COVID-19 Is Disrupting Americans’ Engagement with Scripture by JOE CARTER for The Gospel Coalition
The Story: A recent survey reveals how COVID-19’s disruption of in-person church attendance is directly impacting Scripture reading.
The Background: At the beginning of 2020, polling by the American Bible Society and Barna Group found that Scripture engagement by adults in the U.S. had risen to 70.9 million, its highest level since measurement by the two organizations began in 2011. A follow-up survey in June, though, showed that the COVID-19 crisis has significantly reduced Americans’ engagement with the Bible.
The State of the Bible polling found that as of the first week of June, Scripture engagement among adults had fallen from 27.8 percent to only 22.6 percent, representing some 13.1 million Americans who were no longer consistently interacting with the Bible “in a way that shaped their choices and transformed their relationships with God and others.”
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The largest changes were in the groups classified as “Bible Centered” (i.e., people who say their values and principles of Scripture are central to their life choices and relationships) and “Bible Engaged” (i.e., people who say the values and principles of Scripture mostly influence their relationships with God and others, and to a lesser degree, the Bible also influences their life choices). The percentage of Bible Centered shrank by 3.8 percent, or 9.7 million American adults, while the Bible Engaged category shrank by 1.7 percent or 4.3 million adults.
Normally, says the report, Scripture engagement among women outpaces men. But women who were Bible Engaged or Bible Centered in January lost significantly more ground than their male counterparts by June. For the purposes of the survey, Scripture engagement comprised three components: frequency of interaction with the Bible; spiritual impact of the Bible on the user; moral centrality of the Bible in the user’s life. Frequency of interaction with the Bible showed the most significant decline for all Bible users between January and June, followed by Spiritual impact. Moral centrality remained fairly steady between the two samples.
The study also found a direct correlation between increased Scripture engagement and those efforts typically organized by a church, including mentorship programs and small group Bible studies. Church closures due to COVID-19 are therefore likely contributing to decreased rates of Scripture engagement. Those who participated in no relational activities through a church averaged 66/100 on the American Bible Society “Scripture Engagement Scale.” Participating in one such activity increased average Scripture engagement to 89 points, and participation in two or more discipleship activities was associated with Scripture engagement scores above 94 on average.
