Ligonier’s Survey on The State Of Theology in USA

Status
Not open for further replies.
Just another reason why more Churches should adopt and teach a historical and orthodox confession. Just another reason why more parents should consider adopting the practice of catechizing their children based on Orthodox theology. Just another reason why heads of households, should not abandon the practice of daily family worship. Just another reason for us all to run to the word of God and encourage others to do so. And lastly, just another reason to go to our knees in prayer.:2cents::detective:


P.S. I am grateful for the survey. I think Church Officers would do well to at least give it a glance, as it may serve to at least give them signals of things that may need to be clarified in their flock and potential things (or wolves) to guard their sheep against.
 
Last edited:
This is interesting. What caught my eye about the whole thing is that the survey was conducted by Lifeway Research. Seeing how their work was so incredibly shoddy in regards to how the PCA utilized them for racial reconciliation, I couldn't help but look at their methodology for this particular poll.

It states on the website:
  • A demographically balanced online panel was used for interviewing American adults.
  • 3,002 surveys were completed in April 2018.
  • The sample provides 95% confidence that the sampling error from the online panel does not exceed ±2.0%.
  • Margins of error are higher when filters are applied.
  • Results are weighted to balance gender, age, ethnicity, income, region, and religion.
Bullet point three is interesting here. It's a little sneaky how they worded it. A lay-person may read that sentence and think that the poll's percentages are indicative of the whole population with an error of 2.0%. In reality what this is saying is that one factor of error (representative sampling) has been quantified but not the total survey error. They did not provide any information about the possible quantities of error coming from non-response, specification or other forms of error. I'd be interested in seeing this.

What is a "demographically balanced" online panel? There are twice as many southern responses as there were other sections. What kind of weighting model are they using?

135 out of 680 "evangelicals" either never, rarely or only on holidays attend church service. How does this skew evangelical belief?

Another interesting note is that 60% of the population falls in evangelical, black protestant, catholic or mainline Christian. 40% of the population is "other." Is other including other Christian traditions such as Eastern Orthodox? Or are these atheists, buddhists, mormons?

Assuming they were trying to represent the entire US population, each data point is supposed to represent about 115,000 people. What happens with denominations/religions which were so small that they were not polled? Are they represented? How are they weighted?

Anyway, that's my thoughts for now.
 
The Christology area doesn't surprise me. Talking about Nicene theology or chalcedon demands metaphysical reflection, and conferences on metaphysics aren't as sexy as conferences on "The New Calvinist Film, NOW!"
 
"Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God.

78% agree."

Yikes.....

I have seen this for a long long time with the of a lack of apophatic theology on The Trinity. Many "evangelicals" are simply unknowing JW's.
 
Generally speaking it is always easier to point fingers at others than ourselves. This survey should cause us to FIRST self-reflect to see if there is more we can do in our families and our own churches to correct and defend against many of the "sobering" percentage reflections in the survey.

In other words, if my daughter grows up to approve of homosexuality..my FIRST thought should not be "heretic", but rather First "Have I failed somewhere? What can I do to be apart of helping correct her wrong thinking?" Now to be sure, I may not have done anything wrong, but it is a Healthier and safer place to start rather than tying her to a stake and lighting it on fire (figuratively speaking). Many of the survey participants are likely members in the family of Christ.
 
Last edited:
Generally speaking it is always easier to point fingers at others than ourselves. Look..this survey should cause us to FIRST self-reflect to see if there is more we can do in our families and our own churches to correct and defend against many of the "sobering" percentage reflections in the survey.

In other words, if my daughter grows up to approve of homosexuality..my FIRST thought should not me "heretic", but rather First "Have I failed somewhere? What can I do to be apart of helping correcting her wrong thinking?" Now to be sure, I may not have done anything wrong, but it is a Healthier and safer place to start rather than tying her to a stake and lighting it on fire (figuratively speaking).
This is why satan has been attacking the Seminaries and Colleges first and foremost, for if he can get the future teachers and pastors and leaders to accommodate modern cultural views read back into the scriptures, he will have the big opportunity to plant destructive doubts and heresy into the churches.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top