Your community

[ForJesusChrist]

How religious is your community? Is there a lot of Christians, atheists, a blend?

Just for discussion.

Where I live, mostly everyone is Christian, but if you travel east, you see a blend of just about every religion under the sun.

Hope this sparks good discussion.

God Bless

 

[Eudaimonist]

In Sweden, people don't generally talk about religion with each other. All I can tell you is that Sweden is in general either atheist or the sort of Christian who only steps foot inside of a church during weddings and funerals and believes that there might be "something out there somewhere".

Then again, some of my immediate neighbors tend to be immigrants to Sweden, so they might be more religious than most Swedes. But I am not going to ask.


eudaimonia,

Mark

 

[chaoticfirefly]

I don't know. I don't ask because to me, someone's faith (or lackthereof) should be a personal and private thing.

I think it's a mix between mostly Christian and Muslim, with some atheists sprinkled in.

 

[Ana the Ist]

My community seems very religious. There are more churches here than where I grew up. I also get people knocking on my door at all hours of the morning selling Jesus or leaving little door-hangers.

 

[parsley]

I didn't realize it when I moved here, but our town has a very high percentage of Christians, within a city/county of very diverse cultures and faiths.

There's a different feel to the traffic and the way people treat each other. People are less spastic on the road -- even though there are individual drivers that will race or wobble, the general pace is respectful. People in the stores are calmly pleasant and courteous without being overly talkative (strangers). Many other townships in our county are not this way.

It took me a long time to realize this. It's certainly not a completely Christian community, or completely docile. But it's a nice reflection on everyone's faith.

 

[cutekittycat]

from where i was born, most people are a blend between buddism and taoism. most are fairly superstitious and traditional; almost too feverish sometimes.
christian population is there, too, yes.

where i live currently gots a melting pot of various religions. majority are probably christian and atheist. usually people just do not talk about their beliefs.

from time to time, some of more perceptive people will ask me about the T necklace (a bit of a joke here...), but that is rare and usually the conversation ends in an affirmation from me.

 

[Joykins]

It's pretty diverse here. Most people are at least nominally some kind of Christian, but there are plenty of Jewish people, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Mormons, and other and no religions too.

 

[selfinflikted]

If by "community" you mean the town/city in which I live, I can say then that it is extremely religious. Being an atheist here is like being a fish out of water. It's horrifying.

 

[Strathos]

From the people I know, they are mostly Christian, there are several different denominations such as Episcopalians (such as myself), Presbyterians, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Catholics. I know a few Muslims as well.

 

[Andres88]

A lot of BaWeFu (Baptism, Wedding, and Funeral) Christians around.

 

[PsychoSarah]

Very mixed.

 

[Lost Angel]

Of those who share their religious beliefs, I have a large number of non practice/worship site visiting Christians.

Catholics are in high numbers in my immediate area and closest major city, but the parishes are really suffering financially. This is due to turnout and member financial issues. A great deal of consolidation of churches and parochial schools has been happening over the last few years. ...way off topic.

Over the years my small social circle has been a blend of active and inactive Christians, Jews, and atheists.

Not by choice, some of my closet friends have been Jewish over the years. Very few atheists, but many different flavors of christianity over the years.

All of the people I have dated have been Christian or Catholic. My ex spouse went on to become a pastor.

 

[Kalevalatar]

Most share the same Judeo-Christian and Lutheran heritage and the majority are baptised and confirmed members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, who marry and bury within the church, go to church conserts and take their kids to their local parish's playschools. Our Christian holidays -- Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, Ascension day, Pentecost, Midsummer, and All Saints' day -- are national public holidays. Religion is taught at schools, parishes organize weekly morning prayers at schools, school semesters end with Christmas church and Summer church services, 80% of our kids go through confirmation training, and so worth. Religion is everywhere. So I think my community is very religious without it realizing it.

Some are openly believers and active members in their local parish life as I am; some keep their faith private and only attend the Mass but are not active in the parish community; a very tiny minority is militant legalistic brimstone Christians; some consider themselves believers but only attend during the big Christian holidays; many are "cultural Christians" who pay their dues and have a positive view of Christianity and the EVL church but do not really think about their personal faith that much; some don't have personal faith but still have a positive view of the EVL church and especially its domestic social diakonia work and foreign church aid, and therefore want to support the church's good work by being members and paying their dues; some are not members and don't really care one way or another; and only a very tiny majority are openly hostile militant atheist on a mission to dismantle the EVL church.

And then we have the bigger community of (non-Lutheran/EVL) believers -- what I liked to call us Believers United -- with whom we have very friendly and neighbourly working relations: the Orthodox, Catholics, the Muslim and Jewish communities, and the free church Christians. Slightly exaggeratingly, we have a common ground and worry: it's us vs. secularisation.

Except for the two extremeties, the militant Christians and militant atheists, everyone else gets along just fine. The Nordic spirit tends to favor cooperation and consensus-seeking, values that unite us, instead of focusing on the cracks to drive us apart.

 

[Cearbhall]

Significantly more than 50% of my county is Catholic. The second most popular denomination is Lutheran. The last 20% includes communities of pretty much everything else you can think of.

 

[Skaloop]

The religious breakdown of my municipality is s follows:

35.3% No religious affiliation
21.3% Roman Catholic
19.9% Protestant
6.1% Christian, not included elsewhere
4.9% Buddhist
4.8% Muslim
2.9% Sikh
2.3% Christian Orthodox
1.5% Hindu
0.4% Eastern religions, not included elsewhere
0.3% other religions, not included elsewhere
0.3% Jewish

It is also very rare to even know what religion, if any, someone has, as it is rarely discussed casually. Even then, it is usually only in passing, such as mentioning that one met their wife at a church picnic or something. There's nothing like what I have heard from other more religious communities where one of the first questions people ask when they meet someone is which church they go to.