Casual Christians have a harder time forgiving themselves, others: survey

By Ryan Foley, Christian Post Reporter Wednesday, September 16, 2026

Casual Christians struggle more than those who regularly attend church services and read the Bible to offer and receive forgiveness, even as research links forgiveness to greater flourishing and lower stress and loneliness, a new survey finds.

The American Bible Society released the sixth installment of its “State of the Bible: USA 2026” report last Thursday. The new chapter, titled “Forgiveness,” examines how Americans forgive themselves and others, and whether they believe they have received forgiveness from God. The findings come from a survey of 2,649 U.S. adults conducted Jan. 8 to 27.

"We see that those who are committed to their faith and to reading the Bible are more likely to give and experience forgiveness," American Bible Society Chief Innovation Officer and State of the Bible Editor-in-Chief John Farquhar Plake said in a statement. “This makes sense, given the centrality of forgiveness in the message of the Bible."

Overall, 29% of respondents said the statement “It is really hard for me to accept myself once I’ve messed up” was “true of me,” compared with 56% who called it “not true of me.” Americans were far more divided on a statement about forgiving others.

Forty percent said the statement “If others mistreat me, I continue to think badly of them” is true, while 41% called it not true. Most respondents said the statement “I have done things for which there is no divine forgiveness” is not true (81%), while just 10% called it true.

By faith participation level, casual Christians were most likely to report difficulty forgiving themselves (38%). The report defines a “casual Christian” as someone who identifies as Christian, attends church at least monthly, but does not “strongly agree” that faith is important to them.

Among nominal Christians — those who identify as Christian but attend church less than monthly — 30% said they had trouble forgiving themselves. Practicing Christians, who identify as Christian, attend church at least monthly and “strongly agree” that faith is important to them, reported less difficulty forgiving themselves (23%) and others (24%).

Nominal (40%) and casual (39%) Christians reported that they continue to think "badly" of people who have mistreated them, while 24% of practicing Christians said the same.

Casual Christians were also most likely to believe God could not forgive them for certain actions (19%), followed by nominal Christians (11%) and practicing Christians (3%).

Forgiveness struggles were also less common among the “Scripture Engaged” — those who score 100 or higher on the Scripture Engagement Scale, which measures how often people use the Bible and how it affects their lives. Twenty-five percent of the Scripture Engaged said they had trouble forgiving themselves.

Among the “Movable Middle” (those who score 70 to 99 on the scale) and the “Bible Disengaged” (those below 70), 30% said they had a hard time forgiving themselves. More than twice as many in the Bible Disengaged category (48%) reported difficulty forgiving others as did the Scripture Engaged (21%), with about a third (34%) of the Movable Middle saying they struggled with this.

The Movable Middle was also most likely to believe God could not forgive them in some cases (14%), followed by the Bible Disengaged (10%) and the Scripture Engaged (5%).

"We suspect that, in both cases, this middle position — somewhat engaged, somewhat practicing — creates an awareness of God’s standards without a full understanding of his mercy," the report states. "Besides being a core component of the gospel, forgiveness is also good for you."

By generation, millennials (36%) and Generation Z (35%) were most likely to say they had a hard time forgiving themselves, followed by Generation X (28%) and baby boomers and elders (21%). Generation X and millennials were also most likely to say they struggled to forgive others, at 43% each, compared with 36% of Generation Z and 35% of baby boomers and elders.

Thirty-three percent of women said they had a hard time forgiving themselves, compared with 26% of men. The gender gap was smaller for forgiving others: 41% of men and 38% of women said they struggled with it. Men (12%) were more likely than women (8%) to say they've done things for which there is no divine forgiveness. 

Those who had little trouble forgiving others scored higher on the Human Flourishing Index (7.4) than those who struggled to forgive others (6.5). The same pattern held for self-forgiveness: those who could easily forgive themselves scored 7.4, on average, compared with a lower score among those who could not.

On a loneliness scale of 1 to 20, those who struggled to forgive themselves scored higher (13.5) than those who did not (10.6). The same was true for forgiving others: 12.6 for those who struggled, compared with 10.9 for those who forgave easily.

Stress levels, measured on a scale of 1 to 40, were more than twice as high among those who struggled to forgive themselves (14.4) as among those who did not (6.9).

The stress gap was smaller between those who struggled to forgive others (11.8) and those who did not (8.0). It was slightly wider between those who believed God could not forgive them for certain sins (15.4) and those who believed in divine forgiveness (8.7). Hope levels were higher among those who could easily forgive themselves (18.0) and others (17.7) than among those who struggled to forgive themselves (15.4) and others (16.1).

“Our data also shows that while those who hold on to resentment are weighed down, forgiveness brings freedom,” Plake concluded. “This opens an important conversation for the Church and its leaders to help equip our communities to both give and receive forgiveness.”