> I think this overstates things. A great deal of the religious
> volunteering is not really religious in nature. Churches are a natural
> place for planning today so much of the religious volunteering is really
> volunteering at hospitals, nursing homes, education, baby sitting,
> community service, cookouts etc that is merely conducted through a
> religious affiliation. Habitat for Humanity is a good example. People
> consider this religious volunteering because their church recruits
> volunteers to help build the homes but other than a silly prayer when
> the family takes occupancy of the home there isn't anything religious
> about it.
Perhaps a more useful poll question, at least for our purposes, would be to ask people who volunteer if they describe their volunteer work as contributing to "social justice." Yes, this would be an imprecise question with many people not knowing what social justice means, but it might give us a more accurate picture of how many people doing religious volunteering are kindred spirits.
The results would probably be less depressing.
Chuck