Sometimes the most interesting religion stories are about some small angle in daily life. And the Washington Post’s William Wan has found a great one. He looks at how folks have filled out the “religious views” box on Facebook. Mine says “Confessional Lutheran,” for instance.
It was in no way difficult for me to self-identify as a Confessional Lutheran. While my “Favorite movies” list includes Lindsay Lohan’s “I Know Who Killed Me,” I didn’t joke around about my faith. I have over 700 contacts on Facebook and at least 328 of them are Lutheran. It’s one of the ways I keep in touch with my Lutheran peeps around the country. We share news on what’s happening in our church body as well as jokes, videos and pictures. So I was excited to see the way that other people use Facebook as it relates to their religious views.
It turns out that this piece had a surprisingly narrow focus. Basically Wan shares a few anecdotes of people who have struggled with how to fill out the box:
Katharine Gordon, 29, a Catholic from the District, who joined Facebook two years ago … agonized over what to say about her beliefs.
The problem, she explained, was that she couldn’t just type “Catholic” and leave it at that.
“The term comes with a huge asterisk,” said Gordon, a civil rights advocate for a nonprofit group. She found herself wanting to add parenthetical clauses to explain her nuanced stances on homosexuality and abortion.
“I’m not exactly looking to discuss the intricacies of the latest papal encyclical with work buddies,” she said. “I couldn’t help thinking how others would judge me.”
She had to consider her strongly secular friends from Bryn Mawr College — people who might be shocked to hear her talk of God now — as well as her current friends from the local parish. She could just imagine the reaction at church (“Wait, she doesn’t list anything under religious views?”).
So after several days, she finally settled on this answer: “Matthew 25,” the Bible chapter in which Jesus urges his followers to feed the hungry, clothe the poor and help the imprisoned. His words represent the part of Gordon’s faith that she holds most dear.
“It’s a bit of code,” she said, “so people can make of it what they want.”
There are also anecdotes about or mentions of a Pastafarian, agnostic, a student who answered with a Noam Chomsky quote and a girl who went from “Judaism” to “MJLC{heart}” — the initials of a friend who died.
The thing is that Wan is handicapped by Facebook declining to share any meaningful information about how people fill out the form. We learn that only 150 million out of 250 million users worldwide fill out the “religious views” box but not how that compares to other profile areas. We don’t have any reasonable statistical information. Presumably the 2,000 folks who answer “Amish” aren’t being serious. Wan handles it by sharing a little of the little he’s given:
Not surprisingly, the most popular faith professed is “Christian” and the various denominations associated with it. The category is so dominant that for this list, Facebook’s statisticians insisted on combining such other designations as “Protestant,” “Catholic” and “Mormon” under the “Christian” label. As a result, the second most popular entry on the list is “Islam,” followed by “Atheist.”
“Jedi,” interestingly enough, makes an appearance at No. 10.
I think the story idea is great for an evergreen piece — looking at people who struggle to fill out the box. And it’s not surprising that Pastafarians and Jedis get media coverage far outweighing their actual representation among religious adherents. That’s how it works. Still, considering that the story is pretty much only a collection of anecdotes and shrouded numbers, it may have been a good idea to broaden the piece a bit. Include those Catholics who don’t want an asterisk, for instance. Or maybe it would have been a better idea to use the aforementioned anecdotes in service to a larger point about difficulties with religious self-identification. There’s a quote from a graduate student about how teens identify themselves on MySpace but the Post’s story isn’t about teens or MySpace, for instance.
The problem with relying simply on a couple of anecdotes you happened across is that the piece becomes extremely subjective. Much of Wan’s piece is written in the passive voice and phrases such as “some,” “others,” “a good many,” “a staggering number” and “often” are littered throughout. (What exactly is “a staggering number,” I wonder?)
Media critics are always pointing out the trouble that some reporters have in coming up with stories that quote people who are not in their larger social circles. (Here’s the New York Times ombudsman recently on the matter. And here’s a New York Times story on Facebook from yesterday in which many of the sources are described as “friends” of the author!) Not that this was necessarily the weakness of the Washington Post’s article but to avoid the problem of writing a trend piece based solely on the reporter’s personal experience or circle of friends, articles should have at least something a bit sturdier to build around.
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Comments (24) |
August 31, 2009, at 12:36 pm
There is a question though about what label us godless types choose to put. “atheist” feels too strong a term to some of us so there’s agnostic, or skeptic, or apatheist or Jedi. I wonder what would happen if you collected up all those.
Meanwhile I’d be curious to know what the various neo-pagan sorts choose. A fairly umbrella term like pagan to boost its’ prominence against all the big organised religions? Or their own specific path like druidism etc.
hmm also what about the 100million leaving the box empty. Does that signify no real religious leanings?
August 31, 2009, at 12:38 pm
That sentence came at the end of the piece, but I think it’s a critical point with implications far beyond what people write online. Lack of tolerance and fear of judgment are sadly all too prevalent today. There’s even a ‘how to avoid talking about religion’ instructional page http://www.wikihow.com/Avoid-Uncomfortable-Conversations-About-Religion
August 31, 2009, at 12:46 pm
[…] rights movement in minority ownership in communications, according to a report by CNSNews.com. Poking the Jedi – getreligion.org 08/31/2009 Sometimes the most interesting religion stories are about some […]
August 31, 2009, at 1:10 pm
We seem to be on the same wavelength today Mollie.
I’m currently listed as a “polytheist” on Facebook, though I suppose I should really just settle on “Pagan” for simplicity’s sake.
August 31, 2009, at 1:13 pm
[…] ADDENDUM: Get Religion and I seem to be on the same wavelength today. […]
August 31, 2009, at 1:17 pm
Jason, that bit about the WP finding “Seguidor del Wiccanismo” equivalent to “Heavy Metal” as an “offbeat” answer is just awful. Whoa.
August 31, 2009, at 1:19 pm
You could build a webbot (small program) that searches the site and counts the responses and then totals them for you.
A good census of the site. But remember it is a not statistical for the general public (this is NOT a random sample).
August 31, 2009, at 2:48 pm
What percentage of guys selecting “Jedi” as religious beliefs do you think also select “single” for relationship status? Just wondering.
August 31, 2009, at 3:26 pm
You once only had an option to select from a drop-down box with options that the Facebook people had made available. They changed it to a text field now, which allows for more nuance. Mine reads “lean Reformed Baptist.”
August 31, 2009, at 4:51 pm
Is William Wan related to Obi Wan?
August 31, 2009, at 6:01 pm
Anyone who’s witnessed a Star Wars convention wouldn’t be surprised that some consider Jedi their actual “religion”.
Stoo raises an interesting question about the non-identified. Most religious people would self-identify, and many atheists likewise are willing if not eager to indicate their unbelief. I’d imagine many of those leaving it blank would be agnostics who just don’t want to talk about it, part of the increasing numbers of “I may or may not be spiritual but it’s nobody’s business to ask”.
But also likely includes those who aren’t comfortable with simple labels that lack nuance, as Andy pointed out, or that have also come to signify different things (culturally, politically, etc). I eventually chose “Follower of Christ” therefore, rather than “Christian”.
August 31, 2009, at 6:42 pm
As Andy mentions, more nuanced (or annoying) responses are now possible on Facebook. Therefore, what I want to ask is, does this actually say something quite deep about about confessionalism, postmodernism and creedal orthodoxy?
If I am now free to describe myself as ‘panoramic trinitarian’, rather than citing a particular creed or denomination, has Facebook just inspired a latter-day reformation (or even an ecumenical/inter-faith movement), by releasing people to focus on particular issues and beliefs rather than entire theological systems or historical divisions?
August 31, 2009, at 9:09 pm
re Jedi: it’s much more commonly a joke passed around atheist\skeptic\etc circles on the internet, like Pastafarian, rather than seriously trying some spirituality concocted out of Star Wars.
August 31, 2009, at 9:13 pm
May the force be with you, Stoo!
August 31, 2009, at 9:27 pm
[…] always-great Mollie Z. Hemingway does a much-needed debunking of the Washington Post’s much-talked story about Facebook and the angst it supposedly creates […]
August 31, 2009, at 10:30 pm
Jedi is watered down Buddhism, of course.
But I wonder how many recognize that a full fledged Jedi takes a vow of chastity? Or that Aniken’s breaking of this first vow eventually led him to the “dark side”?
Even those who follow the Jedi philosophy without becoming a full fledged Jedi are pro life? After all, instead of aborting her twins to save her own life, Luke and Leia’s mom chose to carry them to term…
September 1, 2009, at 4:13 am
Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid!
September 1, 2009, at 9:45 am
Is there any reason why you can’t write the Masters of Facebook and ask for a data dump?
All you want is the top 100 values of the religion field with counts for each. No personally identifying information included. If you tell them it’s for an article in the media, they might happily comply.
September 1, 2009, at 12:40 pm
The phone rings in William Wan’s office, he picks it up “Hello, Kettle speaking.”
From the other end, Mollie’s voice rings out “Hello, Kettle, this is Pot; You’re black!”
This post is an empty piece of snark about an empty piece of factoid.
“This’d be a good idea, that’d be a good idea, somebody ought to do this other thing…”
Mollie, you seem (after having read a few of your posts)to be overly interested in claiming a mantle of martyrdom and victimhood than in actually discussing the points raised by articles you cite.
Any pretense that you have of objectivity should be examined by you before you put fingers to keyboard again.
September 1, 2009, at 12:59 pm
Dred,
Thanks for your comment. Having done this type of media criticism for many years, I think the easiest way to resolve your angst would be for you to just skip over my posts here. I won’t mind and the other authors will surely be more to your liking.
Best,
Mollie
September 1, 2009, at 3:42 pm
Mollie,
I’m sure I will, eventually. I always do. I’ve been doing it for many years as well.
You just go on ignoring the advice of people who disagree with your own self image. I’m sure that’s what’s best for you in the long run.
We “Get” religion, we just don’t think it’s very funny.
Peace,
Dred
September 3, 2009, at 12:22 pm
I love how people show up at the website of a stranger, insult them under the guise of “advice,” then sign off with “Peace.”
Weak sauce, Dred. Weak sauce.
September 3, 2009, at 2:10 pm
DredPirateRobts: “You just go on ignoring the advice of people who disagree with your own self image. I’m sure that’s what’s best for you in the long run.”
Helpful hint: your advice would have more sway if you didn’t use the name of a fictional fake pirate.
September 3, 2009, at 11:56 pm
Why it would be blank: Mine is blank, because not all my Facebook friends (some of whom are real-life relatives) know that I’m Pagan.