All Over Albany

Survey: Albany among the least "Bible-minded" cities in the country

A follow up of sorts to that bit about Albany being the most "post-Christian" city from last month: Albany is the second least "Bible-minded" city among the nation's top 100 metros according to a survey out this week.

The national survey was conducted by Barna Group -- the same group that did that previous "post-Christian" survey -- in conjunction with the American Bible Society, which describes itself as a Christian ministry.

And just like with that earlier survey, the questions and definitions matter. In this case, the survey tagged someone as Bible-minded if they reported reading the Bible in the last week and said they "agree strongly in the accuracy of the Bible." So, presumably, someone who considers themselves a Christian, reads the Bible regularly, but considers it to be a spiritual guide more than a historical text, wouldn't qualify as Bible-minded. Nor would many Catholics, for whom reading the Bible -- unlike going to church or praying -- isn't necessarily a regular practice. And, as Time inquired, it's not clear if the survey would necessarily include Jews who read the Torah as Bible minded.

If anything the survey seems like more of a proxy for determining the prevalence of a certain type of Christianity. So you can probably guess the survey results: the most Bible minded cities tended to be in the South, the least in the Northeast and West Coast.

(Thanks, Tim and Duncan)