USA- A NATION THAT PRAYS

Praying- Dorina Costras (France)

Interesting article this past week which give some statistics that make the USA not as  bad as it can sometimes seem. The U.S. remains a deeply religious  country and the most devout of all the rich Western democracies.

Americans pray more often, are more likely to attend weekly religious services and give an importance  to faith in their lives than adults in other wealthy, Western democracies, such as Canada, Australia and most European countries, according to a recent Pew Research Center study.

More than half of American adults (55%) say they pray daily, compared with 25% in Canada, 18% in Australia and 6% in Great Britain. The average European country stands at 22%.  When it comes to their prayer life  Americans are more like people in many poorer, developing nations than people in richer countries. We compared to Bolivia (56%), Bangladesh (57%) and South Africa (52%).  

Prayer before Meal- Vicente Manansula (d. 1981)

As it turns out, the U.S. is the only country out of 102 examined in the study that has higher-than-average levels of both prayer and wealth. In every other country surveyed with a gross domestic product of more than $30,000 per person, fewer than 40% of adults say they pray every day. Countries we tend to think of a very Catholic  seem to have lost their roots. Once very religious Italy has a percentage of 22, Ireland  less than 20, Germany has  less than 10.  We pray that prayer in our country continues.