Angelenos Are Less Likely Than Others to Go to Church : Survey: A new poll also finds that blacks are more often involved in religion than are the county’s whites and Latinos.

Residents of Los Angeles County are much less likely to attend a church or to read the Bible than are residents of the nation as a whole, according to a new survey to be made public next month. But blacks who live in the county are far more likely to be involved in religious activities than are whites and Latinos.

In a given week, only 35% of Los Angeles adults will attend church, compared to the national norm of 44%, the Barna Research Group in Glendale found. But 58% of the county’s blacks, compared to 28% of whites and 37% of Latinos, will be in church.

Overall, Los Angeles County residents have a low commitment to religion and religious organizations. Only 39% believe strongly that it is important to be an active church member, and fewer than one in four strongly believe that the local church is relevant to the way they live, according to the survey.

The poll also found that those who live in Los Angeles County think that it is a difficult place to make friends, raise children and take part in community activities, and that it lacks services for the elderly.

The local data is based on 600 random telephone interviews with adults this summer; national statistics were gathered earlier by the Barna organization, a marketing research group specializing in serving churches.

Most county residents are uninformed about churches in their area: Among those surveyed, 64% said they had no idea how effective Protestant churches are in their work, and half said the same things about Roman Catholic churches.

And although two-thirds of all Los Angeles County adults claimed to believe strongly in the existence of “one God who is holy and perfect and rules the world,” only 37% agreed strongly that the Christian church is relevant.

Responses from small ethnic groups and non-Christian faiths were too small to be statistically significant, said Barna research associate Ron Sellers.

“Relevancy,” said George Barna, head of the firm, is “one area where the (Christian) church is losing ground throughout the nation, and which is especially visible in Los Angeles. Unless people see the church as relevant to their lives--and unless churches can demonstrate this relevance--it will continue to lose ground.”

Bible reading and Sunday-school attendance were found to be far more frequent among blacks in the county than among whites and Latinos. About 31% of all Angelenos read the Bible in a given week, compared to 41% of adults nationally. But 61% of black county residents have read the Bible in that period, the poll found. This is far ahead of the figures for whites, only one-fourth of whom said they had read the Bible during the previous week, and for Latinos, 32%.

Similarly, black county residents are more than twice as likely to have attended a Sunday school or adult education class at a church during the previous week as are whites (26% to 11%). The figure for Latinos is 14%.

William Pannell, an associate professor at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena who directs the evangelical school’s study program for black pastors, said that although he was not surprised at the survey’s findings about black religious participation, he did not expect the differential with other races to be so high.

“The black church occupies a more central place in the lives, traditions and day-to-day struggles of these people than in other groups,” Pannell said. “The black church is both integrated into the African-American culture, and it is a source of strength for leadership and community development. . . . It’s the one constant that is there.”

Barna was surprised by some findings. “We’ve asked these things across the nation but never found the intensity of the attitudes of the people in Los Angeles County, particularly the distaste--and sometimes the outright hatred--for the church,” he said in an interview.

He said it was difficult to sort out the reasons. But he pointed to “a plethora of religious options other than Christianity . . . and other chances to do things to grow. . . . Going to church isn’t a popular thing to do in L.A.”

He added that he was “scared” by the fact that Los Angeles “tends to be a kind of bellwether for what is going to happen across the nation. Religious interest is probably going to be declining.”

Donald Miller, associate professor of the sociology of religion at USC, said Barna’s results square with Gallup and other polls’ findings that the West Coast is “fairly consistently lower than other areas of the country in church attendance.”

But Miller said he thought the Barna samples--which excluded people under the age of 18--might not reflect the vigorous spiritual interest and youthful participation in fast-growing church movements such as the Calvary Chapels, the Vineyard Fellowships and the Hope Chapels.

If Southern California is seen as the vanguard of social change, then these relatively new groups, which originated here, “may show some kind of renewal of interest in religion among young people,” Miller said.

Barna said the local survey, which was “paid for out of my pocket,” was conducted to help area churches do a better job. The results will be presented, along with a companion Barna study of 1,053 Protestant churches in Los Angeles County, at a daylong conference for church leaders on Oct. 27 at Glendale Presbyterian Church.

His county survey found that most residents think life in Los Angeles is tough.

Only a third strongly felt it is easy to meet people and make friends here, and fewer than half (40%) said they strongly feel they are a part of the community in which they live. Part of the reason, Barna said, is the area’s high mobility--42% said they are sure they will move within the next three years.

Only 19% of the residents agreed strongly that there are enough services for the elderly, and 14% felt strongly that Los Angeles is a good place to raise children.

“Children and the elderly are two groups to which the church may have a particular ability to lend a hand,” Barna concluded.

SURVEY OF L.A. COUNTY RESIDENTS

Religious Attitudes L.A. County National Residents Norm Attend church in a 35% 44% given week Read the Bible in 31 41 a given week Say religion is very 48 53 important to life Made a “personal 53 64 commitment” to Christ

Involvement in All L.A. County Church Activities Residents White Black Latino Attend church worship 35% 28% 58% 37% in a given week Read the Bible 31 25 61 32 (other than in church) Attend Sunday school 14 11 26 14 or adult church class

Source: Barna Research Group, Glendale, from a telephone survey of 600 adults conducted this summer.