Devotion

Another day, another religious survey.

Evangelical Protestants have become more devoted to their religious beliefs over the last three decades, even as Catholics have become less attached to their faith, new research finds. The denominational differences come even as religious affiliations have decreased in America, with the number of people who claim no religious affiliation at all doubling from 7 percent in 1990 to 14 percent in 2000, said study researcher Philip Schwadel, a sociologist at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Nevertheless, Schwadel said, these unaffiliated individuals seem to be dropping out of religious institutions that they were previously ambivalent about. People who feel strongly about their faith are as numerous as ever. "The proportion of Americans who say they have a very strong religious affiliation over time is very stable," Schwadel told LiveScience.

What's it mean? 

Depends on how you approach the word devotion, I suspect. And other terms must be explored, as well. First, there is nothing on Mainline Protestants, of which my denomination resides in. We're falling like flies, or at least the last survey of "us" said we were.

But again, I think it depends on what you mean by devotion. We're simply not as, uh, committed as we once were, I suspect. I've taken no surveys, done no research, just done some observation. And what I've observed isn't always beautiful.

We're heading into one of the two most important Christian times of the year, of course, and it will be interesting to see what that does for attendance in my three churches, since it is my first time here during the Advent/Christmas season.

Devotion is as devotion does, I reckon. But how devoted are we in a lifestyle in which we can gather the Internet into our hands with Smart phones and even watch football games on the thing? Everything we've done takes us away from the devotion we once had. 

I'm reminded of the Olivia Newton-John song, "Hopelessly devoted to you." Once we were.