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A recent study found that more people are inclined to turn to prayer when making a difficult decision than they are to turn to social media.
ChristianToday.com reports that the study, conducted by ComRes, found that, when facing a difficult decision, the majority of people will consult friends and family (77 percent), over half will turn to the internet to search for answers (51 percent), six percent say they turn to prayer, and only four percent look to social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.
Although only a small percentage say they turn to prayer when making a difficult decision, researchers say it is significant that more will turn to prayer than social media.
Professor Stephen Bullivant, director of the Benedict XVI Centre for Religion and Society at St Mary’s University, Twickenham, said: “More people are likely to pray about something than they are to consult social media. That is across the board. There is a lot of research already pointing to how religious London is, and reflecting this, the proportion who choose prayer in London is eight per cent, compared to one per cent in the North East. Given the amount of time people spend on social media, and the amount of attention it gets, the fact that people are more likely to ask God for help in making difficult decisions than Facebook is really interesting.”
Ruth Gledhill, a leading religion journalist and the outgoing editor of Christian Today, added, “I think these findings represent both a challenge and opportunity for the churches. The opportunity is in the clear pre-eminence of friends and family as sources of wisdom when making difficult decisions, even in today’s online world. The challenge is for the local vicar to become seen as one of those friends that we turn to.”
Photo courtesy: ©Thinkstockphotos.com
Publication date: October 10, 2017
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