To Verify

Among nations sending Christian missionaries abroad, rank of U.S.: 1

Number sent: 69,000

Among nations receiving Christian missionaries from abroad, rank of U.S.: 2

Number received: 20,000

Number received by Brazil: 27,000

Percentage of Christian missionaries who go to countries with a majority of the population professing Christianity: 99

Number of London churches converted to mosques in the last 20 years: 400

Number of Christian places of worship in the U.S.: 405,000

Number with no affiliation to any other group: 100,000

Percentage of Americans preferring to live where traditional family values are strongly upheld: 76

Percentage preferring to live where nontraditional lifestyles are tolerated: 19

Percentage of Americans who think caring for elderly parents is an adult child’s responsibility: 85

Who would consider asking elderly parents no longer able to live alone to move in with them: 85

Percentage of elderly who have never received financial help from their children: 79

Settlements in U.S. sexual harassment cases, in 1991: $7.1 million

Estimated in 1993: $25.7 million

Percentage of American men who say they have solicited prostitutes: 17

Percentage of singles who want to get married:

Among those 18 to 24 years old:

Women: 93, Men: 88

Among those 25 to 34 years old:

Women: 70, Men: 87

Among those 35 to 44 years old:

Women: 53, Men: 56

ANOTHER LOOK AT FIDELITY

Dr. Joyce Brothers (1990) claims that half of all wives have affairs. Shere Hite, in a controversial 1987 report asserts that three-fourths of all wives married more than five years have affairs. James Patterson and Peter Kim (1991) argue that 49 percent of married Americans consider having an affair, but only 31 percent actually do.

Now, from the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, come new numbers to fuel the debate–surprising numbers that offer more hope for domestic stability. In five studies from 1988 to the present researchers at the Center found only about 15 percent of Americans have ever cheated on a spouse. They further discovered that, in a given year, only 3 to 4 percent of husbands and wives are unfaithful.

-Reported by Marilyn Gardner in “The Christian Science Monitor, “10/28/93

CASUAL RELIGION

New studies are challenging conventional thought on how Americans practice their faith. Gallup, for instance, reports that 45 percent of Protestants and 51 percent of Catholics attend services weekly.

But the “American Sociological Review” (December, 1993) suggests that many people stretch the truth when answering pollsters about their church attendance habits. Studies of actual head counts in selected churches found that only 20 percent of Protestants and 28 percent of Catholics are in church each week.

Another study measured four religious areas besides church attendance, revealing varying levels of commitment: 19 percent of Americans are religiously committed (practicing their religion regularly); 22 percent are modestly religious; 29 percent are barely or nominally religious.

-“Newsweek,” 11/29/93.