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American Christians increasingly want their religion reflected in public symbols and language, they overwhelmingly reject homosexual clergy, and the largely unchurched West Coast is showing signs of spiritual growth, evangelical Christian pollster George Barna says.

The survey found some things to praise about American religiosity, but also found much more to criticize, particularly in matters relating to the depth of American Christians' faith.

For example, Mr. Barna said, the typical American adult watches football games more often than he attends worship services, and tithing, the practice of giving a tenth of one's income to the church, is "pitifully uncommon" among Christians and "almost nonexistent" among people younger than 40.

Only about 7 percent of all born-again Christians tithe, said Mr. Barna, who recently released his annual roundup of the information gleaned from 10,000 telephone interviews in multiple 2004 polls by his Ventura, Calif.,-based polling firm.

Mr. Barna, the author of 35 books on American religious and cultural trends, was disappointed with the lackluster effects of one of the year's biggest religious stories -- the blockbuster success of the Mel Gibson film "The Passion of the Christ."

"I really thought 'The Passion' would have a much bigger and more dramatic impact than our research showed," he said. "That movie got so much buzz and made a ton of money."

Among the other bad news about American religiosity that he noted in his year-end review was the continued rise in the number of unchurched Americans and the continuing alienation of men from churches.

He said the number of unchurched adults has nearly doubled from 38 million adults to 75 million in the past decade. The "unchurched" trend was strongest among men, people younger than 40, singles and people living in coastal states.

Those Christian men who say they are "deeply spiritual" and possess an "active faith" (meaning church attendance, regular prayer and Bible reading) is declining. Although men are slightly less than half of the national population, they constitute 55 percent of the unchurched, he said, and represent only 38 percent of the born-again public.

"Men who are leaders typically aren't allowed to lead within the church," he said. "They come into an environment where the senior pastor is a teacher pretending to lead. Thus, men who are called and gifted as leaders become a threat to the pastor. For those men, church is a very frustrating place to be."

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