TruthBook Religious News Blog

In a recent national survey, the Barna Group of Ventura, Calif., found that most Americans generally hold high opinions of themselves. But their faith commitments had little bearing on their lifestyles, attitudes and self-perceptions.

And in an informal Kansas City Star survey many people had difficulty connecting their faith to their self-image.

The survey asked readers a series of questions similar to those on the national poll, including, “Do you feel accepted by God or a higher power?”

The Barna survey revealed that 88 percent of Americans feel accepted by God.

Likewise, in The Star survey, 89 percent felt accepted by God or a higher power. The large majority was unequivocal. Only 11 percent felt neither accepted nor rejected, including atheists who didn’t believe in God.

About 60 people responded to The Star survey, ranging in age from teenagers to 96 years old. They came from a wide range of religious affiliations, including most of the mainline Protestant denominations, Catholic, Unity, Pentecostal, Mormon, Hindu and also atheist.

The Barna survey also revealed that Americans generally hold high opinions of themselves. And local folks are no different.

When The Star asked, “What characteristics would you use to describe yourself?” 90 percent gave pretty favorable views. Only 10 percent either wavered between negative and positive views or didn’t answer the question. No one was completely negative.
This was consistent with the Barna results. Describing themselves in the national survey, 97 percent of respondents said they are a good citizen; 94 percent, friendly; 90 percent, generous; 83 percent said they feel at peace; 81 percent said they were clear about the meaning and purpose of their life; and 80 percent thought they were making a positive difference in the world.

Faith to the positive
The Star survey asked, “How does your faith, or lack of faith, affect how you view yourself?” Many local respondents said their faith affected their view of themselves and almost always in a positive way.

But most people had difficulty answering the question or completely avoided it. Others, instead of dealing with the specific question, used it as an opportunity to examine their faith in general. Some wrote long accounts; one was 13 hand-written pages.

And the wisdom to know
Despite the favorable views of themselves, most participants in The Star survey disclosed negative aspects of their personalities and lives they would like to change.

These included not being judgmental, not being self-conscious and not being critical and sarcastic.

Instead, they wrote, they would rather be more patient, stop jumping to conclusions about people, be able to say no more often, be more compassionate and caring, better manage their personal finances, and make more of an effort to be healthy.