{"id":8086,"date":"2022-11-01T12:02:49","date_gmt":"2022-11-01T16:02:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/?p=8086"},"modified":"2022-11-01T12:02:49","modified_gmt":"2022-11-01T16:02:49","slug":"new-study-shows-how-scripture-engagement-enhances-capacity-for-forgiveness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2022\/11\/new-study-shows-how-scripture-engagement-enhances-capacity-for-forgiveness.html","title":{"rendered":"New Study Shows How Scripture Engagement Enhances Capacity for Forgiveness"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_8089\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8089\" style=\"width: 644px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/89\/2022\/11\/bible-reading-2.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-8089\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/89\/2022\/11\/bible-reading-2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"644\" height=\"484\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-8089\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Unsplash<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/1s712.americanbible.org\/state-of-the-bible\/stateofthebible\/State_of_the_bible-2022.pdf\">study<\/a> by the American Bible Society has found that individuals that are \u201cScripture-engaged\u201d are more capable of forgiving others than those who are \u201cScripture disengaged.\u201d The study listed an individual as \u201cScripture engaged\u201d when they believe the Bible impacts their daily lives, believe it helps guide their relationships with God and others, and say they regularly read\/listen to the Bible. According to the study, 94% of Scripture Engaged individuals \u201csomewhat\u201d or \u201cstrongly agree\u201d with the statement, \u201cI am able to sincerely forgive whatever someone else has done to me, regardless of whether they ever ask for forgiveness or not.\u201d Only 11% of \u201cScripture Disengaged\u201d individuals strongly agreed with that statement, with 48% somewhat agreeing. The poll also found that 92% of Bible users agreed that \u201cthe message of the Bible has transformed my life\u201d and even 38% of non-users agreed.<\/p>\n<p>Forgiveness can be very hard for Americans, especially when the offender doesn\u2019t ask for forgiveness. However, faith appears to make that simpler, with a 2001 <a href=\"https:\/\/news.gallup.com\/poll\/6181\/because-faith-forgiven-people-who-hurt-deeply.aspx\">Gallup poll<\/a> of people of faith, including Christians, Muslims, and Jews, finding that 57% strongly agreed with the statement, \u201cBecause of my faith, I have forgiven people who have hurt me deeply.\u201d The American Bible Society study also found that older people, women, and Protestants tended to be more forgiving than other groups. The topic of forgiveness and Americans comes from more than just this study. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/socal\/burbank-leader\/opinion\/tn-blr-me-intheory-20181101-story.html\">LA Times<\/a> surveyed several faith leaders\u2019 opinions about Americans\u2019 capacity for forgiveness in 2018 after Roseanne Barr was outed from her show after saying what some believed to be a racial slur. \u201cForgiveness is unnatural,\u201d wrote Pastor Jon Barta of Burbank. \u201cThat is, it is unnatural to fallen people living in a fallen world \u2014 us, if the truth be admitted. Our knee-jerk reaction, and often the counsel of those around us, is to punish the offender, take retaliation against the person who hurt us, remove and prevent the perpetrator from further operation. This is common to humanity across the world, America included. I\u2019m not convinced we\u2019re a forgiving nation, or even persuaded that we are, but I believe at the least we\u2019re a forgetting nation, soon distracted from older controversies to obsess about the latest.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Forgiveness, however, is mandated in the Bible, such as in Matthew 6:15, which says, \u201cBut if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.\u201d Rick Warren wrote about the difficulties of forgiveness in his online devotional, writing, \u201cIt\u2019s not easy. In fact, I have no doubt that for some reading this, your marriage is about to self-destruct \u2014 not because of the hurt but because of the unforgiveness. It\u2019s not the hurt but the refusal to forgive that destroys a marriage. You may say, \u2018I don\u2019t feel like forgiving.\u2019 Who does? Nobody ever feels like forgiving. You do it because it\u2019s the right thing to do, and you do it to get on with your life. These steps are not easy, but with God\u2019s power, you can do it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; A study by the American Bible Society has found that individuals that are \u201cScripture-engaged\u201d are more capable of forgiving others than those who are \u201cScripture disengaged.\u201d The study listed an individual as \u201cScripture engaged\u201d when they believe the Bible impacts their daily lives, believe it helps guide their relationships with God and others, and&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":8089,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiring-messages"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - 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are more likely to forgive others.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2022\/11\/new-study-shows-how-scripture-engagement-enhances-capacity-for-forgiveness.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Inspiration Report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-11-01T16:02:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/89\/2022\/11\/bible-reading-2.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"644\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"484\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\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 Shows How Scripture Engagement Enhances Capacity for Forgiveness","description":"A new study by the American Bible Society found that people who are more \"scripture-engaged\" are more likely to forgive others.","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\/inspirationreport\/2022\/11\/new-study-shows-how-scripture-engagement-enhances-capacity-for-forgiveness.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"New Study Shows How Scripture Engagement Enhances Capacity for Forgiveness","og_description":"A new study by the American Bible Society found that people who are more \"scripture-engaged\" are more likely to forgive others.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2022\/11\/new-study-shows-how-scripture-engagement-enhances-capacity-for-forgiveness.html","og_site_name":"Inspiration 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