USA Today had a very interesting front page article about religion in their September 12th edition that was based upon an extensive survey that Baylor University did. The paper called it: "by far the most comprehensive national religion survey to date".

The big take-away is that believers do NOT see themselves the same way that media, politicians and even their own pastors see them. According to the Baylor research, many religious labels have lost much of their meaning.

The ground breaking part of the study was the decision by the researchers to NOT use religious denominations for 'identification' purposes. Instead, they assigned people to one of four different non-denominational groups that represented different conceptions of God or a Higher Power. These groups were called: Authoritarian, Benevolent, Critical and Distant.

According to the researchers, organizing people into these  groups enabled them to statistically predict their values on a range of subjects more accurately than by simply using religious denominations or terms that politicians and the media use.

All in all, a very interesting article.

Posted by Gregg.