African-Americans hold more clearly to Christian beliefs than other ethnic groups in the U.S., underscoring what researchers The Barna Group call the "deep-rooted spirituality (that) has been one of the hallmarks of the black population."

Blacks held the highest scores of the country's four main ethnic groups (also white, Hispanic and Asian) in eight of nine areas of religious belief in the recent Barna poll-and were found to have stronger beliefs than they did in the early 1990s.

While 49% of the total U.S. population said they held the Bible to be totally accurate in all the principles it teaches, only 46% of whites did-compared to 66% of blacks. For 11% of the total population and whites, "faith" was their highest priority in life, while 18% of blacks felt the same way.

Compared to the other three ethnic groups, blacks were also found more likely to be involved in church-related activities in a typical week, such as attending services, taking part in a small group and praying or reading the Bible.

Meanwhile, a look back at a similar study 15 years ago revealed "substantial change" in African-Americans' religious beliefs. They were more likely today to believe the Bible was accurate in its principles and find faith to be very important in their life, and "to have a biblically orthodox understanding of the nature of God."

The researchers observed that while the beliefs and behaviors of white Americans had changed little since the early 1990s, "the faith of African-Americans is dynamic, generally moving in a direction that is more aligned with conservative biblical teaching."

Source: The Barna Group

Read the full report at http://www.barna.org/barna-update