DATE: Saturday, June 14, 1997               TAG: 9706130075

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E2   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY BILL BROADWAY, THE WASHINGTON POST 

                                            LENGTH:   43 lines

FAITH IN GOD CONSISTENT, POLL FINDS

BELIEF IN God and an afterlife, as well as commitment to prayer and church attendance, have remained generally consistent in the United States over the last 50 years, according to a new report by the Princeton Religion Research Center.

Today, 96 percent of Americans surveyed said they believe in God or a universal spirit, the report says. In 1947, 95 percent said they believed in a higher power.

Today, 71 percent believe in an afterlife; 73 percent did then. Ninety percent of Americans say they pray, the same as 50 years ago. And 41 percent attend church or synagogue ``once a week'' or ``almost every week,'' once again the same as in 1947.

Yet despite such apparent theological consistency, Americans have never been more enamored of Eastern philosophies, self-help faith strategies and alternative forms of spirituality, according to sociologists and religious leaders. And denominational loyalties frequently are cast aside by those who regularly attend religious services. They are as apt to look for a convenient location or an elaborate nursery as for great preaching or a particular interpretation of Scriptures.

George H. Gallup Jr., executive director of the center and author of the report, said that despite the church-hopping and spiritual experimentation common among America's faithful, the country as a whole is ``as churched as ever.''

That generic term church, of course, now includes synagogue, mosque, meetinghouse and temple.

Spiritually, the country always has been in a ``state of flux'' - with many people leaving organized religion, Gallup said. But ``people are always coming back,'' especially as they get older and find there's a spiritual void in their lives.

``Most people who leave church are still very religious,'' said Gallup, 67, whose father founded the Gallup Poll in 1935 and conducted a study of religion in the United States for Ladies' Home Journal in 1947. Gallup based his 1997 analysis on surveys conducted in the last year by the Gallup Poll. KEYWORDS: POLL GOD RELIGION

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