Why Church Attendance Reduces Acceptance of Diversity

Data analysis from Ryan Burge tells a stunning story

Photo by Debby Hudson on Unsplash

Ryan Burge is a political scientist, a former pastor, and author of the excellent Substack newsletter, “Graphs About Religion.”

His latest post, “Who Embraces Diversity in America — and Who Doesn’t,” should give every church-going Christian pause.

Burge slices the data from the latest Pew Religious Landscape Survey and determines that attending church decreases acceptance of both racial and religious diversity, regardless of age and political affiliation.

What explains this finding? Most Christian churches have an exclusive vibe. It rubs off on their members and, ironically, makes them less like Jesus.

The Pew Survey

The Pew survey asked two questions, the answers to which Burge analyzes to reach his conclusion:

1. Does the fact that the U.S. is made up of people of many different races/ethnicities strengthen American society, weaken it, or not make much difference?
2. Does the fact that the U.S. is made up of people of many different religions and people who are not religious strengthen American society, weaken it, or not make much difference?