SECULARISATION IN AMERICA

SECULARISATION IN AMERICA

• 1962 Wilson found that 45% of Amerficans attended church on Sundays, but he argued that churchgoing in America was more an expression of the 'American way of life' than of religious belief.
• He claimed America was a secular society, not becayse people abandoned churches, but because religion there had become superficial.
• Bruce (2002) uses three sources of evidence to support his claim that America is becoming secularised. 

DECLINING CHURCH ATTENDANCE

• Opinion poll research which asked people about church attendance showed it being at a stable 40% since 1940. But KIRK HADAWAY (1993) worked with a team of researchers and found that the figure did not match the chuches own attendance stats. The churches were not full, and they would have been at 40% this showed innacuracy within the poll individuals took.
• Hadaway et al (1993) studuied church attendance in Ohio. To estimate attendance they carried out head counts at services.
• In interviews they asked people if they attended church. They found that the level of attendance claimed by the interviewees was 83% higher than the researchers estimates of church attendance in the…