Radio show focuses on religious issues
Public Radio WCPI will be broadcasting its annual “State of Religion in Warren County” program today at 6:05 p.m. and Saturday at 12:30 p.m. on Viewpoints, the View from Here, with co-hosts Bill Zechman and Thomas B. Vaughn. WCPI broadcasts at 91.3 FM on your radio dial.
The program guests included Bob Case of First United Methodist, and Kirk Brothers of Central Church of Christ.
Zechman explained the focus of the broadcast during the taping Monday.
“This is the time of year when we get together with some leaders in the church community in Warren County,” Zechman said, “and sort of do a year-end assessment of the state of religion in Warren County, and in fact, in the world.”
During the program Zechman referenced data collected by Ken Campbell, also of Central Church of Christ, who has polled attendees at the Warren County Agricultural and Livestock Fair each September since 1991. Campbell’s survey is designed to track religious preference, but only includes three basic choices, Church of Christ, Baptist and no preference.
Zechman emphasized the poll is a non-scientific survey since it includes no control over variables and is conducted at a volunteer walk-up booth which is clearly identified as being sponsored by Central Church of Christ.
Even so, Zechman found the statistics interesting due to the high number of respondents, which ranged from a high of 2,020 in 1992 to a low of 745 in 2002.
“With such high numbers we think that perhaps this does actually approximate reality,” Zechman said. “Maybe not in exact numbers, but at least in trends.”
One of the trends Zechman noted was the general increase of those indicating no religious preference.
“Sometimes we fancy ourselves as being at the epicenter of the Bible Belt in a religiously and socially conservative south,” he said. “But if you look at the curve, the way we’ve got it plotted up, in the first year, the Church of Christ had about 36 percent in terms of religious preference. The second highest was no preference at 35 percent. After that, the numbers drop down for the Church of Christ, and since then the numbers for no preference have been on top.”
Zechman asked his guests their opinion of what the numbers meant.
“A couple of things that I noticed,” Brothers said, “not only the increase in no preference, but the decrease of the number of people doing the survey.”
Brothers said he didn’t find this trend surprising.
“A lot of this is consistent with what we’re seeing all across society,” he said. “The reality is that, in society as a whole, there is less religious adherence.”
The panel went on to discuss the rise of the “mega-church,” and the commiserate decline in denominational loyalty that seems to be a part of today’s religious community, as well as several other current religious trends.
To hear the complete program, be sure to tune in to Viewpoints, the View from Here, at 91.3 on your radio dial Friday at 6:05 p.m. and the rebroadcast Saturday at 12:30 p.m.