APOLOGIAreport
> trac ki n g s p i r i t u a l t r e n d s i n t h e 2 1s t ce n t u r y
In this issue:
HEALING - responding to a common
misunderstanding
STATISTICS IN RELIGION - “more
‘God-and-Country’ black Protestants
than you’d predict”
+ f aith is on the rise globally, but in the
West, “fuzzy secularity and a complex
religious landscape coincide”
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v o l u m e 2 4 : 5 ( 1,4 1 3 ) / J a n u a r y 2 7 , 2 0 1 9
HEALING
“Is It God’s Will to Always Heal?” -- when I
(RP) worked at the Christian Research Insti-
tute from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s,
this was one of the most frequent questions
that came our way. Little has changed since
then. In his September 4, 2018 article, Tim
Barnett of Stand to Reason presents a good
approach to the delicate issues involved.
“My friend Alex is dying from brain can-
cer. ... He described how parents from the
Christian school where he worked came
over to express their concern that Alex
wasn’t getting better. More than that, they
expressed concern about why he wasn’t get-
ting better. They told Alex and his wife that
he could be healed if he only had enough
faith. They told him that it was his own fault
— his lack of faith — that was preventing
his healing.
“Furthermore, they described how
immediate physical healing is guaranteed in
the atonement. Just as there is spiritual heal-
ing — forgiveness and justification — in the
atonement for all who believe, there is also
immediate physical healing in the atone-
ment for all who believe.
“God has done His part (they said).
Our immediate physical healing has been
bought and paid for in the death of Christ.
Now it’s up to us to receive that healing
through faith. So, the problem isn’t on God’s
end; rather, it’s on our end.”
The misconception that it is always
God’s will to heal is most widespread
among Pentecostal and charismatic Chris-
tians. Barnett’s introductory response links
to a biblical theology of suffering <www.
bit.ly/2W8wAly> that he has developed
in greater detail. He begins with the foun-
dational biblical principle that “In a fallen
world, we should not be surprised by suffer-
ing.” <www.bit.ly/2HomVUE>
STATISTICS IN RELIGION
“Splicing and dicing American religion
today: How about a seven-party Pew typol-
ogy?” by Richard Ostling (GetReligion, Sep
6 ‘18) — reports that “the ubiquitous Pew
Research Center is splicing and dicing its
survey data to discern a new seven-party
system, what the title of its latest report
<www.pewrsr.ch/2Mp06z6> calls ‘The Reli-
gious Typology: A New Way to Categorize
Americans by Religion.’ ...
“Pew labels 40 percent of U.S. adults as
‘highly religious,’ sharing traditional belief
in the God of the Bible and looking upon
faith fondly, segmented into these three
groups.” They are:
1 - “Sunday Stalwarts” 17%
2 - “God-and-Country Believers” 12%
3 - “Diversely Devout” 11%
(“Next come two types of ‘somewhat reli-
gious’ Americans.”)
4 - “Relaxed Religious” 17%
5 - “Spiritually Awake” 15%
(“Finally, Pew defines two ‘non-religious’
categories.”)
6 - “Religion Resisters” 12%
7 - “Solidly Secular” 17%
Pew “underscores some data points.
Evangelicals dominate among the Sunday
Stalwarts, which explains their cultural
impact. ‘Mainline’ Protestants and Catho-
lics, by contrast, are quite evenly spread
among categories 1 through 5 with Catho-
lics surprisingly thin on Stalwarts. There
are more ‘God-and-Country’ black Prot-
estants than you’d predict. Jews are pro-
foundly polarized with hefty numbers in
both the most religious and the most secu-
lar categories. And much else.” <www.bit.
ly/2Ms7Znc>
“Why Faith Is Becoming More and More
Popular” by Harriet Sherwood — this
report from the UK’s Guardian newspaper
announces that “Faith is on the rise and
84% of the global population identifies with
a religious group. ...
“How many believers are there around
the world?
“If you think religion belongs to the past
and we live in a new age of reason, you need
to check out the facts: 84% of the world’s
population identifies with a religious group.
Members of this demographic are generally
younger and produce more children than
those who have no religious affiliation, so
the world is getting more religious, not less
— although there are significant geographi-
cal variations.

Statistics in religion (continued)
“According to 2015 figures, Christians
form the biggest religious group by some
margin, with 2.3 billion adherents or 31.2%
of the total world population of 7.3 billion.
Next come Muslims (1.8 billion, or 24.1%),
Hindus (1.1 billion, or 15.1%) and Bud-
dhists (500 million, or 6.9%). ...
“But the third-biggest category is miss-
ing from the above list. In 2015, 1.2 billion
people in the world, or 16%, said they have
no religious affiliation at all. This does not
mean all those people are committed athe-
ists; some — perhaps most — have a strong
sense of spirituality or belief in God, gods or
guiding forces, but they don’t identify with
or practise an organised religion.”
Sherwood breaks down the sub-groups
and related geographic distribution includ-
ing: “97% of Hindus live in three Hindu-
majority countries: India, Mauritius and
Nepal, while 87% of Christians live in 157
Christian-majority countries. Three-quar-
ters of Muslims live in Muslim-majority
countries.
APOLOGIAreport
“In contrast, most Buddhists (72%) live
as a minority in their home countries.”
Further, “religion is on the wane in west-
ern Europe and North America, and it’s
growing everywhere else.” Details follow,
but “It’s mainly down to births and deaths,
rather than religious conversion.” Neverthe-
less, “23% of American Muslims say they
are converts to the faith, and in recent years
there has been growing anecdotal evidence
of Muslim refugees converting to Christian-
ity in Europe.
“China has seen a huge religious revival
in recent years and some predict it will have
the world’s largest Christian population by
2030.”
Sherwood also briefly explores “science
and religion” and the lack of “religious lit-
eracy.” Regarding the latter: “Myths and
factual inaccuracies about religious beliefs
v o l u m e 2 4 : 5 ( 1,4 1 3 ) / J a n u a r y 2 7 , 2 0 1 9
and texts are common, and many say that
education about religious education is as
important to understanding the world as
history, geography, science and art are.
“According to Harvard’s Religious Lit-
eracy Project <www.rlp.hds.harvard.edu>
... There are many consequences of this
illiteracy, but the most urgent is that it fuels
conflict and antagonisms and hinders coop-
erative endeavors in all arenas of human
experience. [Ding! Ding! Ding!]
“Religious literacy is a particular prob-
lem of the developed West, where fuzzy sec-
ularity and a complex religious landscape
coincide.” The Guardian, Aug 27 ‘18, <www.
bit.ly/2TaLl5u>
For a good deal of historical context
related to conflicting statistical journalism,
look no further than what we’ve mentioned
in our back issues: <www.bit.ly/2FM3gfZ>

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