Americans who are practicing Christians and read their Bible regularly have significantly less stress than non-Christians and individuals who rarely or never read their Bible, according to a major new report.
The annual State of the Bible report from the American Bible Society found that practicing Christians scored a 7.5 on a stress scale compared to a 10.3 score by non-Christians. (The lower the score, the less stress individuals experienced.) The stress scale posed a series of questions to Americans, such as: Do you have trouble sleeping? Do you feel shaky or fearful or numb, unable to enjoy things you used to enjoy?
The report defines a “practicing Christian” as someone who:
- Self-identifies as Christian, “adhering to a historically biblical tradition.”
- Attends a service at least once a month.
- Says their faith is very important in their lives.
Meanwhile, Americans who regularly read their Bible and say it impacts their lives have significantly less stress than non-Bible readers. The report calls these Bible-reading Americans “Scripture engaged.” They scored a 6.9 on the stress scale, compared to the 10.2 score by Americans who rarely or never read their Bibles (the “Bible disengaged”).
“Scripture-engaged people report much less stress than others. It’s not even close (more than 30% lower than the other groups),” the report said. “... Practicing Christians, who attend church and consider faith important in their lives, report significantly less stress.”
Interestingly, though, non-Christians and non-practicing Christians scored the same on the stress scale (10.3), suggesting that “merely identifying as a Christian has little effect on one’s stress.”
“Is there something about this halfway position that adds stress to people’s lives?” the report suggested. “Do the people in these middle categories experience more spiritual wrestling or religious expectations or uncertainties or complex relationships? Something is keeping them up at night, even more than those who dismiss the Bible and Christianity altogether.”
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Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.