_ Prof. Jonez _ wrote:
> Thursday, Sep. 18, 2008
> Guardian Angels Are Here, Say Most Americans
> By David Van Biema
>
> More than half of all Americans believe they have been helped by a
> guardian angel in the course of their lives, according to a new poll
> by the Baylor University Institute for Studies of Religion. In a poll
> of 1700 respondents, 55% answered affirmatively to the statement, "I
> was protected from harm by a guardian angel." The responses defied
> standard class and denominational assumptions about religious belief;
> the majority held up regardless of denomination, region or education
> - though the figure was a little lower (37%) among respondents
> earning more than $150,000 a year.
> The guardian angel encounter figures were "the big shocker" in the
> report, says Christopher Bader, director of the Baylor survey that
> covered a range of religious issues, parts of which are being
> released Thursday in a book titled What Americans Really Believe. In
> the case of angels, however, the question is a little stronger than
> just belief. Says Bader, "If you ask whether people believe in
> guardian angels, a lot of people will say, 'sure.' But this is
> different. It's experiential. It means that lots of Americans are
> having these lived supernatural experiences."
> Sociologists may need further research to determine how broadly the
> data should be interpreted. The Baylor study tested other statements
> that might indicate a similar belief in the supernatural intruding
> into everyday personal experience - "I heard the voice of God
> speaking to me"; and "I received a miraculous physical healing." But
> far fewer people claimed to have had those experiences. This raises
> the possibility that guardian angels, which famously support an
> industry of sentimental accessories, are just so darned attractive
> that they exist in a charmed belief niche of their own.
> But other factors may be in play. On one end of the spectrum of
> American religion are the analytical churches, on both the right and
> the left theologically and politically, which are primarily concerned
> with establishing Biblical principles to live by - and are suspicious
> of any modern-day irruption of the supernatural into religious life.
> Their miracles all took place in the Bible. At the opposite end of
> the spectrum are the more experiential churches, like many
> African-American denominations and those in the Pentecostal movement,
> that lay heavy emphasis on the workings of the Holy Spirit, where the
> supernatural, through gifts like healing, prophesying and speaking in
> tongues, makes regular visits in the pews. In the middle are
> sacramental faiths like Roman Catholicism, where the supernatural has
> a regular place on the altar (after all, the Eucharist is said to be
> the literal body and blood of Christ) but one that occurs only within
> the restrictions of very specific ritual.
> What's interesting about the Baylor findings on guardian angel
> experiences is that they cross all boundaries. They have scriptural
> writ (in Psalm 91 and elsewhere). They are clearly experiential. And
> guardian angels are a prominent part of Catholic belief that happens
> to float freely outside of a sacrament. The cross-spectrum legitimacy
> of the notion of angelic interventions may free Americans to engage
> in the kind of folk faith that is part of almost any religious system
> but is not always officially acknowledged.
> Randall Balmer, chairman of the religion department at New York's
> Barnard College, says that the Baylor angel figures are one in a
> periodic series of indications that "Americans live in an enchanted
> world," and engage in a kind of casual mysticism independent of
> established religious ritual, doctrine or theology. "There is," he
> says, a "much broader uncharted range of religious experience among
> the populace than we expect." Just possibly, Baylor has begun to
> chart it.