The People's Religion: American Faith in the 90s.

• Author: Brinton, Henry G.

The People's Religion: American Faith in the 90s The People's Religion: American Faith in the 90s. George Gallup Jr., Jim Castelli. Macmillan, $19.95. Religious faith has remained remarkably stable throughout the past 50 years. Although American culture today is vastly different than it was on the eve of World War II, basic religious beliefs are very much the same. Nine Americans in ten still say they have never doubted the existence of God. Eight in ten still say they believe they will be called before God on Judgment Day to answer for their sins. Seven in ten still believe in life after death. The Gallup Poll results assembled in this book indicate that Americans have remained rather orthodox in their beliefs over a half century of tumultuous social change.

The United States embraces religious belief like no other developed nation in the world. When surveys were taken in the U.S. and Europe in 1981, Americans ranked at the top in rating the importance of God in their lives. The U.S. placed second behind Ireland in the category of belief in a personal God with 66 percent, but it was still way ahead of Norway (40 percent), Great Britain (31 percent), West Germany (24 percent), and Denmark and Sweden (19 percent each). Still, this high level of belief does not necessarily translate into vigorous religious practice: only four Americans in ten attend church or synagogue in a typical week, and only about two in ten believe that attendance at religious services is necessary for a person to be a good Christian or Jew.

Clearly, Americans favor independence in their approach to religion. Such an attitude is not surprising in Protestant circles, where emphasis has always been placed on having direct, personal interaction with God. But it is unusual to see such individualism in Roman Catholic populations, where the church has traditionally mediated the divine-human relationship.

According to Gallup data, 58 percent of the Catholics surveyed believe that premarital sex is not wrong, a stand that contradicts the official teachings of the church. Surveys also reveal that more than half of all Catholics believe that abortion should be legal in certain...