This post originally appeared at https://wifamilycouncil.org/radio/27433/

2024 | Week of December 9 | Radio Transcript #1596

The American Bible Society earlier this year released its annual State of the Bible: USA report for the year 2024. For the past few years, including 2024, the report has included the Human Flourishing Index, a metric developed by researchers at Harvard, designed to check in on the overall well-being of Americans.^[i]

The five main areas of the Human Flourishing Index are Happiness & Life Satisfaction, Mental & Physical Health, Meaning & Purpose, Character & Virtue, and Close Social Relationships,

Overall, and not surprisingly, the Human Flourishing Index hit rock bottom in June of 2020 as Americans were dealing with the ramifications of the virus crisis. The index score increased in the next two years, remained steady into 2023, but dropped this year. What’s interesting, but really shouldn’t be surprising, is that engagement with the Bible, God’s Word, is directly related to human flourishing. As the researchers from American Bible Society note,

In general, the more often people interact with the Bible, the higher their Human Flourishing scores….Those who come to Scripture only once a week exceed the national average…. The flourishing scores are even higher for those who use the Bible more than once a week.

Statistically, the Meaning & Purpose category in the Human Flourishing Index is impacted most significantly by regular engagement with Scripture. In fact, for those who remain regularly engaged with God’s Word, their overall Human Flourishing score has remained steady since 2023, while those who engage less with Scripture experienced an overall decreased score.

Furthermore, those defined as “Scripture Engaged” outscore their peers in “Hope Agency,” which is “the sense a person has when they’re moving forward on a path that leads in a good direction.” The Scripture Engaged respondents also tend to experience significantly less stress than those in the other cohorts.

An interesting note from the report is that there is very little difference in scores between two groups: those who are completely disengaged from the Bible and the group referred to as the “Movable Middle” who have only sporadic interaction with Scripture.

What this means is that while some interaction with the Bible is better than none, people are most likely to experience higher levels of human flourishing and general well-being when they are frequently engage with the Bible. And this reality is found across generations.

For example, Gen Z and Millennials report lower levels of hope and higher levels of stress than older generations. That generational difference, however, is negated when we look specifically at those who are Scripture Engaged. In fact, when Gen Z and Millennials are regularly engaged with Scripture, they actually flourish just as much, if not more, than older generations! Unfortunately, much of Gen Z remains completely disengaged from the Bible.

This year’s State of the Bible report tells us one thing for sure: “People tend to flourish in life when they’re regularly and meaningfully interacting with the Bible.”

At Wisconsin Family Council, one of our primary purposes is to promote human flourishing. We know that involves protecting our God-given rights in our state and encouraging a culture that actively strengthens, preserves, and promotes God’s plan for marriage and family, the sanctity of life, and religious freedom in the public arena.

This year’s State of the Bible report helps provide a roadmap for strengthening Wisconsin’s future. Individuals of all generations, but particularly Gen Z, need the Bible. This is why our annual LEAD Wisconsin camp in which teens are able to dive into understanding what God’s Word says about current issues and how to think and act biblically is such an important part of our overall mission.

The bottom line is that Scripture is statistically good for one’s well-being. Many young people are simply unfamiliar with Scripture, or sadly, are even actively shielded from it. Families need to take steps to insure their children develop a love for and are immersed in God’s Word. In our day-to-day interactions with strangers, perhaps the best thing we can remember is that as we live faithfully according to biblical truth, we may be the only Bible some people ever “read.”

For Wisconsin Family Council, this is Julaine Appling, reminding you that God, through the Prophet Hosea, said, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”

[i] https://1s712.americanbible.org/state-of-the-bible/stateofthebible/State_of_the_bible-2024.pdf