Friday, June 11, 2010

Women more religious than men

Following on from my post yesterday, "Men lead, Women obey". I've been think about the part where Mark Drisscol speaks about how the Church needs a more 'Masculine Jesus' to get blokes in the door.

'real men avoid the church because it projects a hippie queer Christ, whereas me want the "Ultimate fighting Jesus"
I don't actually think that Driscoll is right here. I think there are a few issues at play.
Throughout most of my Christian life there has always been a larger percentage of women in Church than men. There was a small period at RangesCC where this was different.

Scott McKnight from the Jesus Creed had an article on "Why women are more religious".

He quotes a Baylor Study on Religion in the US::

69% vs. 57% believe in God
Men are twice as likely to be atheists.
77% vs. 68% believe Jesus is the Son of God.
Weekly church attendance: 40% vs. 31%
Prays at least once a day: 57% vs. 40%.
Reads the Bible weekly: 32% vs. 24%.
HIgh on religious experience index: 31% vs. 22%

The reasons why are ::
Alan Miller famously connected lack of male religiousness to risk-taking stats; that is, men are more risky and reckless and so they are more "rebellious" when it comes to religion. (How's that for a sentence with Rs?) Miller discovered that risk takers and irreligiousness were correlated for both men and women. 


I think I know what this means but a few examples would have been good. I'm also sure that "Rebelliousness" is not the same as 'masculine'.