Anchorage Daily News

We have mega-congregations, neighborhood Bible churches and strip-mall chapels of love, but a good number of Alaskans still aren't in the pews on Sunday.

Click to enlarge

Story tools

Comments

E-mail a friend

Print

Digg this

Seed Newsvine

Send link via AIM

Font size : A | A | A

In fact, Alaska is one of the least religious states in the country, according to a study from The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

Alaska responses to the forum's "U.S. Religious Landscape Survey" fell in line with most Americans, the majority of whom believe in God but are not tied to strict interpretations of any religion.

In a few categories, however, Alaska stands out: Seems people here are among the least likely to attend church, pray or align themselves with a religious group.

The survey was based on samples of 100 to 200 people in Alaska and 35,000 people nationwide. Because of Alaska's small sample, questions had margins of error up to 9 percent, but the trends echo other recent surveys of religious attitudes in the Pacific Northwest.

Among the results:

• Church attendance in Alaska was among the lowest in the nation, at 22 percent.

• "Unaffiliated" was the most common description of religious ties. There were slightly more unaffiliated people in Alaska than evangelical Protestants, who made up the single largest religious group.

• Twice as many Alaskans (32 percent) said they seldom or never prayed, compared to 18 percent Outside.

• One in four Alaskans weren't affiliated with a religious tradition, compared to one in 10 in the United States.

• Seventy-seven percent of respondents said many religions can lead to eternal life.

• Among the religious traditions, there were far fewer Jews and fewer Catholics than the national average, but slightly more mainline Protestants and twice as many Mormons (4 percent of the overall population in Alaska), and about three times as many following Orthodox traditions (3 percent). The number of evangelical Protestants -- 26 percent -- was identical to the rest of the nation.

SEEKERS

The survey reveals Alaska's independent-minded and live-and-let-live personality, said Bishop Michael Keys, with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. It goes along with the state's frontier spirit and libertarian streak.

"We don't want interference from anybody, whether it be government, or churches or institutions. That's a repeating pattern in Alaska," he said. "Therefore (people think), 'Why would I need a church?' "

Greg Kimura, head of the Alaska Humanities Forum and professor of religion and ethics at Alaska Pacific University, said the survey results might be surprising to some, especially in Anchorage, where it sometimes seems you can't go a block without running into a church. Alaska may be conservative, but it doesn't come from religion.

"We're more religiously pluralistic, more open to other religions," he said. "(The survey) tells us the opposite of the popular impression, that is that Alaska is religiously conservative."

On the question of "the importance of religion in one's life," 36 percent of Alaskans answered "very important," while nationally 58 percent said religion was "very important." Fewer in Alaska said religion was "very important" than in any other western state. Mississippi had the highest number of people who said religion was very important, at 82 percent.

Rev. Jerry Prevo of the Anchorage Baptist Temple said the low church attendance and lack of emphasis on religion could have something to do with Alaska's reputation as an escape. People who want to leave their pasts behind may not want to attend church, he said.

"I think it's the Alaska wilderness. People are here to get away from things. Some people are running away. They have not realized that God still loves them in spite of their failures in the past."

Kimura said part of the issue is generational. Baby boomers left churches, he said. Their children weren't raised with religion, and now they're grown up and some are looking for a path.

"Just because people aren't affiliated with a church doesn't mean they aren't open to religion, he said. He called Alaska's high number of unaffiliated people "seekers." Looking at it that way, Alaska has as many "seekers" as evangelical Christians.

Keys said political and current events -- from the faulty information that led to war in Iraq, to lawsuits against teachers, to church scandals, to the economic downturns -- made people distrust institutions. That drove them from churches.

"We live in a time of anxiety and powerful insecurity about institutions," he said. "I think that people are asking as many or maybe more spiritual questions they have ever asked."

GOD IN NATURE

Though they might not attend church, eight in 10 Alaskans believe in God or a universal spirit, just below the country as a whole, where nine in 10 believe in God, according to the survey.

Catholic Archbishop Roger Schwietz said church attendance is low in part because Alaska is such an active, nature-oriented place. Many participate in subsistence and outdoor activities on weekends instead, he said.

"It doesn't mean their faith is weaker, I think. It's just they're not as serious about attending weekly worship," he said.

"People tend to believe in God and say belief in God is strengthened by beauty of the state."

Kimura said Alaska attracts nature-lovers, and though they may not be religious, they are often spiritual.

"The environmental movement is underwritten by spiritual values," he said.

Keys agreed that people in Alaska find solace in the outdoors, and for them nature is like religion. "I know hundreds of people who have articulated well they find God in nature," he said.

Four in 10 Alaskans pray daily, compared to the nation, where nearly six in 10 pray every day. The study may be picking up on Alaskans' different approach to spirituality, Schwietz said. People who don't attend church may well have different ideas about what constitutes praying, he said.

"Often when they say they pray less, they are referring to formal prayers," he said. "There's a lot of praying that goes on that's more personal."

The study also showed that Alaskans who do pray feel their prayers are answered less often than people in the country at large.

TOLERANCE

Alaska is one of the most tolerant states when it comes to accepting other religions and most open when it comes to religious interpretation.

Seven in 10 people said that many religions, rather than just their own, can lead to eternal life. Nearly 40 percent of Alaska respondents said the Bible was a "book written by men, not the word of God," compared to 28 percent nationally. Seven in 10 said there is more than one way to interpret the teachings of their religion, compared to six in 10 nationally.

Alaska's results were similar to other western states and the Northeast.

Prevo was particularly troubled by those results, both nationally and in Alaska. Christians should not believe there is more than one way to eternal life, he said. They also shouldn't believe, as another portion of the national study showed, that there is a heaven but no hell.

"They are picking and choosing what they want to believe of what Jesus taught, rather accepting all he taught," he said. "A person who claims to be a Christ-follower does not have that option to pick and choose."

He felt Christians had become more pluralistic over the last two decades, becoming more tolerant of other beliefs, and that was changing their politics. It was a sign that ministers were failing in their duties to teach Jesus' word as something that can't be modified according to someone's individual desires.

"Jesus didn't leave any room for tolerance" when it came to deviating from his word, he said.

Schwietz took another view, seeing religious tolerance by Catholics as a positive thing, in line with papal teachings.

"We have to respect the way God works in everyone's lives," he said.

Find Julia O'Malley online at adn.com/contact/jomalley or call 257-4591.

ADVERTISEMENT