TORONTO, Canada, May 1, 2002 — Culturally, Canada may be a mosaic, but in terms of religious diversity, Christianity enjoys a definite monopoly in this country. These are the findings of Dr. Reginald W. Bibby, published in his new book, Restless Gods — The Renaissance of Religion in Canada.
Bibby, a Professor of Sociology at the University of Lethbridge, has been charting and analyzing religious trends in this country for three decades. Drawing on data from extensive national surveys of adults every five years since 1975, along with complementary surveys of youth, the author says in spite of declining church attendance, (only 21% of people attend church regularly today, versus 31% in 1975), the vast majority of Canadians still identify themselves as either Roman Catholic or Protestant.
"Canadians have shown little inclination to abandon the dominant groups — even when those groups have frequently given up on them," Bibby writes. "Psychologically and emotionally, people across the country continue to cling, sometimes perilously, to the religious traditions of their youth."
There has been a tendency, Bibby says, for church leaders to assume, if people have ceased to be active, then they are not receptive to becoming more involved. His findings indicate that this assumption is simply not true. Fifty-five percent of Canadian adults surveyed say they would be receptive to greater involvement in the churches, if they found it to be worthwhile for themselves or their family. He also calls the theory that people are switching to other churches or faiths, "a myth", citing among other statistics, the fact that eight in ten people say they are not open to the possibility of switching to a different tradition. Historically, the polls concur. Some 90% of Mainline Protestants and Roman Catholics, along with almost 85% of Conservative Protestants, had the same religious identification in 1995 as they did twenty years earlier.
Canada's "Religious Families," 2002
Approximate % of the Canadian Population*
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| Roman Catholics outside Quebec |
23 |
| Roman Catholics in Quebec |
19 |
| Mainline Protestants |
19 |
| Conservative Protestants |
8 |
| Other Faith Groups |
6 |
| Religious Nones ** |
20 |
|
*A residual 5% or so, mostly Protestants, identify with varied groups that neither fall into any of these six categories nor collectively represent a family with compatible characteristics.
** People professing to have no religious beliefs.
Source: Based on Project Canada & Statistics Canada data |
But just what does "religious identification" mean?
Dr. Bibby defines people who identify, saying, rather than being drop-outs, they "attend occasionally, believe and practise selectively, are not about to be recruited by alternatives, and are looking to their identification groups for rites of passage."
Typically, it is life's milestones (e.g. weddings, births and funerals) that cause such people to re-connect with the churches of their youth.
Restless Gods also examines the impact of Canadian Christianity on immigrants from other faith traditions.
"Over time, smaller religious groups have encountered considerable difficulty retaining their offspring, many of whom 'defect' to Catholicism and Protestantism through acculturation and assimilation. For example, 6% of current teens between the ages of 15 and 19 who have a Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim or Sikh parent already see themselves as Protestants or Catholics; conversely, less than 1% of teens with a Catholic or Protestant parent identify with any of those four Other Faith traditions."
This may all sound like very good news for Canada's churches. But, practically speaking, if Canadians are not attending church to the same degree they once were, even though they are still identifying with their faith traditions, what good is that identification to the churches?
It is Reg Bibby's view that, for those groups that want to grow, "the starting point should be obvious: they need to relate to those uninvolved Canadians with whom they have the greatest affinity — those millions of people who identify with their traditions, people who 'think' they are Roman Catholic, United, Baptist, Lutheran, Jewish, and so on.
"I think it's very, very clear — given the fact that religious groups in Canada continue to have these large affiliate pools — it's simply high time that (churches) get in touch with the people who identify with them."
Next week part three, our final story of the series:
SIGNS OF RELIGIOUS "RENAISSANCE" AMONG CANADIAN TEENS
Written by: Patricia L. Paddey, Bible Network News
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