According to the "All Melbourne Matters" research report, the following is a summary of the groups of people who are absent from the churches:
- People in de facto relationships: (=1% of church attenders, 8% of adult population)
- People who have never married (=19% of church attenders, 43% of adult population)
- People without tertiary qualifications (=53% of attenders, 80% of adult population)
- People in full-time employment (=27% of attenders, 37% of adult population)
Any idea why this is the case?
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2 comments:
De facto relationships - this is a lifestyle choice Christians don't generally choose. (we could add that de facto couples might for that reason feel less welcome in church).
Never married - some of these are in the de facto sector. Many of the rest are young adults, who are in short supply in the Church.
People in full-time employment - the Church has more retirees. Also, people who work full-time have less time for any other pursuits.
Without tertiary qualifications - here's one you can't explain by age - in fact, if you broke down into age groups, the difference would be starker.
This old page from NCLS quotes Peter Kaldor: http://www.ncls.org.au/default.aspx?sitemapid=141
It's worth a read - it challenges our churches to be more practical rather than word-based.
Intelligent polyamous atheists don't need whinging old men in silly hats telling us how to live our lives. We can think for ourselves and don't need to outsource our personal decisions to corrupt child molesting hypocrites.
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