{"id":14825,"date":"2026-04-15T12:44:52","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T16:44:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=14825"},"modified":"2026-04-15T12:44:52","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T16:44:52","slug":"new-study-reveals-americans-complicated-relationship-with-the-bible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/04\/new-study-reveals-americans-complicated-relationship-with-the-bible.html","title":{"rendered":"New Study Reveals Americans\u2019 &#8216;complicated&#8217; Relationship With the Bible"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_14828\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14828\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-14828\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2026\/04\/Reading-Bible_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-14828\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Adobe Stock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The American Bible Society has released a new chapter for its \u201cState of the Bible USA\u201d and the survey is revealing <a href=\"https:\/\/sotb.americanbible.org\/the-bible-in-america-today\/\">a \u201ccomplicated\u201d relationship between Americans and the Bible<\/a>. The data is from 2,649 online and phone interviews with American adults in all 50 states and the District of Columbia collected from January 8-27, 2026.The study found that the number of Americans who are \u201cScripture engaged\u201d took a slight dip from 20% in 2025 to 17% in 2026. In 2025, the percent of \u201coccasional\u201d Bible users had increased from 13% to 16%, but had returned to 13% in 2026. Those who identified as \u201cactive Bible users\u201d also dropped slightly from 26% in 2025 to 25% in 2026. There was also a perceptible drop amongst men who identified as occasional Bible readers, dropping from 17% to 10%. However, the number of men who identified as active did slightly increase from 22% in 2024 to 24% in 2026, narrowing the gap between men and women, which researchers took as a sign of a positive trend.<\/p>\n<p>More promising, according to researchers were gains made in the so-called \u201cmovable middle.\u201d This group identifies people who are open to more Bible use but don\u2019t engage in it regularly. Those who were identified in this category had increased from 25% in 2024 to 28% in 2026. \u201cThe growth of the Movable Middle tells us that people are still open to the Bible,\u201d researchers noted. \u201cBut maybe they just don\u2019t know what to do with it because the Bible is a massive, complex book. This is an invitation for pastors and church leaders to step into the gap and show people how to engage with God\u2019s Word.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The study also explored Americans\u2019 Bible reading habits, with 58% of Scripture-engaged individuals reading the Bible \u201ca few verses at a time.\u201d Fifty-four percent of the movable middle did so as well. Fifty percent of those who are Scripture-engaged also follow a Bible reading plan while 40% attend a Bible study. Regarding how much of the Bible Americans have read, 48% have read \u201cat least half\u201d of the Bible or more. Seventeen percent have read the whole Bible while 35% have read a little. Only 10% stated they had read none of the Bible. Americans\u2019 attitudes towards the Bible have much to do with how much they\u2019ve read, with 60% of those who believe \u201cThe Bible was written to control or manipulate other people\u201d having read little or none of it. Meanwhile, 64% of those who agree that \u201cThe message of the Bible has transformed my life\u201d have read most or all of it. Dr. Jennifer Holloran, President and CEO of American Bible Society, stated she hopes the study\u2019s resources can be used by churches to increase areas of promise. \u201cWith another year of State of the Bible underway, it is our prayer at American Bible Society that these findings, accompanied by the resources we\u2019re pairing with each chapter, will equip church leaders,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.americanbible.org\/news\/press-releases\/articles\/state-of-the-bible-2026-chapter-1\/\">she said<\/a>. \u201cOur hope is to empower them to effectively minister to and care for those who are curious about the Bible, fostering a deeper understanding of the transformational impact of scripture.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The American Bible Society has released a new chapter for its \u201cState of the Bible USA\u201d and the survey is revealing a \u201ccomplicated\u201d relationship between Americans and the Bible. The data is from 2,649 online and phone interviews with American adults in all 50 states and the District of Columbia collected from January 8-27, 2026.The&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":14828,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>New Study Reveals Americans\u2019 &#039;complicated&#039; Relationship With the Bible<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"American Bible Society survey finds Bible engagement dipped in 2026, but more Americans remain open to deeper Scripture use.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/04\/new-study-reveals-americans-complicated-relationship-with-the-bible.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New Study Reveals Americans\u2019 &#039;complicated&#039; Relationship With the Bible\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"American Bible Society survey finds Bible engagement dipped in 2026, but more Americans remain open to deeper Scripture use.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/04\/new-study-reveals-americans-complicated-relationship-with-the-bible.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Christ News Today\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-15T16:44:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2026\/04\/Reading-Bible_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cecilia Buchanan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"New Study Reveals Americans\u2019 'complicated' Relationship With the Bible","description":"American Bible Society survey finds Bible engagement dipped in 2026, but more Americans remain open to deeper Scripture use.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/04\/new-study-reveals-americans-complicated-relationship-with-the-bible.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"New Study Reveals Americans\u2019 'complicated' Relationship With the Bible","og_description":"American Bible Society survey finds Bible engagement dipped in 2026, but more Americans remain open to deeper Scripture use.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/04\/new-study-reveals-americans-complicated-relationship-with-the-bible.html","og_site_name":"Christ News Today","article_published_time":"2026-04-15T16:44:52+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2026\/04\/Reading-Bible_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Cecilia Buchanan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/04\/new-study-reveals-americans-complicated-relationship-with-the-bible.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/04\/new-study-reveals-americans-complicated-relationship-with-the-bible.html","name":"New Study Reveals Americans\u2019 'complicated' Relationship With the Bible","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/04\/new-study-reveals-americans-complicated-relationship-with-the-bible.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/04\/new-study-reveals-americans-complicated-relationship-with-the-bible.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2026\/04\/Reading-Bible_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg","datePublished":"2026-04-15T16:44:52+00:00","dateModified":"2026-04-15T16:44:52+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/#\/schema\/person\/450625ec20bf3e8a84060b9321455f3d"},"description":"American Bible Society survey finds Bible engagement dipped in 2026, but more Americans remain open to deeper Scripture use.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/04\/new-study-reveals-americans-complicated-relationship-with-the-bible.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/04\/new-study-reveals-americans-complicated-relationship-with-the-bible.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/04\/new-study-reveals-americans-complicated-relationship-with-the-bible.html#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2026\/04\/Reading-Bible_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2026\/04\/Reading-Bible_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg","width":1200,"height":900,"caption":"Adobe Stock"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/04\/new-study-reveals-americans-complicated-relationship-with-the-bible.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"New Study Reveals Americans\u2019 &#8216;complicated&#8217; 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