Plenary session address: Is There Faith in Canada, and Does the Media Care? (1)

Does the media care?

When we raise the question of whether faith matters to Canadians, the answer is yes. Does media care? Not that much, but to the extent that it does, it focuses on what people care about.  A presentation by Reginald Bibby, author of Fragmented Gods, a study of faith in Canada, to the June 7-9, 1998 Faith and the Media Conference I genuinely appreciate the opportunity to be able to be here and to exchange some thoughts on this very significant topic. I don't know if many people know, but the very first of our national surveys that we carried out in 1975--the survey which began the our 20-year religion monitoring program--was carried out because of a joint funding effort on the part of both faith and media. The faith was in the form of the United Church of Canada, and media in the form of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, more specifically Man Alive.

I want to point out that when we carried out that first survey, I certainly felt that people who value faith would be interested in the results, and they certainly were. What surprised was the fact that the media cared and that the media gave so much play to that first survey. I remember very well, way back in 1976, receiving a call from a reporter in Toronto who identified himself as Tom Harpur. He said he worked for the Toronto Star, that he had previewed the program and wanted to do an article on the survey. Harpur's story, much to my amazement, ran as the main story on the front page of the Star the following day.

It's resulted, by the way, over the years, in a lot of consternation on the part of people like myself, a lot of bewilderment as a result of the media attention. Academics aren't used to getting very much publicity when it comes to their research. I approach the involvement with the media very often with an awful lot of stress, a lot of fear. Part of the problem is due to the short amount of time given for sharing findings, the sound bites and whatever. Plus, it's very difficult when you're dealing with topics relating to religion to not appear to be very grim. I often have people say, "You look so serious." But it's hard to grin from ear to ear when you're talking about the problems in the United Church of Canada, or when you're trying to comment on areas, for example, relating to things like sexual abuse.

It's not that the media necessarily want very much of religion in the course of functioning on a day to day basis.

Over the years I've developed a tremendous appreciation for the role that the Canadian media have played in making our research known. The American sociologist Robert Bellah has suggested that most academics spend their entire lives talking to each other. As someone who's wanted to expand that circle of conversation, I've come to realize the indispensable role that the media play in making such an expansion possible. People who value faith and those who do research on faith unquestionably need the media if they want Canadians to be aware of the kinds of things that they value and the kinds of things that they're finding. What is not as clear, of course, is that the media necessarily want very much of religion, let alone need religion, in the course of functioning on a day to day basis.

It's fairly easy to respond to the first of the two questions that we're raising in this session, namely, "Is there faith in Canada?" On the surface, it seems to me that the answer is fairly straightforward: Yes. We can use any number of criteria to document the fact that faith is valued in a widespread way across Canada. Take, for example, a simple measure such as religious identification. By religious identification I'm simply referring to the responses that Canadians give when, for example, the census taker asks, "What's your religion?"

If we use identification as our measure, as of 1991, some 90% of Canadians still think that they're something. And the very fact that they say that they are something, I believe, personally, is highly significant simply because of the fact that when someone says, "I'm Anglican, I'm United, I'm Roman Catholic," then psychologically and emotionally they, in fact, are identifying with those traditions. We found in our research that some 70% of Canadians say that they place value on the groups that they identify with. And so we're saying the fact that people identify, for starters, I think is very, very significant.

Religious attendance is a second measure. Well, many of you know that the bottom seems to have dropped out, except the bottom still is around 25%. We often think of religious attendance as having experienced a tremendous drop-off--and I guess we should. At the end of the Second World War, the figure was around 65%. But still, it's noteworthy that one in four Canadians claim at least that they're showing up for religious services virtually every week.

The situation could be summed up in terms of Canadians not so much dropping out [of religious services] as dropping in.

Some interesting data that many people don't play up is the fact that in 1975 18% of Canadians said they never attended services. Do you know what the figure is today? About 18%. So simple math here means that a lot of people aren't attending on a weekly basis, but they haven't stopped attending altogether. Using a line from a student of mine, the situation could be summed up in terms of Canadians not so much dropping out as dropping in. Said Archbishop Garnsworthy in 1986, in a wonderful line that even the Americans cite: "It's not that they're leaving, it's just that they're not coming." The reality is that Canadians continue to identify with religious groups, although attendance is down.

If we need documentation on a third level, we can provide all kinds of data as far as beliefs. If that matters to you in terms of being able to document the fact that faith's alive in Canada, well, where do you start? Belief in God, 81%. Life after death, about 75%. Heaven--does anyone believe in heaven any more? Well, we found in 1995 the figure comes in at 67%. The real shocker, does anyone believe in hell in Canada? Well, let me tell you, in 1995 in Canada, 49% of Canadians say they believe in hell. Near death experiences, the ability to communicate with the spirit world, reincarnation, all those figures are very, very high; I don't want to bore you with all the data. If some of you say, "Well, wait a minute, if you look at Canadians by age, you'd find that older Canadians hold those things, younger Canadians don't." Not so. If anything, younger Canadians endorse most of those things on a higher level than older Canadians.

A lot of us read about spirituality, play up the whole idea of interest in spirituality. If you want a fourth indicator of faith being alive in Canada, well, as in 1995, over 50% percent of Canadians were acknowledging explicitly that they have spiritual needs. Among teenagers in the mid nineties, the figure is 60%.

If we also want another indicator, I suppose we can point to behaviour, and argue that as Canadians who value faith live out life on an every-day basis, those faiths are simply reflected in what they're doing on a day-to-day basis, whether they're high profile Canadians in politics or in the economic sphere, or whether we're talking about average Canadians who are living out life. We're saying, to value faith is often to live out that faith in the things that one is doing.

An asterisk on that--I want to be fair to the critics--only about one in three Canadians say that they are deeply committed to the Christian faith, or to any other faith, for that matter, and it's downright embarrassing when we get into the areas of knowledge. If someone really values faith, shouldn't they know some of the basics about their faith? We've been running the same question for the last 20 years: "Do you happen to know who denied Jesus three times?" If you're not part of the Christian faith, you might not know that one. 1975, the figure was 50% who could identify Peter.

(By the way, these are mailed surveys--people have a chance to talk to people and look up the answer. It still comes out at 50%. In 1995, with people increasingly aware of religion, well, the figure dropped to 42%. And how about the real toughie: "Do you happen to know the first book of the Old Testament?" Well, a whopping 44% of Canadians were able to get that one right.)

I'm always reminded of an experience I had with an open line radio show host in Edmonton. Commenting on the fact that so many people don't know who denied Jesus three times, he said--on air--"Boy, that's just horrible." As we're going off air, he looks over at me and he says, "By the way, who was it who denied Jesus three times?" So we're talking about a high level of knowledge out there.

At the same time, beyond the individual level, we can make an interesting case for the fact that religion is certainly valued at the organizational level. A wide range of religious groups work hard as far as trying to have input into Canadian life. Nationally and regionally we have organizations like the Canadian Council of Churches, the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, and then a large number of coalitions and other organizations, including the Citizens for Public Justice. Particularly impressive, it seems to me in recent years, has been the cooperative nature of such efforts spanning the wide range of Protestant denominations and faith groups more generally.

Faith [in Canada] is certainly not going to go away.

Well, as for the future, are things going to change? I would argue that faith's presence is not exactly in decline. It's certainly not going to go away. Those who see religion as disappearing into the night usually draw on data documenting the plight of religious groups. They see findings, for example, on a number of high profile groups positing things like decline over the next 15 years. Using data of mine, we're projecting, for example, that by the year 2015 the core of active United Church people will have dropped from 400,000 to 200,000; Anglicans from 200, 000 to 100,000; the Roman Catholics in Quebec from 1.2 million down to 600, 000. That's based on simple demographic projections. People picking up on that sort of stuff will say organized religions in Canada is finished.

You know, it's true that the numerical strength of the main players is changing, and with it their organizational resources, but even if some of the main religious companies get smaller and some flirt with receivership, others such as conservative Protestants are holding their own and may be even growing a little.

Probably of greater significance is that for all the problems of religious corporations, faith at the individual level, as we've just shown, is very much alive. Its future is not in question. The question for sociologists and others is not its presence but rather what, if anything, will be its relationship to organized religion. Put simply, will Canadians bother with the companies or will they opt for self-style religion? So, in short, the answer to the first question is yes, faith is alive in Canada, if not always alive and well in an organizational sense.

Second question: Do the media care? I don't want to be so simplistic as to say that the media simply respond to what the public wants, but I think it's fair to say that what appears in the media ultimately reflects consumer demand, ratings and readership, advertising and resource implications, financial and organizational viability implications. It seems to me that, in the minds of average Canadians, everyday religion is not that important. They simply don't care that much.

I always got the sense that Tom Harpur [former religion reporter for the Toronto Star] was shooting for the front page. If worst came to worst, the story would end up on the religion pages.

In days of seminary, I remember the old cliché about when Daniel was in the lion's den, he didn't pull the lion's tail. I want to run the risk of pulling the tails of a few journalists here. I always taken by Tom Harpur. When we do surveys and we'd have something that might potentially be newsworthy, I was intrigued by the fact that I always got the sense--and some of you know Harpur; see if you can vouch for me--I always got the sense that Tom was shooting for the front page. And if worst came to worst, the story would end up on the religion pages. It seems to me that that speaks volumes. Some of you say, "Well, that was in the days of Tom Harpur. " I venture to say, without naming names, that there are a fair number of religion journalists in the country today who think very much the same way--that if all goes well the story will end up on the front page; if worst comes to worst, it might end up in the religion pages. The danger there is that it will be buried and it won't be noticed.

Well, in fairness to that kind of thinking, I would suggest that religion is not especially or particularly important if we're talking about the everyday kind of religion. By that I'm talking about what's happening by way of projects, organizational changes, events, coming and going, national conferences or annual conferences. Those sorts of things certainly would be of some interest to some constituents, notably leaders of these organizations, but I don't think that they matter much to average people, even to the affiliates who are involved. A reshuffling, for example, of personnel among the Presbyterians of Canada is not something that a lot of people care about. So what I want to suggest is that when we're looking at everyday religion people do not necessarily care that much.

Our national surveys have shown that between 1975 and 1995 the good news is that Canadians have become far more tolerant when they think of other faiths in this country. But the fact that they've become tolerant is not accompanied by a sense that they are particularly comfortable with people of other faith groups. Did you know that as of 1995 one in three people who identify with the United Church of Canada say that they would be uncomfortable worshipping in a Pentecostal service? But before you get too hard on the United Church of Canada, guess what? One in three Pentecostals say they would be uncomfortable worshipping in a United Church service. People are not particularly comfortable, they're not especially knowledgeable about other groups, and I venture to say they're not all that interested in the activities that take place in other groups.

While Canadians are not all that interested in religion in and of itself, there are some important exceptions here. It seems to me, for example, that we do have some interest in certain religious individuals if they have a high profile and therefore this translates into wider public interest. I'm thinking here, for example, of the interest that all Canadians might have in a Pope's visit, in Billy Graham, in Mother Teresa, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Dali Lama. You'll notice in that list we don't have any Canadians. The fact of the matter is we don't have a lot of heroes in Canada and that extends to the Canadian religious sphere as well.

We do notice some leaders, for example, when someone like the United Church moderator says some things that are perceived to be shaking up people in the pews. Then we notice. But the interesting thing is even here we only notice when the constituents are large enough. We're not, for example, finding that the media give a lot of play to radical statements of the leaders of Baptist and Buddhist groups. So what I'm saying here is that we're not that interested in everyday events.

People are interested in religion when religion is associated with the kinds of things that they care about.

But having said that, let me add that people are interested in religion when religion is associated with the kinds of things that they care about. Not interested in religion per se, but interested in religion when religion is associated with the kinds of things they care about.

Two examples: One is the kind of hard news in religion associated with an event--a church burns down, a graveyard is desecrated, a church bus crashes, those kinds of things. Two: We're also interested in religion when religion is associated with areas of interest. When Roman Catholic bishops speak out on the economy, when churches in Ontario and Alberta attack the governments there for budget slashing, for gambling in Alberta, when justice issues are involved, when women are allowed or not allowed to become priests and nuns, when sexual abuse is taking place, when homosexuality is something that is having to be dealt with--those things are news. Even in an area like sports, if religion is somehow associated with sports, we pay attention, because we care about sports.

Obviously, one of the big areas that we care about is deviance. Lot of people don't know this, but Yours Truly doesn't just specialize in religion. My other area of specialty is deviant behaviour. I can tell you right now that our enrollment in the last 20 years at the University of Lethbridge in deviance courses has risen, while we have to push hard to get a fraction of those kinds of people out to our religion courses. This is a ripe area when it comes to religion simply because of the fact that morality is associated with religion. Consequently, people are interested in stories that go back to the days of David and Bathsheba, through to tales today of ministers running off with secretaries, to the Jim Bakkers and Jimmy Swaggarts. Those things are big news and the public take an interest in what's happening. Little wonder we're saying that there's interest in sexual escapades and financial scandals, and brainwashing and cults, and even in new expressions of spirituality over old expressions of faith.

To take me back to where I began: When we raise the question of whether faith matters to Canadians, the answer is yes. Does media care? I would argue, not that much, but to the extent that it does, it focuses on what people care about, namely high profile religious figures, an occasional significant event, and other areas of life that seem to matter.

But as Peggy Weymeher emphasized, faith is alive and it is alive precisely in those areas of interest that seem to matter. As people who value faith live out their lives, experiencing the full range of life and the full range of emotions and bring their faith to bear on what is taking place, then it seems to me it is precisely in those areas where we do care that there are stories to tell. The challenge therefore facing the media, a media that aspires to tell the so-called whole story, is to uncover those stories and to share them with a wider audience.

Dr. Reginald Bibby is a full professor of Sociology at the University of Lethbridge, where he has taught since 1973. For the past 20 years he has been monitoring social trends in Canada through a series of well-known national surveys of adults and teenagers. He has presented his findings in both North America and Europe, and is the author of some 50 journal articles and seven books including Fragmented Gods, Unknown Gods; There's Got to Be More!; and Mosaic Madness. Over 100,000 of his books have been sold. He has also conducted major studies of the Anglican, United and evangelical churches. He is currently completing a study of some 30 American denominations for a consortium of U.S. Protestant publishers. As a result of his work, he is frequently called upon by the media to interpret his findings.

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