Religiosity

I took this religion quiz and had these results:

What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan You are an evangelical in the Wesleyan tradition. You believe that God's grace enables you to choose to believe in him, even though you yourself are totally depraved. The gift of the Holy Spirit gives you assurance of your salvation, and he also enables you to live the life of obedience to which God has called us. You are influenced heavily by John Wesley and the Methodists. Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 64% Neo orthodox 50% Classical Liberal 50% Charismatic/Pentecostal 43% Fundamentalist 39% Modern Liberal 29% Emergent/Postmodern 21% Reformed Evangelical 14% Roman Catholic 14%

Hmmm, where would you classify Mormonism? By "depraved" does it mean of grace? I don't believe that.

I just tried to invite people on the street to our choir's benefit concert and the first girl I talked to said she doesn't like music (why can I not believe that? I've only heard of that once before, a date of Smelly Flowers'). One of the elders said I should have asked if she liked children (the concert is for the Ronald McDonald House). The second guy I talked to was so rude! I wasn't going to do any preaching or anything, but he immediately said he "knew my group" and to "go away." I said that I sing with the choir and would just like to invite, but he glared at me ("death-stare" it's called here) and kept telling me to go away. I was speechless and didn't know how to react. Missionaries see that every day, but I just can't understand it. How could you justify being so rude to people?

Yesterday I read 134 pages about secularity, society, religion in the beginnings of America, religiosity in today's world, etc. Although I'm not studying today, I've thought a lot about it. Here are many of interesting things in no particular order:

• Nations that are more accepting of new technology are also more religious (I always thought it was the reverse, people are always saying that science is replacing religion, but it's not true).
• The U.S. is an exception to every secularity pattern in the world. Ireland, Canada, and Australia also stand out, but not to the extent of the U.S.
• The biggest declines in church attendance are in Catholicism.
• Religious beliefs have become more individualized. People say they are religious but they do not believe that they need an official church.
• Some argue that increased availability of churches leads to increased church attendance. Empirical data does not support this claim.
• Some scholars say that Europe is the exception and the rest of the world is furiously still religious, or that Europeans are simply "differently religious," using churches to recognize life changes although they are losing religious knowledge.
  
• When someone (I'll change this when I find it in my notes again) was asked why they had put nothing in the constitution about religious beliefs of the country, he said, "We forgot." "Religion was barely mentioned at the Constitutional Convention." Is that because it was such a deep part of everyone's combined culture or was it because it was purposely ignored while people had bad experiences with power in the churches?
  
• Postindustrial societies stress self-expression and secular-rational values, and numbers of believers decrease.
• People do not get more religious as they age.
• The writers of the consitution debated for a while about having some kind of test about God in order to be put in as president, but they decided that it was unlikely that people would elect anyone with thinking about character.
• Jefferson and Adams speculated years later about religion in political leadership. They said it had no role if religion "consisted of fearmongering dogmas tuaght by clerics instead of the noble religion revealed in nature." What about our lesson of King Benjamin today in Mosiah 1-3? He was god-fearing and spoke to his people about God. He preached from the temple. He worked hard to support himself in addition to completing his duties as king (seems like a bishop's role to me). How many of us love King Benjamin but firmly believe in the separation of church and state? I guess Alma sums it up in that it is good to have kings if they would always follow god's ways (in Mosiah 29).
  
• "Christian teaching in America 'is usually a matter of emphasis.' Some emphasize the idea of America as a chosen nation . . . others stress the notion of America as a haven.
• Washington told Madison to write up something addressing the many concerns that had come up, and what he wrote became the Bill of Rights. I find that funny that after so much hard work with many people for the Constitution, Madison simply wrote up something and it was accepted. Maybe they were sick of working on every detail or maybe it was simply inspired.
• The Constitution was a document of the Enlightenment in that individuals could understand nature and progress through reason.
• One of the articles said that in the New World, people who fought about religion could just move to another uninhabited place, but eventually differences were accommodated. Another article mentioned that tolerance is two-sided in that it also shows a lack of religious conviction.
  
• Mormons don't fit many of the models I've read about. Peculiar people they are.