Subject Recruitment
Surveys were
circulated to a number of clergy, religious, and other intellectual leaders as well
as lay people from most major religious groups and people who consider them selves
to be non-religious.
In phase one
we recruited local respondents associated with the Graduate Theological Union (GTU)
in Berkeley, California. We asked respondents for leads to other possibly interested
parties. In phase two we sent out a mass email using the SurveyMonkey tool on the
web, leading to world-wide participation. Email surveys were sent to various pastors,
asking them to forward it on to members of their congregation. Many emails were
sent out by both the research assistant and Ted Peters to various religious leaders
around the globe, lay and non-religious persons, asking them to forward the email
on to their colleagues and associates. A web accelerator factor then kicked in,
as the survey was spread by independent blogs, such as the Wired blog.
The research
assistant, Julie Froehlig, made the paper surveys available at GTU seminary dining
halls (Pacific School of Religion and Church of the Divinity School of the Pacific)
for a total of four meals, offering chocolate and alien suckers as an incentive.
She also attended a function at Franciscan School of Theology. Twelve surveys were
given to one of the members of a Jesuit House, who was able to get five members
of his order to participate. In addition, surveys were made available at a local
Lutheran Church coffee hour and in a graduate level course taught by Ted Peters
at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary. 154 paper surveys were obtained in this
way, typically using the candy incentive accompanied by humor to recruit participants.
The research
assistant tabulated 154 of the paper surveys and 1171 of the email surveys. We worked
with the assumption that a return of more than 35 respondents would be required
to establish data sufficiently reliable to support interpretation. When the survey
period ended, two groups failed to meet this minimum: Muslims and Hindus. Eight
religious categories plus the non-religious category remained sufficiently viable
to support further interpretation.
Figure
1
|
|
|
|
|
|
Self-identified Group
|
Email Response Count
|
Paper Surveys
|
Total Respondents
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Roman Catholic
|
111
|
9
|
120
|
|
Protestants: evangelical
|
239
|
6
|
245
|
|
Protestants: mainline
|
320
|
113
|
433
|
|
Other
|
79
|
10
|
89
|
|
Orthodox Christian
|
50
|
0
|
50
|
|
Mormon
|
38
|
1
|
39
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Hindu
|
14
|
0
|
14
|
|
Jewish
|
40
|
6
|
46
|
|
Muslim
|
14
|
0
|
14
|
|
Buddhist
|
70
|
0
|
70
|
|
Non-religious
|
196
|
9
|
205
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Totals
|
1171
|
154
|
1325
|
Printer-friendly | Contributed by: Ted Peters
|
