American's Views on Forgiveness

 

The following information is adapted from the reported findings of an opinion study commissioned by WaterBrook Press and conducted by Barna Research Group, Ltd., and August 1999.  The research was conducted in OmniPoll^TM.  In a nationwide sample 1002 U.S. adults were asked seven questions focused on their perceptions of forgiveness.

Five questions concerning forgiveness were asked.

1.      Should forgiveness be granted only if the offending individual shows remorse?

2.      Does true forgiveness require that the offending party be released from the consequences of his or her actions?

3.      Does true forgiveness require that the forgiver re-establish a relationship with the offending person?

4.      Does true forgiveness mean that the forgiver must also forget what was done?

5.      Are there some crimes, offenses, or other things that people do to one another that can never be forgiven?

More information about the survey can be found in the book, “When Forgiveness Doesn’t Make Sense” by Robert Jeffress, published by Waterbrook Press.  The following quotes are taken from this book.

      “The conclusion emerging from this research is that probably very few Americans (and only a small handful of born-again Christians) have a coherent, biblical worldview of forgiveness.  …only 4% of respondents gave the biblical response to all five.  Among born-again Christians, only 5% disagreed with all five myths.  Among evangelical Christians … just 8% held the biblical perspective about forgiveness on all five issues.”

     “The study’s findings further suggest that most born-again Christians probably do not practice biblical forgiveness because they do not understand what it is.”

     “While born-again Christians differed from non-Christians in terms of their likelihood to embrace a biblical perspective about forgiveness, in practical terms the difference is marginal: One out of seven non-Christians (15%) held a biblical perspective (3 of the 5 questions answered correctly), while among born-again Christians the ratio is one out to four (25%).  It appears that born-again Christians’ perspectives about forgiveness are not distinguishable from non-Christians on any wide spread or systematic basis.”