Annual Barna Group Survey Describes Changes in America�s Religious Beliefs and Practices April 11, 2005
(Ventura, CA) � More than nine out of ten American adults engage in some type of faith-related practice during a typical week. This is one of the numerous findings revealed in a new report by researcher and author George Barna, drawn from the national survey of religious beliefs and practices that his company has been conducting every January since 1991. The report provides information concerning 45 different faith-related beliefs, behaviors and perspectives.
The data for 2005 were generated from a study in January by The Barna Group based on a nationwide survey of a random sample of 1003 adults. That survey asked the same questions about religious practices and perspectives that his company has been tracking in national surveys each January for the last fifteen years. With the release of the report, entitled The State of the Church: 2005, Barna revealed several of the outcomes described in greater detail in the research.
Bible Reading Increases
One outcome described is the small but noteworthy increase in Bible reading. Currently, 45% of adults read the Bible during a typical week, not including when they are at church. That figure represents a minimal increase over the past few years, but a significant rise from the 31% measured in 1995, the lowest level of Bible reading recorded by Barna in the past 15 years. The current statistic is still below the levels achieved in 1980s and early 1990s, but the report shows that the trend is upward.
The rise in Bible reading is largely attributable to increases in this behavior among Baby Busters and residents of the western states. In the early Nineties, about three out of ten Busters read the Bible in a given week; today that ratio stands at four out ten. Meanwhile, just one-third of people in the West read the Bible in the early and mid-Nineties, whereas close to half of them do so these days (47%). Not surprisingly, born again adults have led the return to God�s Word since 1990. After hitting a low of just 54% in 1997, the percentage of born again individuals who have read from the Bible in the past seven days has returned to a full two-thirds of that group (67%).
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