Why Do the Educated Attend Church More?

A new study on church attendance drew a conclusion that may surprise some: in America, college graduates are more likely to attend church than those with only a high school education.
While 46 percent of college-educated whites attend worship services at least monthly, only 37 percent of moderately educated whites—those with a high school diploma but no four-year college degree—do the same, according to research presented this month at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association.
So what’s a Christian to think about this?
On the one hand, it flies in the face of the oft repeated myth that Christianity is merely a crutch for the weak-minded. Perhaps many educated Americans realize that Jesus of Nazareth founded a faith of enlightenment and that the Christian worldview stands up under the closest intellectual scrutiny.
Indeed, in recent years the Intelligent Design movement has helped demonstrate the absurdity of Darwinian atheism; cultural decline in the West has revealed the destructive nature of abandoning Christian morality; and apologists have mounted powerful defenses of biblical truth. Perhaps college-educated Americans are more aware of these developments than their less educated counterparts and consequently attend church.
Yet a closer look at the study suggests that there may also be cause for alarm. Researchers theorized that college-educated people attend church more often because churches tend to promote traditional middle-class values, including marriage and strong work ethic. So far, so good.
But that causes me to wonder: do the educated also feel comfortable in church because some congregations reinforce the sinful materialism that too often characterizes the middle class? Consider the state of many churches. They boast sermon series on how to succeed in business, sponsor financial seminars that focus more on building one’s portfolio than building God’s kingdom, and have lobbies that look like the latest malls complete with coffee houses, stores, and indoor fountains. While successful businesses, strong portfolios, and malls are not evil in themselves, the collective reality of these developments in church suggests that the people of God have imbibed the world’s attitude toward possessions.
If that’s what is alluring educated, middle class Americans to church, God is not pleased. Consider His warning in 1 Timothy 6:10: “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.”
In the New Testament, the norm was for churches to be populated by those who were unimpressive and non-influential by worldly standards, for the values of the world’s elite conflicted with those of Christ. That’s why Paul wrote to the Corinthians: “[N]ot many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth” (1 Corinthians 1:26).
Of course, the wealthy and influential are welcome among God’s people, and thankfully many have followed Him, including Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David. Yet if the church is drawing the educated by catering to materialism, this latest study is not good news after all.