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

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

On 4/6/07, Dennis Claxton <ddclaxton at earthlink.net> wrote:
> Yoshie wrote:
> >America is a country of loners who have few friends
> >other than their family, and that's no secret.  Such loners, however,
> >seldom join any religious congregation and go to church, synagogue,
> >mosque, etc. regularly,
>
> How do you know these things?  Not much of what you say about church
> goers matches my experience growing up going to church every Sunday
> until I was in middle school.  Nor does it match the poll results Doug
> posted.

If you prefer being alone with your God, with no one else (whose
understanding of God may be different from yours) bothering you, why
attend any church, mosque, synagogue, or what have you?  Joining a
congregation as an adult, of which you have no experience, comes with
social and financial obligations toward the congregation (who have
many things in common with you but who have many disagreements with
you as well), you know, of the sort that my partner, a regular
church-goer, undertakes.  Getting involved in organized religion as an
active believer isn't for loners, nor is getting involved in politics.
-- 
Yoshie