In June 2022, a Gallup poll reported that 81% of Americans believed in God. That number is the lowest registered number in the history of the study. It has lowered by six percentage points since 2017. When the organization first started investigating this trend in the 1940s, 98% of Americans believed in God, with that number staying consistent throughout the 1950s.
When you read that 81% of Americans believe in God right now, does that number seem higher or lower than you expected? Why?
For me, the number was higher than I anticipated. Why? Because if 81% of Americans truly believe in God, you would expect our society to reflect more moral standards.
The longer we live, the more we can notice the change happening around us. For those who lived in the 1940s or 1950s, you can attest to the decline in those prioritizing faith and the increase in those with questionable values. While those many decades of life guarantee a level of shock at the seismic shifts during their lifetimes, younger generations can even see the significant alterations within their shortened spans. This country has changed dramatically in just the last ten years.
While 81% is the lowest number ever reported, that number at least indicates that a high majority of citizens believe in God. Some of you might be shocked by that number because such a high percentage of faith-minded people does not seem to align with the moral choices present in our society.
If we believe in God, it should change the way we live our lives.
Would you say 81% of Americans live as if God influences their decisions?
James teaches that faith without works is dead.
What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?
James 2:14
What you believe should be seen in what you do. If you believe in God, it should change how you help others in need, make personal decisions, and live with your faith on display.
If this many citizens believed in God, you would assume that the ethical decisions would be different and that more people would be eager to help others in need. If I look around, it appears that we often overlook needs and attend to ourselves. We don’t help others. We don’t seek to be the hands and feet of Jesus.
You would think that if 81% of us believed in God, you could notice a change.
If you believe in God, that’s great, but how is He changing you? Do you know what you believe? Has it changed the way you behave?
Travis Agnew serves as the Lead Pastor of Rocky Creek Church in Greenville, SC. His most recent book is Just (About) Married.
