22.4.14

Most and Least "Bible-Minded" Cities



Wonder where your city ranks on the list of most and least "Bible-minded" cities?

The Barna Group, a top notch polling organization focusing on religious trends, has an interesting infographic here: http://cities.barna.org/americas-most-bible-minded-cities-2014/.

The polling results largely syncs with what we already know: reverence for the Bible in America waxes in the South and wanes in the West and Northeast. As you might expect, there is always a few outliers (Cedar Rapids, IA in the bottom ten?).

This information can certain prove helpful for Christians who seek to better understand the culture around them. It is easier to make appeals to Scripture if a certain degree of biblical literacy and reverence is a common feature of the culture. 

At the same time, that same literacy/reverence may be part and parcel of a self-righteous "spirituality," rather than saving faith. In that vein, it may be easier to make inroads with the Gospel in areas that are more unfamiliar with the Christian faith.

What this study doesn't tell us is who identifies themselves as believers, saved by grace through faith in Christ. Most all of our Founders had a high reverence for Scripture, but only a minority of them were believers. Esteem for the Bible, apart from saving faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, is simply demon faith (James 2).

The more important question is not where you live, but whether you profess faith in Christ as Lord and Savior.

No comments:

Post a Comment