America’s Favorite Book

There are a ton of issues that make me angry. Playing major league baseball’s opening games in Japan. High school cheerleaders who tape their beating of a classmate so they can have their 15 minutes of YouTube fame. Politicians from every party who seem to hold to their “principles” until it threatens to cost them a vote. People who believe the church is dead and there is NO hope in Christ for the world. However, for every item that makes me angry, there are just as many that give me hope. Huge hope. World-changing hope. Eternity changing hope.

Here is my latest item of hope. The Harris polling group, which does copious amounts of research on a wide variety of topics, just did some research on the favorite book of the majority of Americans. What would you guess would be the book of choice in the U.S.A.? A title by Jackie Collins or John Grisham? A classic like War and Peace from Tolstoy or a Southern favorite like Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury? The Shack? The Purpose Driven Life? The Lord of the Rings? Gone with the Wind?

Answer: The Bible.

It wasn’t even close according to the 2,513 respondents who took part in the survey. The Bible was No. 1 across every age demographic. You can read about the research here.

That is a source of real hope. It’s also a great opportunity for Christians. Invite someone to a community Bible study group or your Sunday morning Bible study. Tell them you’re going to be talking about American’s favorite book.