Telling Tales About Church

In his book, "The Present Future", Reggie McNeal quotes the usual stat that 40-43 percent of Americans attend church. But then he points to another study, that read diaries instead of asking questions, that suggested that only 26 percent of Americans attend church. That happens to be a more believable number in my opinion.

One thing that I find interesting here is the apparent desire of people to lie to pollsters about their church going habits. Why is that? Apparently we have no qualms telling the truth about so many other sordid details of our lives. For some reason it appears that there are a lot of people who want to appear more spiritual than they actually are.

The next thought is who are they lying to. Since the polls are annonymous do people think that God reads the results? And if they do think He reads the results don't they realize that he would know that they are lying anyway?

It's enough to make your headspin. My guess is there is a feeling of guilt that strikes people when they are answering that question and even though it is illogical they get a small dose of relief from lying about attending church.