More pretty graphs from the 2008 Pew surveys, interspersed with discussion and concluding with the line, “One thing sophistication can give you is an appreciation for the simple things in life.”
Below is one of the graphs; click on the link above for more.
You gotta feel for those "No religion" people who attend weekly or more. Probably married to clergy ;)
Nice to see Protestants separated into two groups here, which clarifies things considerably.
I have to admit that, as a kid, I didn't understand the concept of "Catholic" and "Protestant" as different (let alone questions such as whether Mormons are Christians). I've heard, however, that even the distinction between Catholic and Protestant is not so clear in America; apparently, it's fairly common for people to switch, not necessarily for doctrinal reasons but because they prefer one particular local church to another. This is one of those facts on the ground that I'm sure is well known to many millions of Americans but is not always obvious to those of us in the ivory tower in NYC. I was also surprised, when looking at the data, to see that many Catholics describe themselves as born again. But I didn't separate these out in my analysis here.
Non-Catholics are sometimes surprised at the diversity of worship within the Church. There are some practitioners who are more observant than others. Going once a week hardly describes the hard-core. My mother goes to Mass daily as do most of her friends. Maybe the polling needs to break down Mass attendance into "Never" "Once or twice a year" "Once a month" "Once a week" "More than once a week."
The distinction between Catholic and Protestant is clear for those attending more often. They do switch for doctrinal reasons. This is true even within respective Churches.
I think "born again" just means baptized in the Catholic Church.