These Are the Most Religious States in America

The Bible Belt buckle is holding strong, according to a new research study released by Pew.  

Alabama and Mississippi tied for the most religious state in the country, with 77 percent of respondents claiming they were “highly religious.”

The study evaluated how often people attended worship services, how often they prayed, the general belief in God and how important respondents believed religion is in day-to-day activities. 

“Certainly many churchgoers struggle with behaviors they would like to change, but on average, regular church attendees drink less, smoke less, use fewer recreational drugs and are less sexually promiscuous than others,” writes T.M. Luhrmann for the New York Times.

And for those who pray daily, “You become connected to God. You become connected to the world. Your self sort of goes away,” Neurotheologian Andrew Newberg says.  

For Alabama, more than half of those surveyed say they attend worship services weekly; 73 percent say they pray daily; a whopping 82 percent say they believe in God with absolute certainty.  

In Mississippi, just under half (49 percent) claim to attend weekly worship services; 75 percent pray daily, and 82 percent believe in God with absolute certainty. 

Massachusetts and New Hampshire ranked last, with each state reporting 33 percent of their populations as “highly religious.”

“As a pastor, this may seem surprising, but I actually think that one of the core spiritual issues of our nation is that we are religious and not relational, in regards to our worship of God,” says Lucas Miles, author of Good God: The One We Want To Believe In But Are Afraid To Embrace. “In America, we often confuse piety with authentic faith, and forget that the goal of true Christianity should always be intimacy with God, and not simply externals, like morality or church attendance. For anyone serious about seeing Biblical values restored to America, we must first restore a proper understanding of the character of God, rooted in fellowship with the person of Christ, God in the flesh.”