Let’s say you’re not happy with the ideology of your current church or you quit going to church years ago and are thinking about returning. Do you want a liberal or a conservative church? How would you find a church where you fit in?
One starting point would be to review a neat graphic put together by Tobin Grant. (Sorry, non-Americans, this is mostly about American churches. But there are data points for atheists and agnostics, too.)
Based on surveys of churchgoers, Mr. Grant classifies churches by where they stand on size of government and “protection of morality.” I’m not saying this is the best way to choose a church; it’s one way to get started.
Happy hunting!
Steve Parker, M.D.
Advanced Mediterranean Diet 
The fact is that this sort of dialogue is ‘off the planet’. In the USA it may matter for some local, albeit broad, demographic, but elsewhere and offshore…?
US centric religiosity is really another form of fundamentalism that identifies the US mission on this planet with the preferences of their consensual ‘Jesus’.
I don’t care what people believe spiritually –and I respect your own beliefs(despite their seeming Palaeolithic and Darwinian contradictions) –but when you sponsor a Christian God as part of that (esp given that the Mediterranean [name of blog/name of blog] is primarily Arab and Moslem)– you sideline the millions on this planet who have a different dedication…
Hi, Dave. Yes, the U.S. seems to be unusually religious compared to the rest of the world. Perhaps the Moslems in the Middle East have us beat for religiosity.
I thought the post might be appropriate here since one of my ongoing interests is longevity. If we take Dan Buettner’s Blue Zones at face value (my review here), one of his pillars of longevity is participation in a religious community. Yes, it’s debatable. It’s something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately as my children prepare to fly the coop.
-Steve