Share the Love: Demographics and Some Thoughts

This is a follow up to my previous post, Share the Love: City on a Hill or Salt of the Earth? Since I've looked at some demographics for the Share the Love Blog Awards I decided to put them here. They might surprise you. I think I'll explain first what I did, my reasons, and then give you the demographics and a bit of discussion.

Since I had already visited several blogs in the awards I decided to go back and visit as many of the nominees as I could. I had a number of reasons for that. I am always on the lookout for new blogs that I might like reading and can bookmark or blogroll. I also like to link to posts on other blogs so I like to have a range of blogs that I can highlight posts from. And I'm interested in womens blogging and the awards provided a good list. I read current posts, archives, and bloggers Profiles/About pages. I usually do that when visiting new blogs anyway so that's normal for me. When I visit blogs I also notice if a blogger expresses a religious or spiritual belief. I talked about that in my previous post. So I decided that as I went I'd see what the diversity was among the nominees, and I grouped them. I didn't do this to be judgmental or to prove I'm discerning, and I didn't just look for labels. I read the blogs like I normally read blogs - some cracked me up, some made me think, some moved me, some inspired me, and two in particular made me cry. I've bookmarked some because I want to continue reading them.

I have two main reasons for posting this. Firstly, I've been blogging for a long time and I know that controversies have a way of resurfacing. Six months after a dispute some-one brings it up and it can be rehashed again. Sometimes so much gets said in a controversy that some statements aren't really discussed - and then they resurface again without having been qualified. So I am hoping this will help to prevent future misunderstanding and contention. The second reason is that there has been a bit more discussion since I last posted and I would like to respond to that a little too. I can't stress enough that this is not intended to be hurtful or divisive, and I want to remain focused on the fact that blogs are personal and I appreciated the honesty, reality, humour and intelligence in those I read. I'd also like to say I have made a small amendment to my previous post which I think better reflects what I was responding to. My overall assessment in that post is the same and I don't want to revisit the hows of the process that occurred in the blogosphere here, but do want take the opportunity to discuss some things now that the general atmosphere has cooled down.

I found that the following groupings were best to give a picture of the religious (or non-religous) diversity, and if there were more than 5 bloggers expressing the same religious belief I made that a grouping. I couldn't group all the beliefs separately as this would be a really long post if I did, so I hope you can bear with the way I've done it. These are the groupings I found: Christian (Protestant or Catholic); Mormon; Jewish; Unspecified - these occasionally mentioned God or church attendance but didn't specify their religious belief and I didn't want to assume; Not Religious or No Religious content - these were bloggers who stated they are not religious or who do not have any reference to having religious or spiritual beliefs on their blogs; Other Religious or Spiritual belief - these were blogs that had personal religious or spiritual beliefs expressed. I'm sorry about "other", I couldn't think how else to say it. It reflects several different beliefs. I should add that the groupings don't reflect the blog content necessarily, e.g. a blogger may consider herself a Christian who blogs rather than that she has a Christian blog. So the groupings reflect bloggers beliefs as they were stated.

I visited all the blogs in 8 of the 11 awards categories. A number of the blogs I visited were also nominated in the 3 categories I didn't visit.

No. of blogs I read: 197 (in 8 categories)
No. of blogs I didn't read: 34 (in 3 categories)
Inaccessible: 3 (links didn't work or bandwidth exceeded)

Here's the different groupings. The number is the number of blogs and in brackets is the percentage:
Not Religious or No Religious Content: 70 (36%)
Christian (Protestant or Catholic): 60 (30%)
Other Religious/Spiritual Beliefs: 32 (16%)
Mormon: 25 (13%)
Jewish: 6 (3%)
Unspecified: 4 (2%)

One statement which has been made during discussion on this issue, and which has formed a basis for other ideas, was that most of the nominees in the Share the Love awards were Christians or Mormons. However, as you can see from the demographics, this isn't the most accurate picture. Most of the nominees stated clearly that they are not religious or they had no kind of personal religious content or terminology on their blogs, or they were Christians. Those two groups combined made up 66% of the nominees. The next largest group were bloggers of various religious or spiritual beliefs - 16%. When I say there was no content reflecting religious or spiritual belief I really mean none - no mention of God, or any kind of personal spirituality at all. Of course some of those bloggers may have religious beliefs, apart from those who state they are not religious, but there really is no way of knowing from their blogs. That's not a criticism on my part, but simply to point out that the idea that most of the nominees were Christian or Mormon doesn't hold.

I'd like to briefly pick up on something recently proposed (a few days ago) - that beginning a discussion on the issue of organisational ecumenism (which I was aware of before the awards) and apologetics, and then working down to blogs and the awards as examples would have been more helpful. I appreciate the continuing discussion and the initiative to explore how the topic can be clarified. I think that whether or not the order of the topics generally discussed was changed i.e. starting with a big picture rather than starting with blogging, the awards still aren't an appropriate example. They were generic and they reflect that - there is a diversity. Even without that diversity I wouldn't consider them an example to be used, and I've discussed reasons for that previously. I'm not saying this to rehash things but more to say that I think it best to avoid that misconception in the future.

If you read my previous post I think you will know where I'm coming from and where my heart is. A few observations that I find interesting. I came across 2 blogs that quoted C.S. Lewis out of the 197 nominees I read. Both bloggers are Christians. Most of blogs I read didn't have a lot about religion or spirituality. Of those that expressed a religious or spiritual belief the majority only made an occasional reference. The biggest theme, by a huge majority, was motherhood and what is called mommy blogging. I have said that before, but I think the demographics help to make the point better. I did find that there were similarities across all the groups, and the interactions went across all groups too.

I hope this is helpful, and I think it may be interesting for the awards organiser. On that note, I'd like to thank her as it takes hours to run something like that - setting up a new blog, linking and listing everyone, setting up a voting system. In terms of having awards for any women bloggers I think the first time round did reflect a diversity of womens blogging. I wouldn't ususally post something like this but since religion became the talking point I am really just adding a perspective to what has already happened and wanting to clarify some things for the future. I was hesitant about it but at the same time wanted to give a more accurate picture and this seemed the best way. I hope the spirit of my intention shows through.

Finally... There really are some amazing blogs out there, and I don't want this post to detract from the personal nature of the blogs. I came across some hysterically funny women, some very poetic women, and some extremely courageous women. It was a privilege reading and I'll be returning to some of those blogs again. Food consumed while reading the blogs: Steak pie, bananas, Swiss roll with jam and cream, potato chips. Not all at one sitting. Now I need a coffee and I have some other posts to do and email to catch up on. Anyone is welcome to comment, but I do ask again that the comments not be used for explaining or debating particular beliefs. (New commenters please read my Comment Policy). I'd like to lighten up a little. You may find this interesting, or surprising, or have already made similar observations from reading some of the blogs. Now you know why I haven't posted for a while - my blogging time has been spent engrossed in reading!

(Note: I'm fine with people linking this but please don't put the numbers and percentages in your post if you do. I think they are best read in the context of my post. Please don't link this post in other posts explaining/debating religious beliefs - that isn't what this post is about. Thanks!)