{"id":21346,"date":"2011-10-16T12:38:18","date_gmt":"2011-10-16T17:38:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/jesuscreed\/?p=21346"},"modified":"2011-10-16T12:25:19","modified_gmt":"2011-10-16T17:25:19","slug":"maybe-the-bibles-the-liberal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/10\/16\/maybe-the-bibles-the-liberal\/","title":{"rendered":"Maybe the Bible’s the Liberal!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Did you see this at CT<\/strong><\/a>? The piece is by Aaron B. Franzen. The big idea is that those who read the Bible the most become more liberal on those issues that divide conservatives from liberals in American culture.<\/p>\n

A recent poll from LifeWay Research found that 89 percent of American households still own a Bible, with the average home having 4.1 Bibles. But owning a Bible is different from reading it\u2014and pollsters might be surprised by what happens when many Americans do.<\/p>\n

Most polls, surveys, and studies that have examined the Bible\u2019s influence have looked at views of its inspiration and methods of interpretation. Gallup, for example, has for four decades asked Americans how literally the Bible should be taken. Comparatively very little research has looked into what happens when one actually reads the Bible, especially when one reads it independently outside the church.<\/p>\n

Perhaps we\u2019ve assumed that such questions would be redundant, merely one more measure of religiosity, along with how often one attends church, how literally one views the Bible, and how much one prays. When researchers look at these indicators, they usually find a correlation with both political and moral conservativism. It\u2019s not always the case, but it is a trend. Reading the Bible on one\u2019s own makes a difference, too. The interesting part, however, is the unexpected difference it makes.<\/p>\n

Frequent Bible reading has some predictable effects on the reader. It increases opposition to abortion as well as homosexual marriage and unions. It boosts a belief that science helps reveal God\u2019s glory. It diminishes hopes that science will eventually solve humanity\u2019s problems. But unlike some other religious practices, reading the Bible more often has some liberalizing effects\u2014or at least makes the reader more prone to agree with liberals on certain issues. This is true even when accounting for factors such as political beliefs, education level, income level, gender, race, and religious measures (like which religious tradition one affiliates with, and one\u2019s views of biblical literalism).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Did you see this at CT? The piece is by Aaron B. Franzen. The big idea is that those who read the Bible the most become more liberal on those issues that divide conservatives from liberals in American culture. A recent poll from LifeWay Research found that 89 percent of American households still own a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nMaybe the Bible's the Liberal!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Did you see this at CT? The piece is by Aaron B. Franzen. 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