"With churches struggling to keep men in the pews and women more likely than men to attend church, the Commission on United Methodist Men conducted the Study of Men report, surveying 1,350 people –a sample reflecting the demographics of the total number of men in the United Methodist Church.See also this post on why men's views are crucial.
The top reason why the church doesn't reach many men is a lack of interest in religion, survey respondents said they believe. [? I'm not sure I understand this sentence.] They also listed "societal emphasis on individualism/materialism" and "distrust of organized religion" as common reasons churches struggle to reach men.
[...]
Only 27.2 percent of the men have a close male friend that knows or supports them and 68 percent said that the senior pastor could do more to support men in the congregation."
Christian Post, Sep. 20 2007
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Study: Men Lack Church Support
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This is pretty fascinating. I've been hearing some discussions about the lower number of female atheists. It seems that the disparity may be even greater for religion than it is for atheism.
It seems to me that traditionally, churches supported men by enabling dominance over women and minorities. And by establishing a strong pecking order among men in the community that men could leverage for status.
I don't think that churches have a lot of options on the table for this one. Unless they can enforce strict social conservatism in our culture, they're at a loss.
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