If you’ve ever read the seemingly weekly surveys of American Catholics, and then scratched your head at the results, and thought, "Who in the world did they talk to?" then you might have fun participating in this new nationwide survey sponsored by Beliefnet, the largest spirituality and religion website. Their survey is being prepared in anticipation of the pope’s visit next month. (And pity the pope for being "ranked" in the survey as if he were an item in Consumers Reports.) Just make sure you tell them how much you like America magazine. "Beliefnet survey" James Martin, SJ
Beliefnet survey
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17 years ago
Father Martin, They were pretty much multiple choice questions, but I found that if you answered negatively to one or two questions, there was a comment box to fill in to explain your answer. There question asking what should women's role be in the church only gave only two choices and asked you to pick between priestess and deaconess, but nothing else. You had to pick something to advance the survey. It was a bit annoying. While I think women are crucial to the church in many roles, I'm not comfortable with women in either of those two roles, which makes the feminist that I am recoil a bit. Well... that's that.
17 years ago
Rather strangely, the survey will not let you advance to the next page if you refuse to check either option regarding female participation in the Church - which is to say that if you don't think women should/can be priests or deaconesses, don't waste your time. Now the really interesting question is which of those boxes Fr Martin ticked!
17 years ago
So... I took the survey. Beliefnet tends to annoy me most of the time, unlike America Magazine, which I've been reading faithfully these days. ;-) I didn't like some of the questions and the fact that I had to check an answer when I didn't believe in either answer bugged me. I was upset there wasn't a section for additional comments and so I didn't get to say just how much I like America Magazine. Well, that was fun. Thanks for the heads up.
17 years ago
Ah, Father Martin didn't take the survey yet, since he finds online surveys very time-consuming, in that he ends up spending an inordinate amount of time pondering answers to all the questions! But I figured others might enjoy weighing in, and making their voice heard!
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