M. Ted -

At one church with which I had "intimate contact" some decades back, they claimed a membership of about 1200. Attendance on most Sundays was fewer than 30. Attendance on Easter Sunday, and sometimes a couple of Sundays around Christmas, was at the ~300 seat capacity of the sanctuary, of course.

Three of the "holiday" attendees made substantioal "offerings" when they attended, and in one year one of the deacons let slip that those three accounted for nearly 60% of the annual "income" for the church.

This was the "family church" an ex-wife had attended as a child, and she professed a desire to resume participation. When she insisted "we" should make a "pledge" my advice was that she was free to put $20 in the plate each time she attended; but if she didn't go she didn't promise to give. By the end of the year (about 7 months), she had put $43 in (she sometimes forgot to check to see that she had $20 before leaving for a service), and three of the deacons came by to invite her to a special service at which they intended to honor their "top dozen donors" from among the regular attendees, and I believe they said she was number 6 on the list.

While this is an "isolated example" my broader experience is that she was "quite typical" of the majority of persons I've known who would say they are XXXX-kind-of Christians, but don't really think enough about it to have any real beliefs one way or another. They know only that they are "supposed to believe something" and that (in Kansas at least) it is dangerous (sometimes physically, but usually just socially and professionally) to NOT APPEAR to be (name some favorite faith). There is a separate but much smaller population - the ones who make it dangerous not to "believe" - who are, of course, much more enthusiastic.

Note that this is not to denigrate the beliefs of anyone here. We are a community of "intellectuals" here; and most of those who speak of such things here are capable of demonstrating at least a "thought mode" in their discourse that is not typical of the larger population of "herd (non)thinkers."

John