Progressive Family Values

Sojourners Magazine, Feb 2006 by Berger, Rose Marie, Ferguson, James

STATS

A recent poll conducted for PBS's Religion and Ethics NewsWeekly surveyed 1,130 adults about faith and family. Anna Greenberg, vice president of the polling firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research Inc., told Sojourners that "progressive religious groups [need to] make sure they are offering services on the ground for children"-something she said conservative evangelicals often do well. Greenberg saw this as important to the long-term survival of progressive religious traditions. Other stats from the survey:

* 18 percent of those surveyed named moral values as the concern that worries them most.

* 36 percent defined moral values as personal values including honesty and responsibility.

* 10 percent defined moral values as opinions on social issues, such as abortion or gay marriage.

* 49 percent of traditional fami lies (married couples with their own children) and nontraditional families said they read scripture weekly.

* 45 percent of traditional fami lies and 42 percent of nontraditional families said they have weekly family devotions.

* 49 percent of nontraditional families and 37 percent of traditional families said they worry a lot about their children learning the right values.

* 42 percent of evangelical Protestants said that a family suffers if the woman works full time; 48 percent of those fami lies have two adults working full time.

Source: "Faith and Family in America," Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research Inc., 2005.