Men's Health, for reasons best known only to their editors, did a study to find the 100 holiest cities in America. My hometown, Wichita, KS, is number four. The city where I attended college, Oklahoma City, OK, is barely ahead, at number three.
Men's Health took four measurements into account.
We scoured the U.S. Census and the yellow pages (Yellow.com) for places of worship per capita. Then we tallied up religious organizations (U.S. Census) and the number of volunteers who support these groups (VolunteeringinAmerica.gov). Finally, we considered the amount of money donated to religious organizations (Bureau of Labor Statistics and spent on religious books (Mediamark Research).
You can find the full list of top 100 cities
here.
Do a quick ctrl+f search. Is your hometown in the top 100? Would you expect it to be? It is surprising that both Portland and Seattle are in the top 25, considering Mark Driscoll calls them the least churched cities in America. Or perhaps Mars Hill has made all the difference?
Personally, I wish Men's Health had listed the bottom 100 as well. It would make for some interesting contrasts and comparisons.
Where did your city end up? What do you think about the standards the magazine set for the study?
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Comments (4)
It doesn't say that these are churches, or even Christian. I would imagine Mosques, Temples, multi faith centers, etc. all count as well.
Given that they counted donations as well, is that donations people who reside in the city made, or is that donations the organizations in that city received? Colorado Springs would have a fairly sizable advantage if it is based on what the organizations in that city received. Focus on the Family is headquartered there, and I believe it is nearly right across from Ted Haggard's former church, which is a megachurch on it's own.
Given that they bolded the last 10 on the list, I wonder if these were the only 100 cities they compared.
It is interesting either way. Strangely enough the city I live in, and the city I attend church in, didn't make the list. But, the combined population of the two is around 20,000.
More than likely cities like Portland and Seattle ended up there because the criteria consisted of primarily worldly conditions. So the cities with wealthier benefactors will likely climb the list faster. Number of Churches per-capita can also point to how religiously divided a city is as well. The volunteer work is a good criteria, but I know a lot of atheists who volunteer as well. Even Boy Scouts of America volunteer.
But, I used to live in Kansas, so it's cool that Witchita got on there anyway! lol
I don't know about Seattle as a whole, but Mark Driscoll has been directly involved in a lot of college students and other young people from many different backgrounds even the punk scene etc. coming to know Christ. I have met teachers that were full of themselves but mark is not, but has pride issues like anyone else does, and speaks off the cuff so sometimes can come up with some doozies. I don't agree with everything he says (have quite a few different views) but there's no reason to blast him as a person that is full of himself. If we are without pride, ok, let's then be first to start throwing stones. Getting back to my point, he's influenced young people but there's a lot of older people still not interested.