
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 4, 1991                   TAG: 9104040268
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                LENGTH: Medium

SURVEY FINDS FAITH HIGHEST PRIORITY

Faith in God, not jobs or wealth, is the most important part of Americans' lives, followed by good health and a happy marriage, according to a poll.

Forty percent of respondents said they valued their relationship with God above all else, while only 2 percent said a job that pays well was the most important thing in their life.

The responses are part of a growing body of survey data that deflates the notion built up in popular culture in the '70s and '80s that many Americans are mainly motivated by greed and personal ambition, sociologists said.

The telephone survey of 600 adults was conducted Jan. 17-20 for the Lifetime television show "The Great American TV Poll." The survey by Princeton Survey Research Associates has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Diane Colasanto, who oversaw the survey, said it is difficult to compare it to other polls because the question was asked in a new way. The question compared faith in importance to other concerns rather than solely addressing the importance of religion. But she said the results are consistent with other surveys showing the importance of religion in Americans' lives.

"My guess is that this is not a new phenomenon. It's something we've never looked at in this particular way," she said.

Fifty-eight percent of the respondents to a 1990 Associated Press poll conducted by ICR Survey Research Group said religion was very important in their lives, and 86 percent said it was either very important or fairly important.

Two recent books that have analyzed religious trends - "Religious Indicators," by priest-sociologist Andrew Greeley, and "100 Questions and Answers: Religion in America," published by the Princeton Religious Research Center - have concluded that there has been a remarkable level of stability in the personal religious faith of Americans.

Wade Clark Roof, a professor of religion and society at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who is working on a book on the "baby-boom" generation of Americans in their 30s and 40s, said the survey results suggest the baby boomers are maturing.

by CNB