The question to our national sample of non-Latter-day Saint Christians was quite simple:
“If God held a televised news conference, would you watch it or not?” And if so, would they learn something new or not.
Would watch / definitely learn something new 63%
Would watch / probably learn something new 21
Would watch / probably not learn anything new 4
Would watch / definitely not learn anything new 1
Would not watch 4
No Opinion 7
Obviously, it would not be socially correct for a person to admit he would not watch God’s news conference, so the key factor here is how many feel by watching they would definitely learn something new. That single category amounts to 103 million fellow Christians who agree with us.
The highest groups most likely to watch and feel they would definitely learn something new are:
Conservatives, Republicans, Baptists, Evangelicals, Southern states residents, Catholics, Presbyterians and Methodists.
That says something about televangelists who say the Bible is all we need to know and we don’t need anything more.
It makes you wonder. If nine out of ten would be willing to watch such a news conference to find out what God has to say, and 63% feel they would definitely learn something new, why are they hesitant to read the additional scriptures God has caused to be written?
And if we told our sample (which we did) to imagine that they were reporters at that news conference and could ask any questions they desired, what questions would they ask?
A surprising result in my next column.
Gary Lawrence is a public opinion researcher in Orange County, California.
