel survey which means they have pre-pandemic data on these people.
All respondents to the survey are part of Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national random sampling of residential addresses. This way nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories.
Their recommendation citation is:
Americans Oppose Religious Exemptions From Coronavirus-Related Restrictions
Few
regular worshippers say their congregations are operating normally, and most
support the precautions being taken
PEW’s presentation focuses upon the opinions of the respondents rather than upon the very large behavioral changes that are taking place. I suspect most people gave their opinions with the framework that they are operating abnormally but will return some day to normal. Hence they largely support the precautions but don’t think what they are doing now will change things in the long term.
What is actually going on has the potential to change behavior
permanently especially if it lasts for a year or more. Not only do changes in opinion change behavior; often changes in behavior change opinions. In my summary of the findings behavior changes and their potential for permanent change among Catholics will be emphasized. My speculations are in italics
Summary of Findings
Pandemic Environment
Of people who said in a 2019 survey that they attended religious services regularly, 91% indicated that their congregations were closed entirely during April. Most reported their congregations open in July including 55% who said their congregation is open with certain coronavirus-related modifications in place and 6% who said their congregation is open and operating normally, however 31% reported that their congregation remained closed and the remainder were unsure.
Total Population Religious Service Attendance / Watching
During the last month, one-in-eight U.S. adults (12%) attended religious services in person and one-in-three (33%) watched religious services online or on television.
Those reporting attending religious services at least once a month in 2019 survey.
During the last month (33%) have done so in person while (72%) watched religious services online or on TV.
Those who reported not regularly attending religious services in 2019 survey
Only 3% say they have attended worship services during the past month but 17% say they have watched virtually. Apparently the pandemic has motivated some people who have not attended religious services to do so virtually now, whether this is because of fear or boredom or some combination we do not know.
Many Americans have replaced in-person religious attendance
with virtual
attendance.
Overall, about half of U.S. adults (49%) who typically attended religious services at least once a month in 2019 appear to have substituted virtual participation for in-person attendance: They have recently watched services online or on television and have not attended in person.
Roughly a quarter of regular worship attenders (23%) appear to be supplementing in-person attendance with virtual participation: They have both attended religious services and watched them online or on TV in the last month.
Just one-in-ten (10%) of regular worship attenders say they are still attending services in person and have not recently watched services virtually,
One-in-five (19%) have neither attended in person nor watched religious services online in recent weeks.
Catholics gave gone to online services somewhat less (42% rather than 49%), have supplemented about the same (21% vs 23%), are still attending the same (11% vs 10%) but are more likely not to attend (26% vs 19%). The seven percent less of Catholics who have attended online are essentially not attending! Why do they not participate in online services? Will they come back to attendance in person?
Many Americans are experiencing virtual services for the first time
|
Of those who watched
during pandemic |
||
|
Group |
New watchers |
Watched Before |
|
Total |
54% |
46% |
|
All
Christians |
55% |
44% |
|
Catholic |
68% |
31% |
|
White
Catholic |
68% |
32% |
|
Hispanic
Catholic |
71% |
28% |
With more than half of Americans, and more than two-thirds of Catholics watching virtual services for the first time, obviously Catholics should give a great deal of thought and attention to potential of virtual services to change attitudes and behavior even if most people think of them as only a temporary solution.
Most virtual worshippers have watched congregations other than their own
|
Group |
Own
Congregation |
Other |
Both |
|
Total |
40% |
29% |
30% |
|
Christians |
42% |
27% |
30% |
|
Catholic |
42% |
35% |
23% |
|
White
Catholic |
44% |
31% |
24% |
|
Hispanic
Catholic |
44% |
37% |
18% |
Clearly most people are using the opportunity of the pandemic to watch both their own congregation as well as other congregations. It is not so much an either/or as a both/and. Catholics both at the parish, diocesan, and national level should devote substantial virtual resources to not only serving their current members in order to retain them, but also to serve other parishes, Catholics in general, and the general population who are exploring worship opportunities during the pandemic.
Most
regular religious attenders say their congregationis
now streaming or recording its services
|
Group |
Yes |
No |
|
Total |
79% |
20% |
|
Christian |
80% |
19% |
|
Catholic |
68% |
31% |
|
White
Catholic |
74% |
25% |
|
Hispanic
Catholic |
62% |
35% |
While the majority of religious attenders say their congregation is now streaming or recording it services, Catholic congregations are less likely to do so, especially if they are Hispanic.
Most
U.S. adults who have watched religious services online, or TV
satisfied with
what they have seen
|
Group |
Very
Satisfied |
Somewhat |
Not
Satisfied |
|
Total |
54% |
37% |
8% |
|
Christians |
57% |
36% |
6% |
|
Catholic |
58% |
33% |
8% |
|
White
Catholic |
58% |
33% |
9% |
|
Hispanic
Catholic |
61% |
30% |
9% |
People rarely use the negative ends of the scale (not too satisfied, not satisfied as all) to express their dissatisfaction, the “somewhat satisfied” is a better indicator that people think that there could be improvement.
Donations
to houses of worship have not changed much, although more have decreased than
increased
|
Group |
More |
Less |
Same |
Do
not donate |
|
Total |
8% |
18% |
54% |
17% |
|
Christians |
8% |
19% |
56% |
16% |
|
Catholic |
5% |
28% |
42% |
22% |
|
White
Catholic |
7% |
27% |
53% |
12% |
|
Hispanic
Catholic |
4% |
25% |
30% |
37% |
A larger percentage of Catholics (both White and Hispanic) reported donating less, and Hispanic Catholics are twice as likely others to report that they simply do not donate.
Most say their religious attendance habits will revert to pre-pandemic norms
|
Group |
More |
Less |
Same |
Do
not attend |
|
Total |
10% |
5% |
42% |
43% |
|
Christians |
13% |
6% |
59% |
21% |
|
Catholics |
10% |
8% |
52% |
29% |
|
White
Catholics |
9% |
4% |
55% |
31% |
|
Hispanic
Catholics |
12% |
13% |
49% |
26% |
|
Monthly
Attenders |
16% |
7% |
73% |
4% |
|
Less
than Monthly |
7% |
4% |
28% |
60% |
Most people have had their lives disrupted, and obviously hope to return to normal. However if the pandemic continues to promote virtual religious experience for a year or two, a new normal may develop.
PEW also reports few expect an increase in their engagement with virtual services after the pandemic, that just 2% of regular religious attenders anticipate watching more services remotely, attending less in person once outbreak is over.
Thanks, Jack. Interesting statistics.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that over time a new normal may develop. I think it is interesting that there seems to be a subset who previously weren't attending in person much but who are more likely to watch virtual services. I take the position that any engagement is better than none.I
I have read articles by people who don't like virtual services at all, and advocate that people would be better off doing their own devotions, maybe liturgy of the word or something else. I wonder how many are actually doing this. My guess is, not many. Probably because it takes planning and forethought. The advantage of taking part in online or televised liturgy is that the planning has already been done for you.
Other points of interest:
ReplyDelete--Catholics and evangelicals are most likely to think they won't get sick at church. It would be interesting to know the reasons for this. One of our Church Ladies insists that the gold in terms cup kills germs. I doubt this belief is widespread.
--Catholics were most likely to neither view or attend Mass. Evangelicals were most like to do one or the other or both. Again, it would be interesting to know reasons. My guess is that Catholic congregations are older.
This data in this RNS article isn’t about participation in services, virtually or in person. But it is interesting, showing that Kamala Harris’ mixed backgrounds, both race AND religion, is almost a snapshot of younger Americans, while trump and Pence are representative of much older Americans.
ReplyDeletehttps://religionnews.com/2020/08/12/kamala-harris-pick-goes-beyond-gender-and-race-she-is-also-the-future-of-american-religion/
I saw that article too, Anne. I thought it was interesting that Harris is a member of a Black Baptist congregation in San Fransisco. There are a lot of different kinds of Baptists, I wouldn't know where her group falls as far as theology. My maternal grandparents were what used to be called Northern Baptists (now called American Baptists). They parted company with the Southern Baptists over slavery. They are maybe a little less fundamentalist than the SB. There is a little indie group locally who call themselves Bible Baptists. The women don't wear slacks and they have their own school, and some of them homeschool.
DeleteIt is difficult to extrapolate long term effects from what is going on now because we don't know how long this will last. In April, when I saw how incompetently the USA was handling the pandemic, I told the pastor not to expect to see me again until October. It now begins to look like October was optimistic by about six months.
ReplyDeleteA three-week crisis followed by the routinizing of the response -- as Taiwan had -- would not have brought about the kind of changes a year of fumbling around is going to cause. "Normal" may yet mean masks for a few years, as Asians are used to but which many Americans deem unconstitutional, oppressive and Marxist. We simply don't know when and how we will reach "normal." The 1919-20 pandemic left a lot of people dead, but it was quickly followed by the roaring Twenties. Did the Twenties roar because life had become cheap? They certainly didn't indicate that the pandemic had a sobering effect on people. (And, since I used the word "sobering," there is little evidence that Prohibition was popular with anybody but its exponents, who made up a less than Trumpian minority.)
If anything, it seems that the 1918 pandemic was expunged from collective memory. I had relatives who were alive during that plague but never mentioned it. I don't remember it being taught in my American history courses. I think it was only in the last two decades that it received any coverage in the press.
DeleteThe 1906 San Francisco earthquake was quickly forgotten in a practical way. Rebuilding without earthquake standards showed an attitude that the earthquake was a one-off or too rare to care.
Not that humans can't do better, as Katherine's Hagia Sofia documentary demonstrated.
Will we make changes to our food infrastructure to reduce the chance of zoonotic transfer? Probably not. There probably be social changes but they will be unrelated to reducing the chance of a new plague.
The 1918 pandemic may be the reason I was born, or the reason I was not someone else. My grandpa, and the rest of his army unit, got sick with the flu. He lived through it, but was not deployed overseas because his lungs were compromised. Which meant that he wasn't in a battle of WWI where he possibly could have been killed. A young woman that he had been seeing died of the influenza. He married my grandma several years later. We only found out about the old girlfriend when a stack of letters surfaced, years after both grandpa and grandma had passed away.
DeleteIt is not a surprise, at least to me, that the Catholic church apparently is behind the curve when it comes to leveraging the Internet and technology to extend the reach of their services. I don't know of any evidence that this has been a priority for Catholic leadership, even though other churches which are much better at evangelization are much more technology-forward in this regard. The basic attitude of Catholic leaders seems to be, "There is EWTN, and that is enough" (this although EWTN in some ways came about in spite of, rather than because of, any initiative on the part of Catholic leadership). But many people don't want to watch EWTN. They are members of a particular faith community and want to stay connected to their own community.
ReplyDeleteMy own parish now having dabbled its toes in the waters of online broadcasts (or, in our case, re-broadcasts of recorded events), I can see that religious services over the media requires investments (not necessarily large) and the cultivation of certain skills, like video and sound production, in staff and volunteers which parishes traditionally have not focused on nor even thought very much about. Because there is not much guidance or support coming from the upper echelons, most parishes are on their own to figure this out. No doubt, some pastors will be better at this than others. On the whole, Catholic pastors are just a few years from retirement, and many presumably are not particularly motivated to undertake new initiatives, especially if they require spending money. The time to make the investments and recruit the volunteers would have been 5-10 years ago, when there was no pandemic and attendance (and collections) were considerably higher than they were now.
My in-laws' Baptist and Wesleyan worship is looser and features more praise music with multi-media accompaniment. They have the tech equipment and volunteers to stream services. They also stream special messages to the sick and shut ins. In Catholic and mainstream Protestant parishes, once you're sick and can't come to church, you might as well be dead unless you have a strong outreach ministry at keeps track of these people and takes communion to them.
DeleteThere is another factor about Catholic clergy reluctance to embrace modern media. I think some of them think of it as a newfangled frivolous luxury that the church did fine without for millennia. Irenaeus of Lyons and John Chrystostum didn't need no stinkin' internet. There are days when I think they might have a point after seeing the latest brain-dead Facebook share.
DeleteAbout EWTN, it seem like it has lately become Fox News at prayer, and gives a platform to some off-the-deep-end stuff. I wish the PTB would make clear that it is a private corporation and doesn't speak for the church. They don't have any problem doing that with NCR.
I belong to several FB groups, including the local parish. These are moderated. I find these groups and orgs helpful in connecting me with others who share my interests. These groups also have moderators.
DeleteI don't "friend" individuals.
If people want to contact me, they can email or message. In doing so, they are more likely to exchange family news and photos than sending me their opinions wrapped in a dumbass and offensive meme who a picture of Tucker Carlson.
If you're a smart consumer of FB, you weed out a lot of aggravation.
Jean, I know. I do curate and weed out a lot of stuff. Trouble is I am related to some of the sharers of the offensive stuff, and want to stay connected to them for other reasons. I am trying to straddle the line between loving the person and wondering sometimes if they have strangled every last brain cell they possess.
DeleteMaybe a defined group for family with ground rules? They might be more likely to post family news and fewer political announcements. But don't take advice from me. I had to block my brother's texts. My guess is that when someone keeps poking you with a hot needle, it's not just about political convictions but some deeper family resentment. Only you can decide if they're worth the aggravation.
DeleteI'm somewhat skeptical of the study's finding that "most" of the faithful will return to their previous habits of worship when the pandemic is behind us. There are many things to note about this:
ReplyDelete* The pandemic may not end anytime soon. Most folks seem to think that a vaccine is just around the corner. But it may be a year or more before an effective and safe vaccine is in mass production. It may not happen at all.
* The pandemic has disrupted people's lives in many ways, most notably by causing jobs to be lost and some businesses to disappear. In addition, the effects of the disruption of education (I am thinking in particular of undergraduate college education) is not entirely clear yet. These considerations are important because it means that some people's life plans will have been significantly changed. One likely effect is that some people surely will leave their local area in pursuit of jobs elsewhere. How this will affect church membership and attendance is yet to be fully understood. If one outcome is that more employees will have moved from stable and predictable full-time employment to part-time employment or the "gig economy", that could be detrimental to Sunday worship.
* People's perceptions of the pandemic and its risks don't always align with reality. Most people are risk-averse. Even if it can be demonstrated that corporate worship is not particularly risky, not everyone will believe that (or even be aware that it's been shown). Many will choose to stay away so as to avoid crowds, and others may insist that measures which detract from the worship experience (social distancing, masks, no singing) remain in place.
It's also worth noting that even if "most" people return to their previous practices and habits of worship, those who don't return can constitute a significant minority - enough to tip a parish whose finances already were precarious into insolvency. I believe that the pandemic will have accelerated the "day of reckoning" for many parishes which previously had been experiencing gradual and somewhat manageable decline.
Jim, do you think that the pandemic itself will shake or change people's faith in God? Or affect how they view the role of religion in their lives? Or result in denominational shifts?
DeleteDuring the London epidemic of bubonic plague in 1665, Anglican clergy declined to do services. People turned to Dissenters to provide spiritual comfort, and Daniel Defoe reported a steep decline in sectarian conflict. Whether some Anglicans made a permanent change isn't discussed in his account of the plague year.
The Pew study seems to mostly assume everyone is staying in their denominational categories, but I wonder if people are using this time to sample other forms of worship.
"Jim, do you think that the pandemic itself will shake or change people's faith in God? Or affect how they view the role of religion in their lives? Or result in denominational shifts?"
DeleteThese are just my personal opinions.
I am not sure to what extent the pandemic will shake or change people's faith in God. I have read that, in the past, pandemics have increased people's sense of fatalism, which seems opposed to leading a life characterized by faith and hope. On the other hand, it may be that those infected, and the families of those infected, will turn to prayer. So it may be sort of a mixed effect.
I think the pandemic certainly will attenuate the role of organized religion in people's lives. I don't expect church attendance to bounce back, at least not all the way. In my archdiocese, the pandemic already is accelerating the ongoing program of parish mergers and closures, as the pandemic makes parishes less viable. On the other hand, Catholic school enrollment around here seems to be experiencing a modest bounce, because they are doing in-class learning while all the public schools are remote-learning-only.
Regarding denominational shifts: it seems the larger trend in American society, even before the pandemic, was disaffiliation from denominational membership and identity. I expect the pandemic to accelerate that trend. Any shifts in denominational membership will be from those which are not good at evangelizing (like the Catholic church in the US) to those which are good at evangelizing, which around here means the Evangelical mega-churches. But I expect those interdenominational shifts will be dwarfed by disaffiliation.
Just my personal and amateur predictions.
Yes, fatalism observed in 1665 as well. I certainly have a tendency to feel that, though I continue to do all the handwashing, mask wearing, etc. to prevent spread.
DeleteThey used to talk about indifferentism as a heresy. This attenuated role of organized religion could be described as restricted or latitudinarian indifferentism. But nowadays it would be described as not really caring about the distinctions of denominations, or just not caring at all. Hard to make a heresy out of "meh".
DeleteFatalism during earlier pandemics came about when people had seen so much death and sickness that they believed it was inevitable they would succumb. Some responded with increased religious fervor--the only life left was the afterlife--but didn't bother with social distancing or worry about worshipping in close quarters. Some went crazy and threw themselves into the Thames in the 1665 Plague pandemic or jumped into the mass graves that were filled in every night to get the inevitable over with. And some quit taking care of themselves or their families believing there was no point and they were all doomed.
DeleteI don't think we're at that point yet; we're all putting our hopes in an effective vaccine. If the vaccine turns out to be of limited effectiveness and we get a bad flu season on top of a winter spike in covid, we may see people moving in a more fatalistic direction. Whether that situation would turn people to faith or away from it is anyone's guess.
I came across an interesting article on the differences between the responses of western (Christian) and near eastern (Muslim) societies to the plague. The Christians were more likely to believe it was a punishment for sin, and to react with penitential practices like the flagelantes. Also by blaming others, such as the Jews. The Muslims looked on it as a gift of martyrdom, releasing the soul to God. The western societies underwent radical change as a result of the plague, while the near eastern ones didn't. Not sure I entirely buy the article's conclusions, reality was probably more complex. But a difference now is that I have heard no one say that the virus was a punishment for sin, or that it was the will of God.
DeleteKatherine, Defoe talks about that difference between Muslims and Christians, so it was noticed centuries ago. Interesting.
DeleteThe reason we're not hearing about covid being divine punishment is probably because the denominations with preachers inclined that way are partisans of the party that believes the president's line that it's just the sniffles for most people. Not punishment if it's a fiction of godless science.
Until fairly recently, and perhaps still, the pandemic in the US has been mostly urban. The deaths have been overwhelmingly (90%+) the elderly. And it has afflicted Blacks and Hispanics disproportionately. I think it's possible that the Jerry Falwell sector of American society hasn't been nearly as affected by the pandemic. By contrast, AIDS afflicted LGBs whom the Falwellians already were disposed to despise. And polio afflicted white children (among others) - it hit closer to home for the Falwellians.
DeleteThe biggest impact of the pandemic on Falwellians seems to have been the installation of a conviction that nobody can make them wear a mask if they don't want to. That's the attitude of someone who hasn't lost a family member to COVID-19.
If you define "elderly" as anyone over 60, Michigan's death rate (I only track state and local numbers daily) is indeed 90 percent elderly. Deaths seem to stay low until you hit age 40, and then they double for every decade thereafter.
Deletehttps://www.clickondetroit.com/news/local/2020/03/31/tracking-michigan-covid-19-cases-by-age-range/
Michigan first saw spikes in urban areas, but is beginning to see jumps in some U.P. counties that are sparsely populated. It is expected that rural school districts that have low infection rates are inclined toward in-person fall classes, so a rural spike is expected after Labor Day. That will lead to community spread as grandparents who care for school children get sick and broadcast virus in very conservative areas like mine that buck masks.
It is unproductive to get angry, though I have to remind myself of that daily. I am relearning AlAnon lessons from dealing with drunks, which apply to dimwits who don't mask, notably, I didn't cause it, I can't cure it, and I can't control what others do.
We are taking some day trips for picnics while we can, continue to limit contact with others, and I have my emergency box of paper and cleaning products and non perishables in case we experience shortages or get sick and have to isolate.
There is a meme going around that is a picture of a kid sticking a fork in an electrical outlet, saying "Nobody can tell me what to do!"
DeleteI went in the grocery store this morning. I wore a mask. Just about everyone else did, too. There was a store employee at the entrance, at a table with free masks and hand sanitizer. Even so, there was a family going around with no masks. Pretty sure they came in the liquor mart entrance where there wasn't a watch person. But there were signs all over the place asking people to wear a mask. It just seems like such a cheap and easy courtesy to others. Not doing it kind of makes a statement that you don't really give a damn about others.
The death count in Taiwan, where my granddaughter is happy to be, remains at 7. Seven. 7. Taiwan started from the same gate Trump was in when he was flummoxed by Covid-9.
DeleteIt could have been like Taiwan (pop 48 million) here, too.
Tom, I'm sure it is not news to you that we live in a culture of Rugged By God John Wayne Individualists, made worse daily by the example of Our President. There are cultural and topical reasons why the U.S. will not do as Taiwan or South Korea has done. As Deacon Jim notes, if this starts hitting young white children in a big way, people will start paying attention.
Delete