Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 4, 1995 TAG: 9504050014
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CODY LOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
You believe in hell and Satan, but you think you've got at least a fair chance of going to heaven. Once you get there, you believe you'll be with God, share some laughs with people you know, but probably not get to pet the family dog or cat.
That's the picture painted of the majority of us in the latest Roanoke Valley Poll.
Conducted by the Roanoke College Center for Community Research and the Roanoke Times & World-News, the 1994 poll included a number of questions about our religious beliefs and practices.
One question it didn't ask was whether we "believe in God or a universal spirit," as the question is put in the national Gallup polls year after year. Since 96 percent of people in the 1994 Gallup poll said they do believe in God, we can probably safely assume a comparable response here.
The pollsters think some people didn't understand the question about their religious affiliation since an incredibly high 20 percent selected "other" when asked to identify themselves as Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, none/unsure, or other.
Many polls of religion consider only two categories of Christians. Technically, however, some Christian denominations and sects don't fall under the Catholic or Protestant labels.
Episcopalians, for instance, trace their origin not to the Protestant Reformation but to Henry VIII's break with Rome. Mormons likewise consider themselves Christians but their church has a background independent of the rest of Christendom. Eastern Orthodox believers also consider themselves in an separate category.
There also may be Christians who refuse to identify themselves as Protestant or Catholic for the sake of promoting unity, and there may be some who consider themselves Christians but who are not regular church-goers who identify with any particular denomination.
Only those who identified themselves in one of the two Christian categories were asked whether they consider themselves "born again." Just under 47 percent said they were, a figure that was consistent regardless of the education or income of the respondents. A 1991 poll shows that just 40 percent of people nationally consider themselves "born again."
The factors most likely to produce significant deviations from the overall responses were age and post-graduate educations.
For instance, those holding advanced degrees - master's and doctorates - were more than twice as likely as the total sample to say there were "unsure" of their "chances of going to hell." They were almost three times more likely than the total sample to "strongly disagree" with the statements that "politicians who do not believe in God are unfit for office" and that "it would be better for the country if more people with strong religious beliefs held office." They also were significantly less likely to believe in the devil.
Similarly, the age of a respondent sometimes indicated wide deviations from the average response to a question.
For instance, in response to the question of whether the Bible is "the actual word of God," 81 percent said "yes," 12 percent said "no." But, among those age 65 and older, 91 percent answered in the affirmative. Among those 18 to 14, 72 percent said "no."
Race was rarely an indication of significant deviation on the religious questions, although blacks were more likely than whites - by a margin of about 3 to 2 - to say the Bible should "be taken literally."
Women were slightly more likely than men to answer questions about beliefs affirmatively, except for the evaluation of one's chances of going to hell. The 1 percent who declared that their chances of a trip to the infernal regions were "excellent" were all male.
by CNB