The heading on a recent press release from Barna Research caught my attention: "Atheists and Agnostics Infiltrating Christian Churches." What's going on, I wondered? Have the secular humanists finally gotten so large and organized that they've taken to cloak-and- dagger work on Sunday mornings?
It turns out that the truth is a bit less conspiratorial. One of Barna's national surveys discovered that some of the people in the pews on Sunday mornings are non-believers. This is hardly news to most Presbyterians. The walls between church and society are porous. Ideas current in the larger culture, including skepticism about faith itself, inevitably find their way into the community of believers. At any given time, a snapshot of the PC(USA) will find some who are actively questioning the core teachings of Christianity but who, for whatever reason, remain part of the church.
We took such a snapshot in November 1999 by asking Presbyterians (through the Presbyterian Panel) about their experience with doubt. The responses show that most folks question one or more aspects of their faith from time to time, but that at any one point relatively few are actively struggling with doubt. On the most general question, "How often do you have doubts about your religious or spiritual beliefs?" 43 percent of members and 22 percent of pastors responded never. Another 48 percent and 68 percent, respectively, responded once in a while. Only 10 percent of members and pastors responded either very often or fairly often, mostly the latter.
The figure shows these responses. On all of the questions, the response pattern is broadly similar: Few people, in relative terms, ever have more than an occasional doubt. Still, it's clear that more pastors have doubts--or are more willing to own up to them--than laity. And some kinds of doubt are more widespread than others: More individuals admit to at least the occasional doubt about church teachings in general than to doubts about the efficacy of prayer.
Like many initial survey findings, these results leave us wanting more. What is the nature of these episodes of doubt? How long do they last? What triggers them and what consequences do they have? Why do some have them and others don't?
While definitive answers are not possible, we can get a better sense of the significance of doubt by comparing people who have experienced doubts with those who have not. To take one pregnant example: how does worship attendance relate to feelings of doubt about church teachings?
An analysis shows dramatic differences. While half of members who never experience doubts about church teachings are in church on a given Sunday, only a quarter of those with occasional doubts are there every week. Even more striking, more than half of members who report having doubts about church teachings fairly or very often attend Sunday worship once a month or less.
Put differently, on a given Sunday, we can expect in attendance:
You may want to set these numbers aside for reflection the next time you prepare a sermon on doubt. Those who most need reassurance may be those least likely to find their way into the sanctuary. That irony may be one reason Presbyterians long ago opted to be in the world rather than retreat from it. We know where to find the greater need.
Email the author: Jack Marcum
Research Services