South Dakota Christians: Faith in common sense

Sioux Falls (SD) Argus Leader, Op-Ed, published Jan. 2, 2018

South Dakota’s quirky religious predilections are revealed in a fascinating study published in 2017 by the respected Pew Research Center.

Turns out, unsurprisingly, that we South Dakotans are indeed largely Caucasian-Christian folks. In fact, along with North Dakota, we lead the country in the percentage of white Christians in our populations – 71 percent for our northern neighbor and 68 percent for us. Perhaps worrisomely for some, this majority has sagged precipitously in recent years. The proportion was 15 percent higher in the Peace Garden state in 2006 and was then 10 points higher than now for we Mount Rushmorites.

It’s all part of a national trend toward less religiosity that has been picking up speed in recent decades. A quarter of the population is now religiously unaffiliated.

The Pew study shows that a significant minority of South Dakotans today, nearly one in five, are at best only nominally religious. These generally irreligious citizens, the spiritually unaffiliated “nones,” include adherents of “nothing in particular” religion-wise (12 percent), agnostics (4 percent), atheists (3 percent), and people who just “don’t know” what to think about supernatural propositions (1 percent).

Still, 79 percent of the state’s citizens remain Christian – white or otherwise – roughly split mostly among mainline Protestants (32 percent), evangelical Protestants (25 percent) and Catholics (22 percent), plus a smattering of other Christian denominations. But, as the Pew study indicates, this majority appears to be steadily eroding.

Among the charts and graphs of the Pew report are some fascinating tidbits about S.D.-style religious habits and tendencies. For instance, whereas 69 percent of our predominantly rural populace believe in God “absolutely,” nearly 32 percent are only “fairly certain,” “not at all certain,” “don’t know,” reject the idea completely or have no idea what to believe about such things.

The perceived importance of religion in one’s life follows a similar fragmentation in the study, in that 57 percent of South Dakotans reported faith to be “very important” in their lives, while 42 percent weighted it as only “somewhat important” to “not at all.

Oddly, in a state with church bells ringing in virtually every city and town, and with a long- cherished faith tradition, we South Dakotans apparently don’t attend religious services as much as one might think. The faith-by-state Pew study showed that almost exactly the same proportion of faithful attend church weekly in S.D. (36 percent), as do only once or twice a month (37 percent), while 27 percent report they seldom if ever go to church. Also counter-intuitively, perhaps, 50 percent of the state’s citizens admit to rarely if ever reading scripture and there is wide disagreement over whether scripture is the literal word of God or not.

Prayer, on the other hand, seems to be more widespread than church-going but a decidedly private activity. The Pew study shows 56 percent of the population reports praying “at least daily,” while the rest say they commune with the divine only weekly, monthly or seldom if ever. However, 63 percent hardly ever participate in public groups that pray or study scripture together.

But, happily, whatever we’re doing in S.D., it seems to be working. The study demonstrated that 63 percent of the state’s adults feel “spiritual peace and wellbeing” at least weekly and only 12 percent seldom if ever. Forty-six percent reported feeling “wonder about the universe” at least once a week.

Very interestingly, despite the conservative Republican and Bible-centric reputation of the state, the Pew study revealed that South Dakotans are not by nature rigid thinkers with knee-jerk, scripture-driven ideologies. Sixty percent of the adult populace does not hold to absolute standards of right and wrong, believing instead that moral choices depend on changeable circumstances. However, the moral instincts of a sizeable 39 percent minority are fully hidebound.

Philosophical questions aside, though, most South Dakotans still intuitively believe in heaven (77 percent) and fewer, hell (64 percent). However, we are surprisingly evenly split on the morality of abortion – 50 percent believe it should always be illegal and 48 percent the opposite. Still, about 75 percent of the state believes that biological evolution, if it occurs at all (25 percent accept that it did), could only have progressed under God’s direction and not by independent natural processes.

The most telling statistic in the study was that 48 percent of South Dakotans said “common sense” guided them in divining right vs. wrong far more than religion or science.

MY VOICE

Rick Snedeker is a retired newspaper and magazine editor and writer living in Mitchell. He writes for various media and at Apostate Apostle blog. My Voice columns should be 500 to 700 words. Submissions should include a portrait-type photograph of the author. Authors also should include their full name, age, occupation and relevant organizational memberships.

Send columns to Argus Leader, Box 5034, Sioux Falls, SD 57117-5034; or email them to alletters@argusleader.com.

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