‘You could say there’s a real problem in the pews’

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This article was published 18/05/2024 (552 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

God as a three-in-one, Jesus as divine, the resurrection of Jesus from the dead — these are traditional church teachings that all Christians are assumed to believe. But a recent study by Cardus and the Canadian Bible Society has found that assumption to be unfounded.

Titled “Still Christian(?): What Canadian Christians Actually Believe,” the study’s author, Andrew Bennett, found the beliefs of many Canadian Christians don’t match up with what their churches teach on these and other doctrines.

For example, when asked to agree or disagree with the statement “there is one true God in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,” 89 per cent evangelicals agreed, as did 51 per cent of Catholics and 57 per cent of mainline Protestants.

When asked if the resurrection of Jesus Christ was a historical event, 81 per cent of evangelicals said yes, as did 48 per cent of Catholics and 55 per cent of mainline Protestants.

As for whether Jesus was God, 74 per cent of evangelicals said yes, as did 46 per cent of Catholics and 42 per cent of mainline Protestants.

Are all religions equally true? The study found that 20 per cent of evangelicals agreed, as did 54 per cent of Catholics and 57 per cent of mainline Protestants.

When it comes to whether Christian moral teachings should evolve with changes in society, 45 per cent of evangelicals said yes, as did 72 per cent of Catholics and 61 per cent of mainline Protestants.

The study of 2,026 randomly selected Canadian adults was conducted by the Angus Reid Institute in February. Along with questions about doctrines, it also asks respondents for their views on things like abortion, same-sex marriage, heaven and hell and church attendance.

For Bennett, who is program director for Faith Communities at Cardus, the results are startling. “You could say there’s a real problem in the pews,” he said.

While evangelicals are more likely to hold to their denominational doctrines, there is “still some level of incoherence there,” he said, adding that especially for Catholics and mainline Protestants there are hints of “deep fractures” within those groups.

Although many diverged from traditional teachings, Bennett noted they still viewed themselves as Christians. “This fact is significant in itself,” he said.

One surprising finding from the study is that younger Canadian Christians display stronger commitments to traditional teachings compared to older generations. One reason for this, suggested Bennett, is that at a time when Christianity is no longer a cultural norm in Canada, some younger people “may be making deliberate, counter-cultural choices to adhere to the beliefs and devotional life of historical Christianity.”

For Sam Reimer, who teaches sociology at Crandall University in Moncton, the Cardus study mirrors his own research into the disparity between what Canadian evangelical clergy believe and what their denominations teach.

“Even active evangelicals will disagree knowingly with their church’s or denomination’s position on a moral or doctrinal belief,” said Reimer. He thinks this is because what used to be an accepted external locus of authority — church teaching — has been replaced by an internal locus where Christians think each person can decide what they want to believe “based on what works for them.”

Kevin Flatt studies religion at Redeemer University in Ancaster, Ont., For him, the results “are not surprising since they are consistent with longstanding patterns and trends in Christianity in Canada.”

What stands out for him is how evangelicals seem to have resisted an erosion of traditional doctrines, compared to Catholics and mainline Protestants — even if that group shows some significant differences of opinion.

“Overall, I would have expected to see secularization having more of an impact on evangelicals as well,” he said, suggesting evangelicals are more resistant to secularization than other groups.

For Andrew Rampton, rector at St. John the Evangelist, an Anglican church in Hamilton, the problem is that denominations like his haven’t done a good job of teaching their members the foundational Christian beliefs.

“We were so very drunk on Christendom for such a very long time,” said Rampton of the Anglican Church of Canada, noting that for a very long time the values of the surrounding culture supported Christian belief and practice — teaching about it wasn’t as necessary.

That led Anglicans to rely on something he called “liturgical osmosis,” or just assuming everyone would figure it out just by being in Canada.

But now that Canada is less Christian — “not a bad thing for the church in my estimation,” he offered — “we have to remember how to be a group who are not the dominant cultural mindset.”

Rampton also has seen evidence of how young people are more likely to hold traditional beliefs. “Most of the young people I know in the Anglican Church are there by choice,” he said, noting they were very deliberate about choosing that option

As for the study itself, one question it doesn’t ask is whether the beliefs it highlights are still the ones Christians most need to be faithful in the 21st century; is the problem really as big as the study’s author suggests?

Or maybe something is happening in Canadian churches today as people find new ways of expressing and practising faithfulness — ways that go beyond the need to believe certain things in order to be a Christian. For that, we might need a different study.

The full Cardus study can be found at https://www.cardus.ca/research/faith-communities/reports/still-christian/?utm_source=Still+Christian+NR&utm_medium=Cision&utm_campaign=Still+Christian(%3f)

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