‘Highly religious’ most likely to be happy, healthy

Look around. Three in 10 people you see claim they are pretty satisfied with life; happy, healthy and moral too.

They’re the “highly religious,” 30 percent of U.S. adults who say they pray daily and attend church at least once a week.

“Religion in Everyday Life,” a new survey from Pew Research released April 12, teases out the particular ways the highly religious differ from the majority of U.S. Christians who are less observant and from non-Christians, including the “nones” who claim no religious identity.

The highly religious are overwhelmingly (95 percent) Protestant, Catholic or other Christians. Nearly half (49 percent) are white evangelicals. Most of the overall group (62 percent) are women.

Smiling away

And many are smiling. Four in 10 highly religious people say they’re “very happy” with the way things are going in life, compared to 29 percent of those who are not highly religious.

Nearly 3 in 4 (74 percent) highly religious people say they’re “very satisfied with family life” compared to 67 percent of those who are not highly religious.

And 47 percent say they gather with extended family at least monthly (compared to 30 percent of those not highly religious).

The less religious also may be prayerful folks who attend worship less frequently or people with no religious affiliation who value moral behavior. The report points out that many say “attributes such as gratitude, forgiveness and honesty are essential” to what being religious or moral means to them personally.

Similarities

Still the survey finds many similarities in beliefs and behavior between the two groups.

Pew also asked people about what they saw as the essentials of their faith or philosophy.

According to the report, “Christians are about equally likely to cite moral behaviors as vital to their Christian identity as they are to mention explicitly religious behaviors.”

Among Christians, the top 5 of 16 beliefs and behaviors were:

• Belief in God (86 percent)
• Gratitude for what they have (71 percent)
• Forgiving those who have wronged them (69 percent)
• Honesty (67 percent)
• Praying regularly (63 percent).(RNS)