(June 15, 2012 at 12:35 am)FallentoReason Wrote: Also, a big difference here compared to the U.S. is that 'controversial' Christians here are the minority of the minority. A statistic that gets shoved down our throats at my church is that only ~9% of Australians attend church regularly.
I have no idea what the comparable figures are in the U.S. I suspect nationwide, they're quite a bit higher. Around here probably not so much.
It just occurred to me that outside of family, and a very few very close friends, of all the people I am around, I know little to nothing about their religious views or lack thereof. Also, other than a few of the ex's family members, I can only think of two people I know that I know go to church for certain. I wouldn't even know that they were xtians had they not mentioned something that happened at their church.
Every once in a great while Jehovah's Witnesses or LDS missionaries will come through the neighborhood and hand out literature and try to chat people up. In downtown Portland Oregon, you'll occasionally run across people handing out religious literature. Most people just politely ignore them. It's not really a big deal.
In a city that's known for weirdness and tolerance, they just don't stand out that much - but I think that's a northwest thing. The Seattle area is much the same.
