I
know what you did last Sunday,” claims the title of a new survey. You skipped
church. And then nearly one in seven of you fibbed about attending. That’s
according to a new survey by the Public Religion Research Institute released
Saturday (May 17). The study, to be presented at the national meeting of
the American Association for Public Opinion Research, was designed to
measure the “social desirability bias in self-reported religious behavior.” The
survey finds that many Christians — and unbelievers, too — will exaggerate
about attending worship in live phone interviews. However, when asked in an
anonymous online questionnaire, people will answer more realistically. On the
phone, 36 percent of Americans report attending religious services weekly or
more, while 30 percent say they seldom or never go. But online, a smaller
share (31 percent) of people surveyed said they attended church at least
weekly, while a larger portion (43 percent) admitted they seldom or never go. People
who don’t attend worship — but say they did — may not mean to lie, said PRRI
CEO Robert Jones. People respond to phone surveys as they think “a good
Christian” would or should answer, he said.
The witnesses, laying their coats at the feet of Saul, were the men that would cast the first stones at Stephen in Acts 7. Why did they all lay their coats at Saul’s feet? The Talmud contains a very interesting account of the act of stoning that may provide the answer. “When the trial was over, they take him [the condemned person] out to be stoned. The place of stoning was at a distance from the court, as it is said, ‘Take out the one who has cursed.’ [i] A man stands at the entrance of the court; in his hand is a signaling flag [Hebrew sudarin = sudar , ‘scarf, sweater’]. A horseman was stationed far away but within sight of him. If one [of the judges] says, ‘I have something [more] to say in his favor,’ he [the signaler] waves the sudarin , and the horseman runs and stops them [from stoning him]. Even if [the condemned person] himself says, ‘I have something to say in my favor,’ they bring him back, even four of five times, only provided that there is some substance to what he
Comments
Post a Comment