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A new report finds that Americans overwhelmingly believe morals and values are declining in the United States. The most-cited cause for the decline? A lack of Bible reading. The findings are reported in the American Bible Society’s annual State of the Bible survey released on March 26. While 66 percent of those surveyed agreed that the Bible contains everything a person needs to know to live a meaningful life, 58 percent say they do not personally want wisdom and advice from the Bible, and 57 percent say they read the Bible fewer than five times per year. Doug Birdsall, president of American Bible Society, called the Bible the “ultimate instruction guide on how to live a moral life.” Unfortunately, he said, “more than half of Americans rarely, if ever, read it,” a lack of connection between belief and action he described as troubling. “If we had a cure for cancer, wouldn’t everyone with cancer take it? Americans are telling us that the cure for declining morality is sitting on our bookshelves, but more than half of Americans are simply letting the cure gather dust.”

This article appears in April 22 2013.