What I’m Laughing At: Sloppy Analysis in the RCJ

Sometimes I wonder if the Rapid City Journal folks actually read the stuff they write before they publish it.  I know that I am not above the same critiques; however, I’m not getting paid to make snap judgments and publish my hot-headed rantings instantaneously to a bunch of strangers blog…

Anyway, Dear Husband had me read an article in the RCJ titled “More people rejecting all forms of religion.”  The interpretation of data in the article is laughable – at best.

The American Religious Identification Survey of 2008, released in March, asked 54,561 people about their religious identity, including questions on belonging, belief and behavior. It shows that South Dakotans, like other Americans, have become less Christian in the past 18 years, since the first survey was done in 1990. The rate of that decline, however, has slowed considerably since 2001, when the second survey was done.

In 1990, 86 percent of Americans called themselves Christian; by 2008, 76 percent did. And in South Dakota, the demographic shift in religious identity has been especially steep: 95 percent of South Dakotans self-identified as Christians in 1990; 78 percent did in 2008.

*sigh*  The cited data does not support the author’s conclusions.

“Americans are becoming less Christian” does not mean that Americans are becoming less religious.  That’s just sloppy analysis.  In fact, the author – in the same article – concludes: “other faiths and religious movements are growing, but in much smaller numbers and at slowing rates.”

And even further into the article, the interviewees (religious leaders and organizers) demonstrate that many Americans find organized religion – regardless of type – uncomfortable.

So the headline – a day after Easter – should not have read “More People Rejecting All Forms of Religion”; rather, it should have read “More People Rejecting Organized Religion.”

I guess, though, the former, sensationalized headline sells more copies of the RCJ and gets more people linking to the RCJ website in blog posts.  One of the other cosequences, though, is that I’ll chose not to patron the paper’s sloppy stories with my money.