A new survey finds that only 36% of Americans say their faith has given them hope as more Americans say “fear” is the feeling they seek to avoid the most, reports the Christian Post.
Lifeway Research, a research division of the Southern Baptist Convention, released a new poll last week titled “America’s Views on Emotions and Adversity.” The survey is based on interviews with over 1,200 Americans conducted last September.
The survey asked respondents “What has given you hope during the adversity you have seen during 2020?” They were allowed to choose all that apply from a list of responses.
The top source of hope for U.S. adults was the “kindness people have shown” (40%), followed closely by “relationships” (38%), “my religious faith” (36%) and stable finances (33%).
“About half as many Americans who identify with a religious faith credit that faith with giving them hope during 2020,” Lifeway Research Executive Director Scott McConnell said in a statement. “The Christian faith points followers of Jesus to a more hopeful future, which should shine even brighter during dark times.”
Lifeway further found that fewer Americans drew hope from the knowledge of scientists and experts (19%), recreation or fun (17%), new opportunities (14%), their work (13%) or research they’ve done themselves (10%).
More than four out of 10 (41%) of U.S. adults surveyed responded with “fear” when asked which feelings they seek to avoid the most. By comparison, only 24% of respondents said “shame” was the feeling they wanted to avoid the most, 22% said “guilt” and 12% said they weren’t sure.
The results mark a change from a similar 2016 Lifeway survey of over 1,000 Americans that found “shame” (38%) to be the most common feeling respondents wanted to avoid, followed by “guilt” (31%) and “fear” (30%).
