by Religion News Service
Daily Facebook users are 757 million.
▶143 million users check Facebook daily, while only 40 million read their Bibles. [Photo: New York Daily News]
Facebook is read more than the bible, according to a study.
In 2006, a CBS News poll found that about 40 million in the U.S. and Canada read the bible every day. Comparably, Facebook reports about 143 million people in the U.S. and Canada actively using the site.
Total, Facebook reports 757 million daily active users. Facebook celebrated its 10th anniversary Tuesday. Today, ministers, Christian leaders and others are using the social media site to reach their audiences.
“For all the wonderful ministry happening on Facebook, though?including teaching videos and apps?it is no substitute for reading the Bible,” Jennifer LeClaire wrote in an article for Charisma News. “After all, Jesus said, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God’ (Matt. 4:4). Somehow, even if Facebook were a part of mainstream Galilean culture, I don’t think Jesus would give up fellowship with the Father to check Facebook. It's become a near addiction for some people.”
Facebook’s numbers are staggering. According to an Associated Press story on Tampabay.com, about 400 billion photos have been shared on Facebook.
“If you printed them out four to a page on regular-sized sheets of paper and put the 100 billion sheets end to end, they would stretch for about 17 million miles,” the report said. “That's enough snapshots to reach to the moon and back 34 times.”
Theblaze.com, however, noted that polling who actually reads the bible is complex, “and basing the Facebook comparison on proportions collected seven years ago isn’t necessarily the most accurate indicator.”
A more recent study by the Barna Group found that 26 percent of Americans read their Bibles four or more times each week.
