Active Christians value civic responsibility, study shows ahead of 2024 elections • Biblical Recorder

PHILADELPHIA (BP) — Christians who study Scripture place the greatest value on civic engagement and service, the American Bible Society (ABS) said in its latest State of the Bible 2024 publication.

The study shows that Christians who are interested in Scripture fall in a presidential election year and therefore place greater emphasis on being aware of social and governmental issues, advocating for social and governmental policies, and submitting to government leaders.

Specifically, 66% of Christians who study the Scriptures said it is important or very important to stay informed about social and governmental issues; 48% placed the same importance on advocating for social and governmental policies; and 42% said the same is true of submitting to government leaders.

“On all measures—awareness, advocacy, and submission—the Bible-engaged are much more likely to emphasize the importance of civic responsibility,” the researchers wrote in the study, outperforming those described as Bible-disengaged and those in the moving middle, a group that is more engaged with the Bible and considered more inclined to embrace it. “We see little difference between the moving middle and the Bible-disengaged on awareness and advocacy, but the Bible-engaged clearly place a higher value on these aspects of citizenship.”

Yet the Scripture Engaged, considered the most engaged Christians of all Christians, still rank the importance of advocacy and submission lower than awareness on the study’s seven-point importance scale; only awareness ranks above 50 percent.

In the fourth chapter of the 2024 report, released on July 11, researchers focused on “love in action,” tabulating the importance of several aspects of the biblical commandment to love one’s neighbor (Matthew 22:39). Researchers reported perspectives rather than actual activities.

The researchers cited the election year as an explanation for the decline in awareness among practicing Christians over the past three years of the importance of welcoming immigrants, making friends with people of other races, and protecting the environment.

“The political climate certainly influences responses here. Our survey presents the issues in a few words, without further definition,” the researchers wrote. “Respondents will of course add their own context – for example, whether immigration is legal or illegal. With that in mind, we see significant changes on these issues in recent years, especially among practicing Christians.”

Among practicing Christians, the importance of welcoming immigrants into the community fell from 4.3 on a six-point scale in 2022 to 3.9 in 2024. While friendship with people of other races reached 4.7 on the scale in 2022, it is now 4.5. Environmental protection was 4.7 in 2022, but 4.6 in 2024.

“All groups place less emphasis on welcoming immigrants than in recent years, but the decline is most pronounced among practicing Christians,” the researchers wrote. “Non-Christians now place more emphasis on this than practicing Christians.”

Otherwise, the areas of involvement that have to do with charity have remained roughly the same over the past four years, say the researchers. These include caring for prisoners and advocating for those oppressed by society.

Researchers found that interest in cross-racial engagement, which surged after the death of George Floyd in 2020, has cooled.

“Over the next year or two, we saw major corporations champion diversity and communities tear down statues,” the researchers noted. “But our trend line suggests that attention has waned over the past two years.”

Nevertheless, the majority of study participants attach importance to being good neighbors, even if there are different opinions about who counts as a neighbor.

Demographically, charity is most valued by baby boomers, women, people who are committed to Scripture, urban and suburban residents, those in the Northeast, and homeowners.

The University of Chicago’s NORC research center conducted the survey from January 4 to 23, compiling results based on responses from 2,506 online interviews conducted with more than 9,900 adults contacted as part of the nationally representative AmeriSpeak panel.

ABS will publish a chapter of the study every month through December 2024. Future publications will focus on the intersection of the Bible with artificial intelligence, well-being, church, hope, need, loneliness and philanthropy.

The fourth chapter of the report is available here.

(EDITORIAL NOTE — Diana Chandler is the executive editor of the Baptist Press.)