9/11 shows no lasting effect on religion

Associated Baptist Press

VENTURA, Calif. - Last year's terrorist attacks had no lasting impact on America's religious practices, according to pollster George Barna.

About half of Americans surveyed by the Barna Research Group said their faith was an important resource for helping them deal with events of Sept. 11. One fourth of all adults (25 percent) said it was the "single most important resource" they have relied on, and 23 percent said their faith was "one of several important resources" that helped them deal with the tragedy.

Church attendance spiked for several weeks after Sept. 11, but it was a short-lived revival. By November, attendance levels were no different than before the attacks.

Barna found little or no change in the last year over the percentage of Americans who read their Bible regularly (41 percent), attend church (43 percent) or pray (83 percent). The percentage of unchurched Americans remained constant at 33 percent.

Some theorized that shock from the attacks might serve as a spiritual wake-up call for Americans, leading to a religious revival. But Barna said he could find no statistically significant change in religious belief or practice in the past 12 months.

Just 12 percent of Americans said the terrorist attacks had any impact on their religious faith. Among born-again Christians, the percentage is 18 percent.

"I was among those who fully expected to see an intense spiritual reaction to the terrorist attacks," said Barna, an evangelical Christian. "The fact that we saw no lasting impact from the most significant act of war against our country on our own soil says something about the spiritual complacency of the American public."

Barna said the increased worship attendance after 9/11 is explained by a rallying of church members who attend infrequently, rather than an influx of new believers.

"What we witnessed was the people who attend once every month or two suddenly returning on a consistent basis for a month or two before falling back into their regular pattern of irregular attendance," he said. "It appears that very few people radically changed their personal agenda and added church involvement to their schedule when previously there had been no such activity."

Barna said barely half of the nation's churches acknowledged or addressed the attacks in any way during the last 12 months. Only one in four adults attending a Christian church (23 percent) said their church engaged in prayer specific to the attacks, 16 percent said their churches provided sermons or other teaching related to the attacks, and 10 percent said their church had provided special services.

Yet six out of 10 (58 percent) said their religious center has done an "excellent" or "good" job in addressing these matters.