But as Substitute said, there's a difference between being a Bible thumper and being a believer in the ideas of Christ, which are quite valid from a humanistic and even logical standpoint.
Many of the Christians I know don't force their beliefs upon other people, and they are rather spiritual in a good way -- they aren't dogmatic. They are followers of Jesus in that they agree with his ideals, such as "love thy neighbor as you love thyself."
And most of the SJs I've seen are not really religious and not avid churchgoers. They're just more into the social traditions that just so happen to be established around religion.
Thank you Uber, I was just about to sigh and resign myself to the fact that yet again, any discussion about religion and belief gets polarized into total atheists versus dogmatic fundamentalist Bible thumpers!! Oh, and yet again nobody seems to think that MBTI applies to anyone outside of America!
I was just thinking that the relationships of the types to religion would depend quite a lot on the place of religion in the society or sub-culture in which they live. Since quite a large portion of type behaviour has to do with the person's relationship to society in general, it makes sense to me that the same person might have a different response to faith and the idea of religion, depending on how that idea was presented to them and the examples and options for applying it that they're able to observe in their immediate environment.
In France, being atheist is just as normal and accepted as being a devout Roman Catholic. In Britain, the vast majority are non-religious and indeed I'd hazard that at least half are hostile towards religion and religious people, and Liberal, humanist styles of Christianity are mainstream in what's left of the religious "scene". I'd say that most church attenders under retirement age have come into faith later in life, having not been raised with it, as a result of their own independent research and choices.
The older generation of habitual/social church goers have had to wrestle and reconcile their style of religion (made for a culture long gone, in which religion was prevalent) with the needs, questions raised and changes made by and for the younger generations, for whom "it's just the done thing" doesn't factor anywhere in their reasons for attending church or believing.
It's just as accepted and normal in my local area to say you're a Druid or Neo-Pagan, and in fact most people under retirement age respond more positively to that in my experience, than to someone who wears a crucifix round their neck.
A person's response to religion in these situations could be very different to what it'd be in a context such as rural Bible Belt USA, where fundamentalism and regular church-going is the norm.
I have a strong suspicion that the sense of pressure and coersion that's prevalent regarding church attendance and religious belief in some parts of the USA, as well as the non-questioning, absolutist approach that's the main flavour of religion on offer, and the sheer "normality" of it, have as much to do with any person's opinion of faith in general, as their MBTI type. I believe that in many people, it's this pressure and this 'take' on Christianity and its place in society (and its recommended/intended place for
them in society), that many people are reacting to when they talk about religion, as opposed to faith or religion in the general, broader sense implied by a questionnaire.