A new survey shows high interest and participation in prayer by Americans.
But are they praying in the way the Bible speaks of Christians praying—or
more like "consumers"?
by Cecil Maranville
You are going to be hearing and reading a great deal over the next few months
about the implications of a recently released report by the Pew Research Center
for the People and the Press on a survey it conducted in the late summer of
2003. It's a comprehensive, 152-page document titled, "Evenly Divided
and Increasingly Polarized—The 2004 Political Landscape."
Even the section "Religion in American Life" is viewed in political
terms. Candidates for all offices, especially those running for president,
are weighing the implications of this major study and changing the way they
"package" themselves accordingly. But I would like to zero in on
what the survey reflects about prayer in the lives of Americans (and most
probably the religiously minded in Britain).
The survey's question on prayer read: "Prayer is an important
part of my daily life." Participants had a choice of five possible answers:
agree completely, agree mostly, disagree completely, disagree mostly or don't
know. What would you guess the American consumerist society would say?
Believe it or not, 51 percent chose "agree completely" (up 10
percent from a generation ago.) Another 30 percent chose "agree mostly,"
meaning that 81 percent of Americans say prayer is an important part of their
daily lives.
I was stunned. Could that many Americans have a clear understanding of who
God is? If my reaction seems cynical, it's because I'm thinking
of the way Americans live, listening to the way they talk and considering
their choices of entertainment.
Surprisingly, 87 percent of the respondents to the survey said that they
never doubted the existence of God (69 percent "completely agree";
18 percent "mostly agree"). So, they must have some understanding
of who God is.
But do they have a concept of how God expects them to live?
