Americans are divided on whether to attend church this Christmas season, according to a new survey by Nashville-based Lifeway Research. of investigationIn a survey of more than 1,200 people conducted in August, nearly half (47%) said they usually go to church during the holiday season, while 48% said they don't go and 5% said they don't know.
“The very name 'Christmas' comes from the church's celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. It was not until the mid-14th century that the term 'Mass of Christ' was first unified as a single term to describe this celebration. ,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of LifeWay. the study. “Nine out of 10 Americans do something to celebrate Christmas, but currently fewer than half typically go to church at Christmas time.”
According to christian postThe study also found that among a variety of denominations, including Protestants (57%), Catholics (56%), and people from other religious backgrounds (53%), religiously unaffiliated people are more likely to go to church at Christmas time. He also pointed out that there is a striking contrast in that they are more likely to attend. Meanwhile, 71% of religiously unaffiliated people said they usually don't go to church on Christmas.
Frequency of church attendance was also an important factor in the survey, with 95 percent of people who attend church at least once a week saying they often attend church on Christmas Day.
For respondents with evangelical beliefs, 72% said they go to church on Christmas, as did 40% of respondents without evangelical beliefs.
As noted in the study, 22% and 27% of respondents who rarely or only go to church on holidays cited tradition as their primary reason for attending, compared to those who attend regularly weekly. compared to 10% of those who do.
Only 10% of people attend church regularly every week, while 22% and 27% of those who attend church infrequently or only on holidays, respectively, say it's mainly to keep tradition. Masu.
“Many people gather for church services during the Christmas season, but their primary motivations are not unified,” McConnell said. “The majority gather to celebrate the birth of Jesus and glorify Him as the Christ or the Promised Savior. However, the majority gather to embrace the importance of family, Christmas church traditions, or to add to the Christmas spirit. Most people do.”
Meanwhile, 56% of those who usually skip church said they would be likely to attend if invited by a friend, and 17% of those said they were very likely to attend. In contrast, 36% said they were unlikely to attend, and 24% said they were very unlikely to attend.
“More than one in eight Americans is confident that they will not attend a Christmas service even if someone they know invites them,” McConnell said. “However, the majority of Americans who don't normally go to church at Christmas say they probably would go if someone they knew invited them.”
Across denominations, Catholics (71 percent), Protestants (65 percent), and members of other religions (58 percent) are more likely to say they would attend if invited than religious independents (40 percent). More likely. The odds of accepting an invitation are also higher among women (61 percent), Hispanics (72 percent), and individuals with evangelical beliefs (69 percent).
However, 48% of older Americans, ages 65 and older, said they were less likely to attend a church service whether someone invited them or not.
Lifeway Research's research Gallup poll A March survey found that church attendance is declining across most U.S. religious groups.
Eleven percent of Americans report attending religious services about once a month, while three in 10 attend weekly (21 percent) or almost every week (9 percent). Additionally, 56% of respondents said they attend religious services infrequently (25%) or not at all (31%).
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