July 10, 2009

Tenrikyo Vs. Dutch Reformed

The other day I had to utilize a local radio station's website for a project at work. The registration form asks for the pertinent information- name, work address, phone number- and then asks a number of optional questions that can, presumably, help them cater the radio station to you. Here they are, in order: marital status, ethnicity, number of children in household under 18, income, primarily computer usage location, education, employment, religion, housing status, accessibility to internet.

I'm sure you've seen drop-down lists like this before, but I was absolutely shocked at the options available for selection under the "religion" category. Here is that list, in order:

Amish
Assemblies of God
Atheist
Baptist
Catholic
Jehovah's Witness
Lutheran
Methodist
Seventh Day Adventist
Other Christian
Islam
Hindu
Buddhist
Chinese traditional religion
Primal-indigenous
African traditional/Diaspora
Sikhism
Juche
Spiritism
Judaism
Baha'i
Jainism
Shinto
Cao Dai
Tenrikyo
Neo-paganism
Unitarian Universalist
Rastafarianism
Scientology
Zoroastrianism
Wiccan
Pastafarianism
Animism
Taoism


Notice how far down on the list Judaism is? Also, note that "atheist" is listed third, above Catholicism! Oh, they're in alphabetical order, you'll say. Really? Then why is "Animism" second to last, "Cao Dai" somewhere in the middle, and "Seventh Day Adventist" in the top ten?

Now I'd like to remind you that I live in southwest Michigan; how many Jains or "African Traditional/ Diaspora" member do you suppose live here? My guess is none, if not a severely low number.

And certainly, we have more "Reformed" Christians here than any other type of religion (four located within a half mile of this radio station alone!), yet you will not find it on the list at all. Yet "Pastafarianism" is listed; a joke, I assume, but more important than representing the largest religious denomination in the area?

Cheshire Cat to Kalamazoo radio: Very curious. Very curious indeed.

*Update: Just after I posted this, an ad for scientology appeared on the side of the blogger page. Is that enough proof that google is completely wacked in what ideas they support?? Ugh, google/gmail/blogger (the company) is a whole post of its own...

7 comments:

savvycityfarmer said...

A SHAME!!!

savvycityfarmer said...

"there is a way that seems right to man and the end therof is the way of destruction"

Parisienne Farmgirl said...

too funny -

Farmgirl Cyn said...

Hey Vic,
I know this is off topic, but I found this link for gluten free muffins and thought of you.

http://mennonitegirlscancook.blogspot.com/2009/07/poppyseed-muffins.html

Maalie said...

Actually, probably more by coincidence than anything else, I believe that atheism is in fact the third most numerous "faith" (or lack thereof) category in USA. And rapidly growing, I am led to believe.

Anonymous said...

I think that Southwester Michigan is a hotbed for neo-paganism....NOT!

Victoria said...

Whoa, I need to research that atheism statistic! Re-reading the list here made me wonder what the "top 10" really are (in the U.S.). More to come on that one...

And John, you actually might be right about that. At least in Kzoo, that seems to be the case. It's sort of a "churches, churches everywhere..." situation. Not much gospel to be found.

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