[lbo-talk] how many Americans go to church, and why?

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

On 4/6/07, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
>
> On Apr 6, 2007, at 2:49 PM, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>
> > Social and religious reasons, to most religious people of the sort in
> > whom leftists ought to take interest, are one and the same.
>
> Here's the way the survey was reported. People were free to give
> multiple answers. So if you have some insight here that passed Gallup
> by, you might want to contact Frank Newport. I've got his email address.
>
>
> For spiritual growth and guidance                 23%
> Keeps me grounded/inspired                        20
> It's my faith                                     15
> To worship God                                    15
> The fellowship of other members/The community     13
> Believe in God/Believe in religion                12
> Brought up that way/A family value/Tradition      12
> Other                                              4
> No reason in particular                            1

The religious who attend church obviously must believe that joining a
particular congregation and working with fellow believers over time
guides them and helps them grow spiritually, keeps them grounded and
inspired, affirms their faith, helps them worship God, etc., better
than reading the Bible at home by themselves.  It's the same way with
socialism, anarchism, etc.  You can read Marx, Bakunin, etc. at home
on your own, isolated from fellow socialists, anarchists, etc., but
that's not as good for development, of your understanding of
socialism, anarchism, etc. as well as collective political practice,
as joining fellow believers and working together toward shared goals.

The primary political division is not between religious and
irreligious but between social and anti-social.
-- 
Yoshie