The Pew Research Center recently released a study of happiness in America.Americans have always had a thing about happiness. We all have certain unalienable rights, declares our Declaration of Independence, among them "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
So then, a couple of centuries into the chase, how are we doing?
Alas, only so-so. Just a third (34%) of adults in this country say they're very happy, according to the latest Pew Research Center survey. Another half say they are pretty happy and 15% consider themselves not too happy. These numbers have remained very stable for a very long time.
The study in its entirety is interesting, but when delineating between people of faith and those without, the numbers were significant.People who attend religious services weekly or more are happier (43% very happy) than those who attend monthly or less (31%); or seldom or never (26%)... The same pattern applies within all major religious denominations. For example, 38% of all Catholics who attend church weekly or more report being very happy, while just 28% of Catholics who attend church less often say they are very happy. The survey also finds that white evangelical Protestants (43%) are more likely than white mainline Protestants (33%) to report being very happy, but this difference goes away after taking frequency of church attendance into account.
So the world has all of the fun, eh? Maybe not. Perhaps the writer of Psalms 144:15 had it right: "Happy is that people, whose God is the LORD."
