Are people really at religious services as often as they say they are? The cell phone knows

 

According to surveys in the U.S., somewhere between 22 per cent to 30 per cent of Americans say they attend religious services weekly, depending on what polling organization is providing the results. 

But is that really true? After all, it’s widely known that people routinely over-represent behaviours they think they should be doing more of on surveys—like going to church. 

Devon Pope, a professor of behavioral science and economics at the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago, decided to find out if people were really going to services as often as they said they were. But how to do it? 

The answer was simple: cell phones. 

Just like with our online activity, our physical actions are tracked by companies using our cell phones. Using geolocation data, Pope found that only about five per cent of Americans are actually at a religious service on their primary day of worship — far fewer than those who tell survey takers they are there. 

Read more, including implications for Canadian religious service attendance, in my recent Free Press column.

New institute to research religion and religious trends in Canada

Hardly a week goes by that I don’t look south with envy at all the research being done in the U.S. about the role religion plays in politics, culture and society at large in that country.

Want to know about attendance at religious services? Whether non-religious Americans think conservative Christians exert too much political power? How many evangelicals actually attend church? It’s all available.

As someone who writes about religion, I love that kind of information. But much of it doesn’t translate into the Canadian context. I have often wished there were groups like that in Canada working to make sense of the religious landscape in this country.

That’s why I was happy to learn about the new Institute for Religion, Culture and Societal Futures (IRCSF), a new hub for empirical research related to religion, spirituality and emerging forms of communities of belief and practice in Canada.

The Institute will specialize in four main areas of research: religious trends in Canada, the interaction between religion, spirituality and culture, religion and spirituality in schools and the realities and the future of Catholic life in Canada.

Read about it in my recent column in the Free Press.

Religious groups debate impact of Canada's proposed Online Harms Act

When U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart was asked to describe his test for obscenity in 1964, he became famous for his response: “I know it when I see it.” 

Could a similar test be true for hate speech? That’s the question some are asking over the federal government’s proposed Online Harms Act. 

The act, which was introduced in Parliament in February, will hold online platforms like Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) accountable for the content that foments hatred, incites violence or promotes extremism or terrorism. It will also require them to actively reduce the risk of exposure to harmful content. 

But just as people have long debated Stewart’s view about what constitutes obscenity, Canadian religious groups are asking what will constitute hate speech in the act, who gets to decide what it is, and whether the Act is the best way to address it. 

Read my column about it here.

New Vivian Silver Impact Award to promote peace between Israel and Palestine

The family of Winnipeg-born Israeli peace activist Vivian Silver, who was killed during the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, have launched a peace award in her name. 

The Vivian Silver Impact Award will be presented annually to an Arab (Palestinian) woman and a Jewish woman who “embody Vivian’s values and actions” of building Arab-Jewish partnership in Israel, establishing peace between Israel and Palestine, and advancing women to decision-making and leadership positions. 

Silver’s son Yonatan Zeigen, 35, said the award “is a way to keep my mother’s memory alive.” 

Created with his brother, Chen, and Silver’s siblings in Canada, the award will be presented for the first time this fall around the anniversary of her burial. 

“We want to give it to two women who are working in the fields of peace and the promotion of dialogue,” said Yonatan.

It’s a way to “commemorate my mother, continue her legacy and promote the things that were important to her,” added Chen. 

Read more about the award in my story in the Free Press, along with reaction from Jews and Muslims in Winnipeg.

During Pride month, some positive news about religion and the LGBTTQ+ community

Although some in the LGBTTQ+ community might think news about religion and LGBTTQ+ is only negative, that’s not the case—as some recent developments show.

For example, Fuller Seminary—one of the preeminent evangelical seminaries in North America-is discussing whether to revise its standards prohibiting students and staff from “homosexual forms of explicit sexual conduct,” and its position that sexual intimacy is supposed to be reserved for a marriage between a man and a woman.

In May the United Methodist Church (UMC) voted at their General Conference to become more open and accepting of LGBTTQ+ people, including repealing the 52-year-old declaration that the practice of homosexuality is “incompatible with Christian teaching.”

Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Canada has revised its code of conduct so anyone can apply for any position at the international relief and development organization — including those who support same-sex marriage or are members of the LGBTQ+ community.

And Anglicans and Lutherans in Manitoba have joined together to create a new committee to educate about and advocate for members of the LGBTTQ+ community.

Read more in my recent Free Press column.