I’ve posted on this before, but with Father’s Day this past Sunday, it seems fitting to mention it again. S. Michael Craven looks at data from the study “The Demographic Characteristics of the Linguistic and Religious Groups in Switzerland” by Werner Haug and Phillipe Warner of the Federal Statistical Office, Neuchatel. An excerpt of Mr. Craven’s findings:
In short, if a father does not go to church-no matter how faithful his wife’s devotions-only one child in 50 will become a regular worshipper. If a father does go regularly, regardless of the practice of the mother, between two-thirds and three-quarters of their children will become churchgoers (regular and irregular). One of the reasons suggested for this distinction is that children tend to take their cues about domestic life from Mom while their conceptions of the world outside come from Dad. If Dad takes faith in God seriously then the message to their children is that God should be taken seriously.
Read the whole thing. Craven, the President of the Center for Christ & Culture, is the author of Uncompromised Faith: Overcoming Our Culturalized Christianity (NavPress, 2009).