America is not as bad as it seems. People still have faith and still try to follow God's laws, but perhaps imperfectly. The following data from a Gallup Poll is encouraging. It also reveals one reason we are so committed to ministry in the USA.
Almost two-thirds of Americans -- churchgoing or not -- say the overall health of the nation is heavily dependent on its spiritual health.
About 77 percent say the nation's economy is dependent on its spiritual well-being, while 64 percent say religious expressions are either tolerated or encouraged in their workplaces, according to a Gallup Poll released yesterday.
The findings are part of a greater study plumbing the "spiritual state of the union," said Ted Malloch, director of the Florida-based Spiritual Enterprise Institute. The poll "measures the extent to which Americans believe in God, act out their belief and impact secular America in real terms: in the workplace, in volunteerism, in business dealings," he said.
Believers are many:
82 percent of the respondents believe in God,
13 percent believe in a "universal spirit or higher power."
Three-quarters say they are Christian,
6 percent are labeled non-Christian
18 percent have no religious tradition
58 percent -- say success in life is "pretty much determined" by religious and spiritual forces
43 percent of the respondents were Democrats
41 percent Republicans
13 percent independents
58 percent said they leaned conservative
32 percent said they were liberal
Gallup figures in 1999 found 54 percent who called themselves "religious," and 30 percent "spiritual but not religious." Those numbers are now 49 percent and 40 percent, respectively.
Work and Good Works
78 percent of the respondents would go on working even if they had enough money to quit
85 percent agreed that "being ethical will pay off economically."
75 percent would not bend rules at work
97 percent said friends and family respected their line of work
92 percent believe "God wants us to do something with our lives that will be useful to the world."
83 percent said their work "is helping make the world a better place."
A 1992 Gallup Poll posed the same question, the percentage was 68 percent
Good and Bad
88 percent are "happy with who I am," up four percentage points from 1992
79 percent said there are clear guidelines to good and evil that apply to everyone, about the same as the previous survey.
65 percent -- say they are "spiritually committed." The figure was previously 68 percent
29 percent are satisfied with the direction of the country, according to separate Gallup findings. But "Americans are fighting back," the current survey stated, noting that seven of 10 regularly volunteer and contribute to charity.
The poll of 1,004 adults was conducted during February and March last year with an error margin of three percentage points. Copyright © 2007 News World Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
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