Replies

>> This poll generates a shock headline, but nothing in the way of methodology. <<

>> What sample size was used? Was this a pan-Protestant survey. or was it weighted in favor of one group, like mainline churches? What are the criteria? <<

>> it seems that they have a standing group of people who comment. <<

Worse, as I noted in comment #63, the poll is rigged so the criteria they use for "biblical worldview" would AUTOMATICALLY EXCLUDE numerous major Christian denominations from "having a biblical worldview" simply by default.

One of the criteria listed is whether the pastor believes in "salvation by grace alone", which is an exclusively protestant belief. No Catholic pastor or Eastern Orthodox pastor in America would get that question "right" if they follow their own faith's theology, so they would be marked as "not having a biblical worldview" by this "survey", even if they are outspoken adherants of the other five criteria on the "survey". It would be like polling Americans on whether they eat hamburgers, but by "hamburgers" you only consider an "acceptable" response to be eating WHITE CASTLE hamburgers. By default, anyone who DOESN'T live in the upper Midwestern U.S. would automatically not be eating White Castle hamburgers, because there are no White Castle chains in their states. So then you'd dutifully record that they "Don't eat hamburgers" in general.

Furthermore, if we assume the pollsters therefore ONLY polled protestants pastors because of this, then the HEADLINE of the article is itself extremely misleading. I hate to break the news to the article writer, but protestants aren't even a majority of Americans (at last count, they made up about 42% of Americans), and there are millions of American Christians who attend churches with non-protestant pastors. What protestant pastors believe is not what "U.S. pastors" as a whole believe. Again, it would be no different than polling ONLY "gansta rap" artists about whether its acceptable to refer to women as "hos" in musical lyrics. If say, 83% of gansta rappers agree that it IS acceptable, you then release some shocking headline that says "83% of BLACK MUSICIANS THINK ITS OKAY TO CALL WOMEN 'HOs". Except, you didn't poll "black musicians" as a whole. You ONLY polled gangsta rappers, and simply pretended all black musicians who do a different genre of music (rock, pop, country, R&B, etc.) don't exist. Gangsta rappers by themselves would hardly be representative of what "black musicians" as a whole feel about something.

This 'poll' is useful for a "shocking headline", but upon scrutiny, not much else!