Being on a college campus surrounded by liberals of all shapes and sizes (including, much of the time, myself), it often seems that religion has gone the way of the Sock Hop and Jitterbug. Still, religion is a prominent force in the country, and, it appears, so is spirtuality itself.

The Times (via Yahoo News) reported today that more than 50% of Americans believed that they have, in some way, been helped by a guardian angel. They don't merely believe that guardian angels exist, the 55% that responded affirmatively responded to the statement "I was protected from harm by a guardian angel", saying that the event was not just spiritual, but experiential.

And while many might say Of course such a response occurred, much of the country is Christian, right?, the results were actually surprising even to the researchers themselves:

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... 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.

 

It seems that, because so many different kinds of religions-- from Judeo-Christian to lesser known Spiritual or Pagan beliefs and ideas-- believe in some kind of spirit helpers, it has freed many Americans to believe someone is protecting them without being tied to a denomination or specific faith. The results show that, perhaps, we don't understand our country nearly as well as we thought, and stereotypes we all assumed to be true aren't (amazing conjecture!).

So what about you, OTR? Do you believe in Angels? Have you been helped by one? Do you think it's only worthwhile to pray when you have that really important O-Chem test? Let me know.