Word: church
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...McKinley and his friends decided to try a radical experiment. They urged congregants to spend less on presents for friends and family and to consider donating some of the money they saved as a result. At first, church members weren't quite sure how to react. "Some people were terrified," remembers McKinley. "They said, 'My gosh, you're ruining Christmas. What do we tell our kids?' " The pastors had to reassure people that they weren't advocating a Grinchy no-gifts kind of Christmas, but rather one in which people spend a little less and think a little more, expressing...
McKinley is one of the leaders of an effort to do away with the frenzied activity and extravagant gift-giving of a commercial Christmas. Through a savvy viral video and marketing effort, the so-called Advent Conspiracy movement has exploded. Hundreds of churches on four continents and in at least 17 countries have signed up to participate. The Advent Conspiracy video has been viewed more than a million times on YouTube, and the movement boasts nearly 45,000 fans on Facebook. Baseball superstar Albert Pujols is a supporter - he spoke at a church event in St. Louis, Mo., to endorse...
...Advent Conspiracy is countercultural on two fronts - fighting the secular idea that Christmas is a monthlong shopping and decorating ritual and also the powerful conservative notion that the holiday requires acknowledgement from the nation's retailers to be truly meaningful. It's not easy, says a youth pastor whose church supports Advent Conspiracy. "When you start jacking with people's idea of what Christmas is and you start to go against this $450 billion machine of materialism and consumerism, it really messes with people," he explains. "It takes a lot of patience to say there's a different way - Christmas...
Protestants are most likely to sample worship services outside their tradition - 3 in 10 say they have attended Catholic, Jewish, Muslim or other services at least occasionally in the past year. African-American Protestants lead this trend, with 42% visiting houses of worship in other traditions, including Catholic churches (19%), Jewish synagogues (8%) and Muslim mosques (5%). One-quarter of white evangelicals share that interest in other traditions. But they are also the most likely to stay close to home: more than half say they attend services only at their own church, not even visiting other churches in the same...
Even those Americans who are most committed to their religious traditions are willing to dip their toes into other holy water. Weekly church attendance has long been associated with high levels of religious commitment, but more than one-quarter (28%) of those who attend services at least once a week told the Pew researchers that they visit other houses of worship at least occasionally. This crossing of traditions is even more popular among monthly churchgoers - 40% of them report attending other faith services...