While we’re talking of things inaugural, I found this interesting from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life: the religious affiliations of all 44 presidents of the United States.

The list is dominated by Protestants, and of those, Episcopalians and Presbyterians claim the highest numbers. President Obama is listed as a member of the United Church of Christ, but, as we all know, he’s actually currently in between churches.

So, we could put him on a list that includes a whole lot of us, religiously affiliated or not: seeker.

USA Today has a story out today (Thursday) analyzing results released today from the latest Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

“Most American religious believers, including most Christians, say eternal life is not exclusively for those who accept Christ as their savior, a new survey finds.

Of the 65% of people who held this open view of heaven’s gates, 80% named at least one non-Christian group — Jews, Muslims, Hindus, atheists or people with no religion at all — who may also be saved, according to a new survey released today by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.”

The “including most Christians” part is a symptom of the rampant doctrinal confusion that abounds within Christianity today.

I suggest that the folks the article calls “most Christians”, the ones who believe that salvation outside of Christ is possible - they should at least be consistent and make a…

A friend was visiting Cape Cod recently and brought me a most unusual gift. It was six inches in diameter and formed from two concentric disks, the top disk slightly smaller than the bottom disk. The two disks were held together by a rivet which allowed the disks to turn freely, either clockwise or counter clockwise. The top disk bore the title: CHOOSE YOUR RELIGION: A GUIDE FOR THE SAVVY CONVERT. A large red arrow enabled the top disc to point at any one of thirty “religions” by name. The reason I put the word religions in quotes is because some readers would be quick to declare one or two of these as, “not religions at all.” Consumerism is on the chart, along with Atheism, and Psychoanalysis.

Cut into the top wheel are six openings which are labeled: Description; Accessories/Paraphernalia; Afterlife Promises; Potential New Friends; Drawbacks; and finally, Perks. The device is…

“How can you pray for someone you don’t know?”

The question was asked candidly, without rancor, and with genuine interest. The person asking the question was seriously ill and I was the chaplain assigned to the floor of the hospital where she was being treated. I had not even offered prayer; I had simply introduced myself and explained that I was a chaplain. Her question brought me up short.

The recent Pew religion poll found that more than half of all Americans report praying regularly. The number is impressive, but it leaves me wanting to know so much more. I wonder what and for whom people pray, what they even mean by prayer, what they understand to be happening when they pray, how it feels to them. Religion in America is a little like sex: media portrayals of other people’s spiritual practices can seem calculated to shock or offend (preachers damning our country from…

When this blog began several weeks ago, many of the contributors made reference to the Pew research study that reported that “more than one-quarter of American adults (28%) have left the faith in which they were raised in favor of another religion - or no religion at all.” I’m not sure if any of the other contributors to this blog count themselves in that 28 percent, but I do.

And maybe it is because I made the leap from one denomination to another that I feel so moved to explain what I love about my church. (Converts are notoriously obnoxious about this stuff!) In my last post I promised to discuss more about my own personal sense of Anglican identity, so here goes.

I am an Episcopalian by personal choice and through the grace of God. My family of origin, as well as my husband’s family, are all Roman Catholic; I can’t emphasize enough the…

Much has been made in the month since the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life survey found that up to 44 percent of Americans have at some point switched religious or denominational affiliations. I myself read about it in The New York Times.

The “much” that has been made has included much hand-wringing. But to be perfectly honest, I would have been much more surprised if the Pew Forum had reported the opposite, that changes in religious affiliation had declined. We in America—where the religious landscape has been shaped by two (or more, depending on who’s counting) “Great Awakenings”—we invented “church shopping.” And as cultural values of individualism and mobility combine with global immigration and vast technological changes, why wouldn’t our religious practices follow suit? Our religious loyalties have shrunk in direct proportion to the shrinking of our world. Or, to put it another way, our religious curiosity has multiplied in…