Friday, December 24, 2010

Americans: Christmas, YES! . . . Jesus, Not So Much

Studies show that Christmas is a time of family gatherings, with celebration and gift giving, but the holiday's name-sake ranks with only a third of respondents. So, not surprisingly, barely one percent of mainstream news media Christmas coverage mentions God, much less Jesus.

-- From "Many skip Christmas' religious aspect" by Cathy Lynn Grossman, USA TODAY 12/20/10

Two new surveys find more than nine in 10 Americans celebrate the holiday — even if they're atheists, agnostics or believers in non-Christian faiths such as Judaism and Islam.

The surveys — by LifeWay and USA TODAY/Gallup — indicate that while most call this a holy day that is primarily religious, their actions say otherwise. Many skip church, omit Jesus and zero in on the egg nog.

The percentages plummet when it comes to religious activities:

• 58% say they "encourage belief in Jesus Christ as savior."

• 47% attend church Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.

• 34% watch "biblical Christmas movies."

• 28% read or tell the Christmas story from the Bible.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "Guess who's not mentioned in Christmas coverage" by Bob Unruh © 2010 WorldNetDaily 12/20/10

Christmas stories, even on networks, might mention, just occasionally, Jesus, right?

Right. A whopping 1.3 percent of the time.

That's the result of an analysis by the Culture & Media Institute on the number of times ABC, CBS and NBC mentioned Christ or God during their [news] coverage of Christmas over a period of two years.

There would seem to be justification for mentioning the reason for the season, as Congress declared Dec. 25 a federal holiday in 1870 and some 80 percent of Americans self-identify as Christian, "so it's safe to say that they are not offended by the words 'Christ,' 'God' and "Jesus,'" the report said.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.