“More than half of all Americans believe they have been helped by a guardian angel in the course of their lives, according to a new poll by the Baylor University Institute for Studies of Religion. In a poll of 1700 respondents, 55% answered affirmatively to the statement, “I was protected from harm by a guardian angel.” The responses defied standard class and denominational assumptions about religious belief; the majority held up regardless of denomination, region or education—though the figure was a little lower (37%) among respondents earning more than $150,000 a year.”
“The guardian angel encounter figures were “the big shocker” in the report, says Christopher Bader, director of the Baylor survey that covered a range of religious issues, parts of which are being released Thursday in a book titled What Americans Really Believe. In the case of angels, however, the question is a little stronger than just belief. Says Bader, “If you ask whether people believe in guardian angels, a lot of people will say, ‘sure.’ But this is different. It’s experiential. It means that lots of Americans are having these lived supernatural experiences.”
I haven’t even heard much “angel talk” in recent years. Plenty of God and Jesus, but not angels. At first I wondered what their definition of “guardian angel” was. Were the respondents speaking of their kindly neighbor, or a best friend who helped them through hard times? But it seems pretty clear they were speaking of the supernatural.
The only explanation I can come up with is that here in America we have grown up with guardian angels being considered real for so long they’ve become our fairy or leprechaun myth, also since most debates on religion concentrate on God or Jesus, angels have slipped through the cracks unnoticed and for the most part unscrutinized. Furthermore most people like to consider a close relative as their guardian angel making it difficult to debate the existence of said guardian angel without seeming insensitive towards the person’s loss.
I have a friend who swears a helpful stranger was a “guardian angel sent by God” after her mother died. She was flying out to the funeral and got stuck on a long layover at the airport. As she sat in the waiting area crying, a woman came over and comforted her, listened to her story, and offered her words of strength and a hug. Then the woman “disappeared into thin air.”
Well, she thinks the woman disappeared. I imagine that my friend had her face in a handkerchief, still crying, and did not hear the woman say “I’m sorry, but I have to go or I’ll miss my connection.” By the time she looked up from crying and blowing her nose, the lady had probably walked away.
And while she is not an outwardly religious person (she’d never mentioned her beliefs to me before) she had such comfort in that encounter with the woman, and wanted so badly to believe she was an angel, that I was at a loss to disagree with her (although I did not agree, either. I just listened, and said what a wonderful thing it was, that the woman offered comfort.) Her mother had just died, and I didn’t want to start arguing with her over an airport encounter with a friendly stranger.
However, I will say that what the “airport guardian angel” did was a wonderful thing. She helped a woman who was alone in a strange city airport and in a lot of emotional pain. She might not have been from heaven, but we don’t need to be in order to help others.
Jackson, yes I thought the headline odd as well. Other than one friend who mentioned an “angel” (what I call a kind stranger) comforting her after her mother’s death, I have not heard any talk of angels in some years. Who knew they were as “popular” as the survey mentioned in Time suggests? (I mean popular as in actual belief, not popular as in grandmas who decorate their house with angel themed art and figurines.)
FrayedKnotJeff, a bit off topic, but I love your Avatar! I have a min-pin and he looks just like your photo.
Most Americans pray (for help, for guidance, for success). It’s a remarkably common practice in the USA. I would expect that praying inculcates the belief that there is someone who watches over our actions and can influence our lives, so (in a world where people see the faces of saints in stains in a bathtub or on a garage wall) it really isn’t surprising that some Americans attribute their success to the action of angels or some other supernatual agent.
Geez, I go out of my way to help people whenever I can. I’m going to have to stop because the last thing I want is for them to have their theism strengthened by thinking I’m an angel.
Most Americans pray (for help, for guidance, for success). It’s a remarkably common practice in the USA. I would expect that praying inculcates the belief that there is someone who watches over our actions and can influence our lives, so (in a world where people see the faces of saints in stains in a bathtub or on a garage wall) it really isn’t surprising that some Americans attribute their success to the action of angels or some other supernatual agent.
Supernatural belief is in the air.
I used to see my son’s little league, basketball, football teams pray before each game for god to give them a win, while the other team was pray equally feverishly for the exact same thing. I pointed out that it would make much more sense to pray to play the best game they could and to be able to be a good sport, but I was ignored! Also in the whole scheme of things, how does the importance of a little league game rank with all of the other much more serious things going on in the world, demanding attention of a god? It trivializes, even if I had believed that there was an omnipotent god listening.
This study.. is meaningless.
It comes from Baylor U’s Institute for Study of Religion. They’ve done a whole lot of studies.. funny thing, every single one of them seems designed to put religion or evangelical values in a positive light. Take a look at this page which lists various reports from the ISR: http://www.isreligion.org/publications/reports/
Here are the titles, for the link-impaired: A Better Kind of High: How Religious Commitment Reduces Drug Use Among Poor Urban Teens
Making The Grade: The Influence of Religion Upon the Academic Performance of Youth in Disadvantaged Communities
The Great Escape: How Religion Alters The Delinquent Behavior of High-Risk Adolescents
What Works: Comparing the Effectiveness of Welfare-to-Work Programs in Los Angeles
Is Religion Good for Adolescent Health: A National Study of American High School Seniors (surprise! religion is found to be good -s)
Living Up To Expectations: How Religion alters the Delinquent Behavior of Low-Risk Adolescents
Working Faith: How Religious Organizations Provide Welfare-to-Work Services
Objective Hope: Assessing the Effectiveness of Faith-Based Organizations: A Review of the Literature
Churches, Charity and Children: How Religious Organizations Are Reaching America’s At-Risk Kids
The InnerChange Freedom Initiative: A Preliminary Evaluation of a Faith-Based Prison Program
Then Comes Marriage? Religion, Race, and Marriage in Urban America
Good Dads: Religion, Civic Engagement, & Paternal Involvement in Low-Income Communities
The Role of African-American Churches in Reducing Crime Among Black Youth
Here is a quote from their website which repeats widely discredited research and insinuates rather outlandish claims about Europe:
During the past 63 years, several polls show the percentage of atheists has not changed at all, holding steady at only 4 percent of Americans who say they do not believe in God. Not only is atheism not growing in the United States, the majority of Europeans are not atheists…
What’s funny to me is these people need a reason to do good things like not going to hell for instance, whereas for the Atheist it’s just for the good feeling we get.
What’s funny to me is these people need a reason to do good things like not going to hell for instance, whereas for the Atheist it’s just for the good feeling we get.
This is true in principle, particularly theological principle FrayedKnotJeff but in reality.. unlikely. If so, it would mean atheists are just inherently moral beings and theists are evil child-minded sociopaths who are “good” in order to achieve some reward.. but you don’t really think this way do you? The people I know who are Christian and also kind, considerate, moral people I have to think would have been good people no matter what religion (including none) they were brought up with. At best, religion is simply irrelevant to morality. (at worst, corrupting but this is another topic).
What’s funny to me is these people need a reason to do good things like not going to hell for instance, whereas for the Atheist it’s just for the good feeling we get.
This is true in principle, particularly theological principle FrayedKnotJeff but in reality.. unlikely. If so, it would mean atheists are just inherently moral beings and theists are evil child-minded sociopaths who are “good” in order to achieve some reward.. but you don’t really think this way do you? The people I know who are Christian and also kind, considerate, moral people I have to think would have been good people no matter what religion (including none) they were brought up with. At best, religion is simply irrelevant to morality. (at worst, corrupting but this is another topic).
Yes I do have to admit it was mostly just a jab at the creationists, that darn child in me getting out again. lolz
