Compared with the devil, angels carry more credence in America.
Angels even get more credence than, well, hell. More than astrology, , and the belief that physical things can have spiritual energies.
In fact, about 7 in 10 U.S. adults say they , according to a new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
鈥淧eople are yearning for something greater than themselves 鈥� beyond their own understanding,鈥� said Jack Grogger, a chaplain for the and a longtime Southern California fire captain who has aided many people in their gravest moments.
That search for something bigger, he said, can take on many forms, from following a religion to crafting a self-driven purpose to believing in, of course, angels.
鈥淔or a lot of people, angels are a lot safer to worship,鈥� said Grogger, who also pastors a nondenominational church in Orange, California, and is a chaplain for the NHL鈥檚 Anaheim Ducks.
People turn to angels for comfort, he said. They are familiar, regularly showing up in pop culture as well as in the Bible. Comparably, worshipping Jesus is far more involved; when Grogger preaches about angels it is with the context that they are part of God鈥檚 kingdom.
American鈥檚 belief in angels (69%) is about on par with belief in heaven and the , but bested by belief in God or a higher power (79%). Fewer U.S. adults believe in the devil or Satan (56%), astrology (34%), reincarnation (34%), and that physical things can have spiritual energies, such as plants, rivers or crystals (42%).
The widespread acceptance of angels shown in the AP-NORC poll makes sense to Susan Garrett, an angel expert and New Testament professor at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Kentucky. It tracks with historical surveys, she said, adding that the U.S. remains a faith-filled country even as more Americans reject organized religion.
But if the devil is in the details, so are people鈥檚 understandings of angels.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e very malleable,鈥� Garrett said of angels. 鈥淵ou can have any one of a number of quite different worldviews in terms of your understanding of how the cosmos is arranged, whether there鈥檚 spirit beings, whether there鈥檚 life after death, whether there鈥檚 a God 鈥� and still find a place for angels in that worldview.鈥�
Talk of angels, Garrett said, is often also about something else, like the ways God interacts with the world and other hard-to-articulate ideas.
The large number of U.S. adults who say they believe in angels includes 84% of those with a religious affiliation 鈥� 94% of evangelical Protestants, 81% of mainline Protestants and 82% of Catholics 鈥� and 33% of those without one. And of those angel-believing religiously unaffiliated, that includes 2% of atheists, 25% of agnostics and 50% of those identified as 鈥渘othing in particular.鈥�
The broad acceptance is what fascinates San Francisco-based witch and author Devin Hunter: Angels show up independently in different religions and traditions, making them part of the fabric that unites humanity.
鈥淲e鈥檙e all getting to the same conclusion,鈥� said Hunter, who spent 16 years as a professional medium, and started communicating as a child with what he believed were angels.
Hunter estimates that a belief in angels applies to about half of those practicing modern witchcraft today, and for some who don鈥檛 believe, their rejection is often rooted in the religious trauma they experienced growing up.
鈥淎ngels become a very big deal鈥� for long-time practitioners who鈥檝e made occultism their primary focus, said Hunter, an angel-loving occultist. 鈥淲e cannot escape them in any way, shape or form.鈥�
Jennifer Goodwin of Oviedo, Florida, also is among the roughly seven in 10 U.S. adults who say they believe in angels. She isn鈥檛 sure if God exists and rejects the afterlife dichotomy of heaven and hell, but the recent deaths of her parents solidified her views on these celestial beings.
Goodwin believes her parents are still keeping an eye on the family 鈥� not in any physical way or as a supernatural apparition, but that they manifest in those moments when she feels a general sense of comfort.
鈥淚 think that they are around us, but it鈥檚 in a way that we can鈥檛 understand,鈥� Goodwin said. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know what else to call it except an angel.鈥�
Angels mean different things to different people, and the idea of loved ones becoming heavenly angels after death is neither an unusual belief nor a universally held one.
In his reading of Scripture as an evangelical Protestant, Grogger said he believes angels are something else entirely 鈥� they have never been human and are on another level in heaven鈥檚 hierarchy. 鈥淲e are higher than angels,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e do not become an angel.鈥�
Angels do interact with humans though, said Grogger, but what 鈥渢hat looks like we鈥檙e not 100% sure.鈥� They worship God who created this angelic legion of unknown numbers, he said, adding that evangelicals often attribute the demonic forces in the world to the angels who fell from heaven when the devil rebelled.
The Western ideas about angels can be traced through the Bible 鈥� and to the worldviews of its monotheistic authors, Garrett said. Those beliefs have changed and developed for millennia, influenced by cultures, theologians and even the ancient polytheistic beliefs that came before the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, she said.
鈥淭here are sort of lines of continuity from the Bible that you can trace all the way up to the New Age movement,鈥� said Susan Garrett, who wrote 鈥淣o Ordinary Angel: Celestial Spirits and Christian Claims about Jesus.鈥�
The angels in the Bible do God鈥檚 bidding, and angelic violence is one part of their job description, said Esther Hamori, author of the upcoming book, 鈥淕od鈥檚 Monsters: Vengeful Spirits, Deadly Angels, Hybrid Creatures, and Divine Hitmen of the Bible.鈥�
鈥淭he angels of the Bible are just as likely to assassinate individuals and slaughter entire populations as they are to offer help and protect and deliver,鈥� said Hamori. She doesn鈥檛 believe in these angels, but studies them as a Hebrew Bible professor at Union Theological Seminary in New York where she teaches a popular 鈥淢onster Heaven鈥� class.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e just God鈥檚 obedient soldiers doing the task at hand, and sometimes that task is in human beings鈥� best interests, and sometimes it鈥檚 not,鈥� she said.
The perception that angels act angelic and look like the idyllic, winged figurines atop Christmas trees could be attributed to an early centuries belief that people are assigned one good angel and one bad 鈥� or have a good and bad spirit to guide them, Garrett said.
This idea shows up on the shoulders of cartoon characters and is likely what Abraham Lincoln was alluding to in his famous appeal for unity when he referenced 鈥渢he better angels of our nature鈥� in his first inaugural address, she said.
鈥淚t鈥檚 also tied in with ideas about guardian angels, which again, very ancient views that got developed over the centuries,鈥� Garrett said.
For Sheila Avery of Chicago, angels are protectors, capable of keeping someone from harm. Avery, who belongs to a nondenominational church, credits them with those moments like when a person鈥檚 plans fall through, but ultimately it saves them from being in the thick of an unexpected disaster.
鈥淭hey turn on the news and a terrible tragedy happened at that particular place,鈥� Avery said, suggesting it was an 鈥渁ngel that was probably watching over them.鈥�
The poll of 1,680 adults was conducted May 11-15 using a sample drawn from NORC鈥檚 probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.
READ ALSO:
