Rapture

Do you believe in the Rapture of the Church, that is, that before the world comes to an end, the religiously faithful will be saved and taken up to heaven?  (CBS, December 1999)

55% yes, 34% no, 11% Don't know

(Please tell me whether you think each of the following will or will not happen when the world comes to an end.)... People who God has decided to save will be lifted up to Heaven in and event called the Rapture. (Time/CNN/Harris Poll, December 2002)

13% will, 52% won't, 34% world won't end (volunteered)

Do you believe in the Rapture, that before the world comes to an end the religiously faithful will be saved and taken up to Heaven? (PSRA/Newsweek, May 2004)

55% Yes, 32% No, 13% Don't Know

Which, if any, of the following do you believe in?) Do you believe...in the Rapture of the Church, that is, that before the world comes to an end, the religiously faithful will be saved and taken up to Heaven? (Pew, July 2006)

63% Yes, 26% No, 11% Don't Know (only asked of self-identified Christians)

The surveys agree in finding that a little more than half of Americans believe in the rapture (usually 80-90% of Americans say they are Christians, so 63% of Christians would amount to about half of all Americans).  The one exception was the Time survey of 2002, where only 13% said they did.  I can think of three explanations for the difference:

1.  The Roper Center made a mistake in transcribing the results--the 52% should go with "Yes"

2.  "Lifted up" suggests a physical event, while "taken up" seems more general.  People may find the idea that believers will be saved more plausible than the idea that they will literally be lifted up to heaven.

3.  The 2002 survey refers to "people who God has decided to save," while the others refer to the "religiously faithful."  People find the idea that people can earn their way to being saved by being faithful more plausible (or appealing) than the idea that God will just decide.  

Explanation #3 appeals to me:  it would say something interesting about the contemporary American approach to religion.  However, I've learned that when given the choice between a simple-minded explanation like #1 and a subtle and sociologically interesting one like #3, the simple-minded one is usually correct.  Stay tuned for further investigation.

More on government ownership

There have been a number of survey questions on government ownership of industry, mostly in the late 1940s.  Most of them were just asked once, or a few times over a short period of time, but there is a pretty good series on the electric power industry.  The results are given below--in all cases, the figures are the percent favoring government ownership, the percent opposed, and the percent undecided.  Despite variation in question wording, it's pretty clear that there has been a decline in support for government ownership, and that most of it occurred in the few years after 1945. 

Do you think the government should own the electric companies? (Gallup, August 1940)

32-49-20

Do you think the government should own the following things in this country:... electric power companies? (Gallup, September 1945)

38-39-23

(What do you think about the government ownership and operation of the following kinds of business?)... Are you for or against government ownership of the electric power companies? (Opinion Research Corporation, June 1946)

34-58-8

Do you think the United States government should own the following things in this country:... electric power companies? (Gallup, January 1947)

28-64-8

Do you think the U. S. (United States) government should or should not own the following things in this country? … Electric power companies (Gallup, May 1948)

20-69-10

Do you think the U. S. (United States) government should or should not own the following things in this country:... Electric power companies (Gallup, Dec 1948)

23-63-14

Do you think the United States government should or should not own the following things in this country? The electric power companies (Gallup, Sept 1953)

18-69-12

(What do you think about the government ownership and operation of the following kinds of business?)...How about electric power companies? (Opinion Research Corporation, March 1955)

25-68-7

Do you think each of the following should mainly be run by private organizations or companies, or by the government?... Electric power (General Social Survey, Feb 1996)

18-72-10

Were we all socialists then?

The blog has been rather neglected lately, since I moved in late April and most of my time has been spent wondering how I acquired so many useless possessions and why I can't find the ones that I need.  But now I'm in the new house and have turned in my grades, so I can spare the time for another post.  A couple of weeks, David Brooks pointed to a Pew report comparing public opinion in the 1930s and today.  Both Brooks and the report emphasized the differences in attitudes towards government, suggesting that people have moved to the "right" (laissez-faire).   My impression was that public opinion on the welfare state, redistribution, and the regulation of business is actually pretty similar.  The one striking difference is a decline in support for public ownership.  In 1937, the Gallup Poll asked "Would you like to have the government own and control the banks?"  41% said yes, 42% no, with 17% undecided.  In 2009, a CBS News survey asked exactly the same question, and only 14% said yes (76% no, and 10% undecided).  Is this a general trend, or does it apply just to banks?  There's not much information, but I think it's general.  I'll talk about that in my next post.