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Surveys of Religion
Most survey studies that include questions about religion only have space to ask about basic religious indicators such as church attendance and belief in God. This is understandable, as most surveys are focused on other topics such as crime or politics and space is at a premium. ISR has received a major three-year grant from the John M. Templeton Foundation, to conduct a nationally representative multi-year study of religious values, practices, and behaviors. After several years devoted to development and pretesting by Baylor faculty, the Baylor Survey of Religion (BSR) was fielded during the winter of 2005 and the data was made available for analysis in the spring of 2006. It is the most extensive and sensitive study of religion ever conducted, linking up with the pioneering surveys conducted by Rodney Stark and Charles Y. Glock in the 1960s. With the Baylor Religion Survey, we can dig deeper into American religious attitudes, behaviors and beliefs than previously possible. The field work was completed by the Gallup Organization. It plumbs all facets of American religion and spirituality in depth - nearly 400 items cover such matters as religious beliefs and practices, including religious consumerism, as well as nonstandard beliefs (astrology, "Bigfoot," alien visitors, etc.) and practices (meditation, New Age therapies, etc). Utilizing a mixed-mode sampling design (telephone and self-administered mailed surveys), the Baylor Religion Survey is a nationally representative survey of 1,721 respondents and is merely the first wave of a rich and rewarding new era of religious survey research. Additional waves of the Baylor Religion Survey, with rotating topical modules, will take place every other year. The hundreds of in-depth religion questions included on the Baylor Surveys of Religion will produce many findings over the next several years. Indeed, over two dozen different studies are already in progress and a number of articles are slated for publication in the spring of 2007. Preliminary findings related to the measurement of religion, the nature of religious belief, the relationship between religion and moral and political attitudes, and religious spending habits were released at the National Press Club on September 11, 2006, in a research report entitled American Piety in the 21st Century: New Insights to the Depths and Complexity of Religion in the U.S. |
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