Phillip Schneider, Staff Writer
Waking Times

Since the founding of the country, religion of some type has always played an active role in the lives of a majority of Americans. Although religious faith is on a long-term downward trend while secularism is on the rise, about 70.6% of Americans still identified as Christian in 2014, while 5.9% had “Non-Christian faiths” such as Judaism or Islam, according to Pew Research Center. These numbers mean that over one in four Americans believe in some form of non-atheistic religion.

Much research has been done into the community impact of religion. Sometimes, religion is used as an excuse to engage in a number of terrible things such as violent extremism or child abuse. This is both historically as well as contemporarily true, however there is a great deal of good that religion is a catalyst for as well, such as volunteer work, greater civic engagement, and welfare. The authors of the study recognize this and understand that “while bad news makes news, both sides are important to understand clearly.”

In a 2016 study entitled “The Socio-economic Contribution of Religion to American Society: An Empirical Analysis”, Melissa and Brian Grim from Georgetown University and the Newseum Institute set out to determine the cost and contribution that religion has for American society.

Under conservative estimates, faith-based organizations were found to generate roughly $378 billion per year. Being more than a third of a trillion dollars, that number actually accounts for more than the global revenue of both Apple and Microsoft combined.

When including businesses with religious roots, the number increases to roughly $1.2 trillion annually, while more liberal estimations which also include household incomes of religiously affiliated Americans put the total annual revenue of religious-based organizations at approximately $4.8 trillion, which is about a third of America’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

“We believe that our second estimate of $1.2 trillion is more reasonable as it takes into account the value of the services provided by religious organizations and the impact religion has on a number of important American businesses” say the authors. Although, assets of religious groups were still not taken into account for this measurement.

After conducting their analysis, the study authors found that combined revenue from the

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