{"id":1344,"date":"2005-07-27T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2005-07-27T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tmatt\/2005\/07\/27\/studying-the-faithful-consumers\/"},"modified":"2013-01-30T17:10:53","modified_gmt":"2013-01-30T22:10:53","slug":"studying-the-faithful-consumers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2005\/07\/studying-the-faithful-consumers\/","title":{"rendered":"Studying the Faithful Consumers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

If someone had created a stock market for spirituality in the 1990s, all of the prime indicators would have gone off the charts.<\/p>\n\n

That made sense, the experts told Beliefnet.com CEO Steven Waldman. The economy was on fire and this new wealth caused many people to ask big questions. Times were good, yet they felt empty. They went shopping for answers.<\/p>\n\n

Then the nation plunged into recession, while signs of interest in spiritual matters kept increasing. That made sense, said the experts. People were struggling and, thus, they turned to faith for comfort and insights. This trend intensified after 9\/11, even if the impact didn\u2019t last in traditional pews.<\/p>\n\n

So what\u2019s the bottom line? Faith is not a niche-market trend. <\/p>\n\n

It\u2019s true that the look and feel of \u201cmainstream\u201d American religion is changing, in part due to people searching on the World Wide Web. \u201cOrganized religion\u201d may be in a recession, but the rest of the \u201cspirituality\u201d numbers continue to add up, up, up.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cWall Street considers a trend that lasts 10 years to be significant. This one has lasted 10 millennia,\u201d argues Waldman, in a research paper he calls \u201cThe Faithful Consumer & The Spiritual Marketplace.\u201d He recently cranked out a 13th draft, trying to keep up with the latest data.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cWhile philosophers have studied the faithful soul and politicians have courted the faithful voter, the marketing and business communities have so far ignored The Faithful Consumer. This is a big mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

In the wake of Mel Gibson\u2019s \u201cThe Passion of the Christ\u201d \u2014 with its $600-million-plus payday \u2014 there has been increased research into the size of the \u201cChristian marketplace\u201d for goods and entertainment. Waldman is, of course, interested in these numbers because the vast majority of Americans tell pollsters that, to one degree or another, they consider themselves Christians.<\/p>\n\n

What is harder to document is the broader spiritual market. The sprawling Beliefnet.com website \u2014 with 4.5 million subscribers to its digital newsletters \u2014 is thoroughly interfaith, with cyber-homes for everyone from evangelicals to pagans, from Orthodox Jews to feminist Mormons<\/a>, from smells-and-bells Catholics to progressive Muslims. I should mention that I am the editor of the GetReligion.org site that is linked to the Beliefnet.com through its \u201cBlog Heaven\u201d forum.<\/p>\n\n

It\u2019s relatively easy to document what is happening in bookstores, radio networks, CD sales, cable television and magazines. What is harder, said Waldman, is to factor in the economic clout of spiritual consumers in areas such as education, health care, charity and even the travel industry.<\/p>\n\n

However, he has arrived at what he considers a very conservative estimate of total spending in the \u201cspirituality sector\u201d of the economy \u2014 $225 billion a year.<\/p>\n\n

People of faith are not part of a strange trend far from the mainstream, he said. They are the mainstream. What Waldman calls the \u201cFaithful Consumer\u201d is the normal consumer, part of a demographic group that is larger than the sectors called \u201cwomen,\u201d \u201cBaby Boomers,\u201d \u201csingles,\u201d \u201cteens\u201d or any of the usual ethnic groups.<\/p>\n\n

Some marketing professionals seem afraid to talk about these numbers, in part because religion is often controversial and this demographic is so hard to pin down. Are \u201cFaithful Consumers\u201d people who believe in God or the gods? Are they united by their broader spiritual concerns or divided by their narrow, specific dogmas? Are they prickly true believers or blowing-with-the-wind seekers?<\/p>\n\n

These days, the safe answer is \u201call of the above.\u201d Americans love to shop.<\/p>\n\n

So far, 18 million consumers have bought \u201cThe DaVinci Code\u201d by Dan Brown, with its head-spinning blend of historical speculation, Gnostic legend, goddess worship and anti-Vatican polemics. Another 20 million-plus have embraced the up-beat, easy-going sermonettes of evangelical superstar Rick Warren.<\/p>\n\n

It\u2019s safe to say that some people bought both. This is America.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cThere are people out there who do things like that, even though that confounds all of our stereotypes,\u201d said Waldman. \u201cWe may not be able to understand some of the spiritual choices that people make. But you know what we can say? We can say that they cared enough about matters of the soul to buy these books and read them. \u2026<\/p>\n\n

\u201cPeople are out there searching and if all we did was wake up the business world to that reality, we would have accomplished something.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If someone had created a stock market for spirituality in the 1990s, all of the prime indicators would have gone off the charts. That made sense, the experts told Beliefnet.com CEO Steven Waldman. The economy was on fire and this new wealth caused many people to ask big questions. Times were good, yet they felt […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[110,186,341,531,932],"class_list":["post-1344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-beliefnet","tag-christian-books","tag-evangelicalism","tag-marketing","tag-world-wide-web"],"yoast_head":"\nStudying the Faithful Consumers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If someone had created a stock market for spirituality in the 1990s, all of the prime indicators would have gone off the charts.That made sense, the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2005\/07\/studying-the-faithful-consumers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Studying the Faithful Consumers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If someone had created a stock market for spirituality in the 1990s, all of the prime indicators would have gone off the charts.That made sense, the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2005\/07\/studying-the-faithful-consumers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Terry Mattingly\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2005-07-27T12:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-01-30T22:10:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"tmatt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"tmatt\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2005\/07\/studying-the-faithful-consumers\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2005\/07\/studying-the-faithful-consumers\/\",\"name\":\"Studying the Faithful Consumers\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2005-07-27T12:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-01-30T22:10:53+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#\/schema\/person\/76ce2260a572ff41a28fb285de9350f1\"},\"description\":\"If someone had created a stock market for spirituality in the 1990s, all of the prime indicators would have gone off the charts.That made sense, the\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2005\/07\/studying-the-faithful-consumers\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2005\/07\/studying-the-faithful-consumers\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2005\/07\/studying-the-faithful-consumers\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Studying the Faithful Consumers\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/\",\"name\":\"Terry Mattingly\",\"description\":\"On Religion\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#\/schema\/person\/76ce2260a572ff41a28fb285de9350f1\",\"name\":\"tmatt\",\"description\":\"Terry Mattingly directs the Washington Journalism Center at the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. He writes a weekly column for the Universal Syndicate.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/author\/tmatt\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Studying the Faithful Consumers","description":"If someone had created a stock market for spirituality in the 1990s, all of the prime indicators would have gone off the charts.That made sense, the","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2005\/07\/studying-the-faithful-consumers\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Studying the Faithful Consumers","og_description":"If someone had created a stock market for spirituality in the 1990s, all of the prime indicators would have gone off the charts.That made sense, the","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2005\/07\/studying-the-faithful-consumers\/","og_site_name":"Terry Mattingly","article_published_time":"2005-07-27T12:00:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-01-30T22:10:53+00:00","author":"tmatt","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"tmatt","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2005\/07\/studying-the-faithful-consumers\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2005\/07\/studying-the-faithful-consumers\/","name":"Studying the Faithful Consumers","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#website"},"datePublished":"2005-07-27T12:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2013-01-30T22:10:53+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#\/schema\/person\/76ce2260a572ff41a28fb285de9350f1"},"description":"If someone had created a stock market for spirituality in the 1990s, all of the prime indicators would have gone off the charts.That made sense, the","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2005\/07\/studying-the-faithful-consumers\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2005\/07\/studying-the-faithful-consumers\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2005\/07\/studying-the-faithful-consumers\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Studying the Faithful Consumers"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/","name":"Terry Mattingly","description":"On Religion","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#\/schema\/person\/76ce2260a572ff41a28fb285de9350f1","name":"tmatt","description":"Terry Mattingly directs the Washington Journalism Center at the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. He writes a weekly column for the Universal Syndicate.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/author\/tmatt\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/610"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1344\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}