(CP) Americans with stronger spiritual lives and people who more commonly offer forgiveness experience less loneliness than those that are less engaged with the Bible or churches and people who don’t commonly forgive others, a recent survey suggests.
The American Bible Society released the eighth chapter of its “State of the Bible USA 2024” report Thursday, specializing in “Loneliness.”
The research, based on 2,506 responses collected from American adults from Jan. 4-23, 2024, examined the connection between a respondent’s levels of religiosity and the way often they experience loneliness. The margin of error for the sample is ±2.73 percentage points.
The data suggests that almost three out of 4 Americans report moderate to high levels of loneliness, with over one-third of Generation Z women ages 18-27 experiencing high levels of loneliness.
“In our surveys, we have seen some ways that Americans profit from Bible engagement, and we suspect that it may also help them feel less lonely. So we’re testing a hypothesis,” the report reads. “If the nation is indeed experiencing an ‘epidemic of loneliness,’ what happens when people form a meaningful relationship with the God they meet in Scripture?”
Among the “Bible disengaged” — defined as those that rating lower than 70 on the Scripture Engagement Scale that measures the impact and centrality of the Bible on people’s lives based on their responses to a series of questions — 22% reported high levels of loneliness while 52% experienced moderate loneliness.
Among the “movable middle” — those that rating between 70 and 99 on the Scripture Engagement Scale — 59% reported high levels of loneliness and 17% experienced moderate loneliness.
By contrast, a significantly smaller share of “scripture engaged” respondents with Scripture Engagement scores of 100 or higher reported high (11%) and moderate (50%) levels of loneliness. The percentage of “scripture engaged” respondents experiencing low loneliness (38%) was much higher than the 25% of each the “movable middle” and “Bible disengaged” who said the identical.
The study adopted five questions from the UCLA Loneliness Scale, which asked people how often they experienced certain emotions.
An answer of “1” was given if respondents “never” experienced an emotion and a “4” was given in the event that they often experienced it. The maximum possible rating on the UCLA Loneliness Scale is 20, while the minimum is 5.
Across three of the 4 generations examined, the “scripture engaged” had lower average loneliness scores than their counterparts within the “movable middle” and “Bible disengaged” categories.
Among Generation Z, the youngest group of American adults born in 1997 or later, the “scripture engaged” had a median loneliness rating of 11.3, lower than the typical scores for the “movable middle” (12.4) and the “Bible disengaged” (13.4) of their age group.
Among the Millennials born between 1981 and 1996, an identical pattern emerged. The “scripture engaged” had a median loneliness rating of 10.1, while the “movable middle” recorded a median loneliness rating of 12.3, and the “Bible disengaged” had a median loneliness rating of 13.0.
Among Generation X, born between 1965 and 1980, the typical loneliness rating was measured at 11.1 among the many “scripture engaged” and 12.3 amongst each the “movable middle” and “Bible disengaged.”
Only among the many Baby Boomers and elder generations, encompassing those born in 1964 or earlier, did the “Bible disengaged” have a lower average loneliness rating (10.5) than their “scripture engaged” counterparts (10.6). Among the oldest group of American adults, the “movable middle” had the very best average loneliness rating (11.4).
“This information sets an agenda for anyone connected to Christian ministry, indeed for any Christian who cares about young adults,” the report stresses. “Well over a 3rd of Gen Z women indicate that they’re highly lonely. They say nobody understands them, that folks are ‘around’ them but not ‘with’ them. Our God often says, ‘I’m with you.’ He knows us higher than we all know ourselves and still loves us. Psalm 68:6 has a beautiful phrase that applies here: ‘You find families for many who are lonely’ (CEV). Perhaps God can use us to do this, becoming ‘families’ for lonely people around us.”
Looking at levels of loneliness based on church attendance, the info suggests those that “never” attend church had the very best incidence of high loneliness (25%), followed by those that had not been to church in no less than a month but had gone throughout the past yr (20%), those that last went to church over a yr ago (16%), respondents who last went to church throughout the past month (15%) and people who attend weekly (12%).
Conversely, those that go to church weekly scored the very best levels of low loneliness (33%), followed by respondents who last went to church throughout the past month (32%), those that last went to church greater than a month ago but had gone previously yr (27%), respondents who had not attended church in no less than a yr (26%) and people who never go to church (24%).
The research also found a relationship between a person’s ability to forgive and their levels of loneliness.
Thirty-six percent of those that discover as “strongly unable to forgive” experienced high loneliness, followed by 43% who reported moderate loneliness and 21% who reported low loneliness. Among those that consider themselves “somewhat unable to forgive,” 22% reported high loneliness, 57% experienced moderate loneliness and 21% reported low loneliness.
Sixteen percent of those that characterize themselves as “somewhat in a position to forgive” reported high loneliness, together with 56% who experienced moderate loneliness and 28% who felt low loneliness. Those who consider themselves “strongly in a position to forgive” had the bottom share reporting high loneliness (16%) and the very best percentage experiencing low loneliness (35%) with the remaining experiencing moderate loneliness.
“Some experts blame social media for fostering shallow connections that replace deep friendships. Our own research indicates that an inability to forgive could greatly increase levels of loneliness,” American Bible Society’s Chief Innovation Officer John Farquhar Plake said in an announcement. “Regardless of the cause, the necessity is urgent. Churches should respond with care and creativity, offering a protected space to develop meaningful Christian relationships.”
The chapter examined loneliness levels by respondents’ “commitment to Christ.”
Among those that are non-Christians and are “currently not occupied with exploring what it means to be a Christian,” 26% reported low levels of loneliness, while 22% experienced high levels. The high loneliness share was measured at 42% amongst non-Christians who’re “beginning to explore what it means to be a Christian” while the low loneliness percentage was pegged at 10%.
Twenty-five percent of Christians who don’t consider their faith “significant” of their life had low loneliness while 17% experienced high loneliness. Among those that consider in God but haven’t yet committed to a relationship with Jesus Christ, 20% experienced low loneliness while 26% reported high loneliness.
Higher levels of low loneliness were measured amongst those that have committed to a relationship with Christ (27%), those that have a “solid relationship with Christ that makes a difference” of their lives (30%), respondents who’ve an intimate relationship with Christ that influences their each day lives (42%) and people who discover their relationship with Christ as crucial one of their lives (32%).
The study comes after U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy issued an 81-page advisory report last yr titled “Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation.” The report warned that the “[t]he lack of social connection poses a big risk for individual health and longevity.”
The document warns that loneliness “can increase the danger for premature death as much as smoking as much as 15 cigarettes a day.” Loneliness and lack of social connection are related to higher risks of heart disease, stroke, anxiety, depression and dementia.
