Poll: God is real, but some believe in witches, ghosts
Sunday, July 25, 2004
By SEAN REILLY
Staff Reporter
In this self-described "Buckle of the Bible Belt," it will come as no surprise to learn that 90 percent or more of Alabamians believe in the existence of God, heaven, hell, miracles, angels and the devil, according to the results of a new statewide survey. But what to make of the fact that one in four also believes in witches, and one in three thinks that ghosts are real?
"They might believe in God, but not to the point that they have accepted him," was the explanation of Richard Blaine, pastor of Lott Road Bible Church just outside the Mobile city limits. "So many people say they believe in God, but where are they when it comes to attending church?"
To former Samford University professor Bill Leonard, the seemingly contradictory findings reflect a tension as old as organized Christianity in America. The New England Puritans clearly believed in the witches they burned at Salem, and Quakers used to hold séances, said Leonard, now dean of the Wake Forest University divinity school in North Carolina.
Setting the boundaries of orthodoxy, he said, is "always tricky and always shaky."
In last week's Mobile Register-University of South Alabama poll of 401 adults, virtually every respondent professed a belief in God and heaven. Around 90 percent said they believed in the devil, hell, angels and miracles.
By contrast, in a national poll last September by Fox Opinion Research, 85 percent of people surveyed said they believed in God, while belief in hell and the devil stood at about 72 percent.
But on matters of belief in astrology, ghosts and other phenomena, the national results were in line with those found in Alabama. About one-third of the national respondents gave some credence to astrology, while one-quarter believed in reincarnation.
In regard to ghosts, "I just think there are many things in this life that we can't explain, and this is one of them," said Birmingham writer Lynn Grisard Fullman, author of the 1995 book, "Haints, Ghosts & Boogers: Chillbump Stories from Alabama After Dark."
"There's too much of it around totally to dismiss."
But Fullman isn't comfortable with astrology and, before starting the ghost book, cleared it with her preacher. He raised no objections, she said, "as long as people don't get the comfortable feeling that I don't have to get this life right because there's another one I can step into."
Not that there would be anything new about blurring the lines between mainstream Christianity and more occult traditions.
In his classic 1934 reminiscence, "Stars Fell on Alabama," author Carl Carmer recounted getting a quick voodoo lesson from a rural "conjure woman" who nonetheless claimed that she "tricks in the name o' the Lord."
"I think you find that the eclectic appears even in traditional regions like Alabama," Leonard said. "I suspect that's been the case all along."
For keepers of orthodoxy, the difficulties of precisely defining the faith began in the earliest days of the Christian church. The first book of Corinthians, for example, features a debate over whether Christians can eat meat offered to idols.
"That's how old this dilemma is," Leonard said.
A more recent manifestation came in the controversy over the best selling Harry Potter series of children's books, which some critics charged were not Christian and promoted witchcraft. In one Arkansas school district last year, the parents of one student successfully sued in federal court to halt a policy of requiring a permission slip to read the books.
At the same time, some stereotypical superstitions get short shrift these days. Only about one in 10 respondents to last week's Register-USA poll said they believe that breaking a mirror or walking under a ladder causes bad luck, although half said they knock on wood. Almost two-thirds described themselves as "not superstitious."
Politically, the force of religion was vividly displayed in the crusade of former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore to house a 5,280-pound monument of the Ten Commandments in the state judicial building.
But at the Atheist Law Center, a Montgomery-based advocacy organization, President Larry Darby agreed with Blaine that for many people, a professed belief in God means less than it might seem at first.
"We are so ingrained in religiosity and have been for the last 100 years that people just feel like they are expected to identify with a church," Darby said.
