According to a new survey, Houston made the list of -least- religious cities in the U.S. Seattle was #1, followed by San Francisco and Boston. Houston checked in at #14, followed by Dallas.
"There are a lot of factors involved in a survey like this" said Dave Welch, president of the Texas Pastor Council, "Being one of the largest cities in America of course, even though we are in the heart of the Bible-belt, we're not immune from cultural trends."
The culture is the primary reason people avoid religion of any kind. We have become a society that believes in the god of 'self', as opposed to believing in the God of the Bible.
"What we really see is that the church at large, has become less relevant to the lives of the individuals because we've tried to play the entertainment game" noted Welch.
But there is also another way to look at the list.
"Houston is the least non-religious" Welch joked with KTRH, "So, Houston and Dallas are at the bottom of the least religious list, which means they're at the top of the more religious list in all the other major cities."
And on a more serious note, Welch points out, "Even with those trends, we still see 6 out of 10 do attend some type of religious service, so I think we have to consider that. But it's also a challenge to every single church. What are we doing?"