Do Christian Women Value Family Over Faith?

A new study released Friday by Barna Group researchers suggests that Christian women tend to believe family, not faith, is their highest priority in life.

The study, titled "What Women Want," is the second in a four-part series by the Barna Group on "Christian Women Today." The study was conducted by surveying 603 adult Christian women throughout the U.S. who have attended a regular church service in the last six months.

Over half (53 percent) of those surveyed said their family was their top priority in life, while only 16 percent said faith was most important. Another nine percent of Christian women said their top priority was their health, five percent said it was their career performance and another five percent said it was living a comfortable lifestyle.

When Christian women were asked about what they felt was their most important role in life, the results were similar to their priorities. The majority (62 percent) said their most important role was being a parent, and only 13 percent said their most important role was being a follower of Christ.

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Colo43

I firmly believe they go hand and hand.
- Evermyrtle
  
  Absolutely!!!
http://www.missiontoisrael.org/ Ted R. Weiland

53% of the women surveyed then are not Christians. Christ will not take second seat to anyone. It's high time that Christians begin measuring things by Yahweh's standards rather than our own:

"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. 22 "Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' 23 "And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.'" (Matthew 7:21-23)
- chessed1
  
  See my response, above. I firmly believe that the woman who loves her family is loving G-d. YHVH in giving us the two greatest commandments shows us that they are alike. If I love G-d I will love my family, and vice versa. The question by Barna didn't take into account this subtle but very real parsing of His Word in regard to the priorities of a woman. NEVER ask me to choose between my wife and G-d. It's unfair and not Biblical. God doesn't ask me to do that, and neither should Barna — a brother I highly respect.
  - http://www.missiontoisrael.org/ Ted R. Weiland
    
    Yes loving Yahweh and loving one's wife go hand-in-hand and one cannot love his or her spouse as Yahweh intended without doing through Christ. However, one can unequivocally love his wife or one her husband above Yahweh. Non-Christians do it all of the time.
  - Disgusted
    
    I agree with you, chessed1. God can become such an integral part of a person that He is his/her second nature, guiding and guarding all else. Perhaps the people who ran the survey need a true relationship with God and then they could think of the right kind of questions to ask.
    - Evermyrtle
      
      You can love your family and not love GOD,. but it is not possible to love GOD and not love your family.
- Evermyrtle
  
  Is this 53% Christians those who only talk the talk or do they walk the walk, also.
http://www.facebook.com/laura.mullenix Laura Davis Mullenix

One can be taken from you in an instant, the other can never. "Choose this do whom you will serve. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." As a mother who has had her whole family taken from her in different ways, I know this from experience. I tell young ladies all the time not to build their lives around their children. Build your life around the Lord. Your family may not always be there. Also, some day your kids will be gone and you'll wake up next to the man you've been married to all these years and you won't even know each other. I know too many mothers who sell out to their kids and then have no marriage when the kids leave home.
- Lee Anne
  
  I do not understand selling out to your children. Our mission as mothers is to teach our children to build a relationship with God and to do this we must build a reltionship with our children and model for them the relationship God has with us. That is unconditional love.
Mexseiko

It may be because the first command from Gd was to multiply. I wouldn't express tat my family s more important than my faith, but my family is my testimony. We all serve God. There are many pastors who's children do not serve Jesus and that may be because of a ack f attention to them.

Women have a native sense of motherhood. At the same time, women are the greatest fountain of spirituality in the home. I question this study's accuracy.
The Wolf

I think a woman who values spirituality above all else will leave her husband lonely and bitter. There needs to be a balance struck. We are living on Earth right now and we have responsibilities here especially to our spouses abd families. Women who devote themselves fully to God should not seek marriage or family. It says this in the Bible. 1 Cor 7:9
- contessadetroy
  
  That's not what it says at all. 1 Corinthians 7:9 has to do with sexual purity. One of our commandments in marriage for women is to honor our husbands. THUS, if we love our God, we will keep his commandments and HONOR OUR HUSBANDS. Family and Faith are clearly NOT mutually exclusive. Would LOVE to see the questions of this survey.
- Evermyrtle
  
  I don't really see how one can put faith above family. The Bibles teaches about family and care of family, the teaching of the children and how she should relate to her husband. Faith and family should be so intertwined that they cannot be separated. This is a very improper question, except it may get people thinking about the connection of the two
- Disgusted
  
  Wolf, you just showed you don't know God. The only way to truly love anyone else is if you love God above all else, with your entire being. THEN you will truly love your wife, husband, children, others. Otherwise, you won't. You cannot understand that. You are equating devoting onesself fully to God with being unable to love anyone else. God is in everything we do if we put Him first. It's not an either, or thing.
  My husband KNOWS he can trust me because he KNOWS God comes before anyone, and anything else. He KNOWS I wouldn't cheat on him, betray him because he KNOWS God comes before anyone and anything else.
  It's so simple if you have God first in your heart and soul and so second nature one doesn't separate Him from those you love because you love them because of Him.
  You are talking as though love is finite and in short supply. It isn't. Love abounds and includes everyone in your life.
  A person without love for God above all else is someone you will never be able to be sure of. I hope you can understand this some day, because you don't at this time.
- Mary Wood
  
  I don't think spirituality is faith per se: The question is, "Do Christian women value Family over Faith."
- Evermyrtle
  
  What do you men spiritually? There are all kinds of spirits out there But one Spirit of GOD With the spirit of GOD which teaches love for all people, and hate evil, means that she would love and care for her family and nourish them. This does not mean that they would not problems but GOD would give them the love and wisdom to care for and handle all problems through and with HIM.
http://www.facebook.com/freda.faulkner Freda Faulkner

It is not a matter of whether one values faith over family. If one has faith, family is a priority; it is an integral part of faith. To ask a woman a question that separates the two is only a ploy to denigrate.
chessed1

I agree with Ms Faulkner. If you ask a woman to set her priorities down, and you ask the questions in such a way that it's assuming that family and faith are separate, then the she-bear will almost always choose family…as she should. Biblically, it's unfair to separate Biblical priorities in such a manner. In Eph 5, the man is ordered to love his wife like Christ loves His people. G-d places my wife and Himself on the same plane. If I love my wife, I'm loving G-d, and vice versa. I don't think it's any different for a woman and loving her family. I highly respect Barna and his work. I think that this is a theological spin he didn't think about so his findings are skewed.
- Disgusted
  
  Why do some people only write, "G-d" instead of God?
  - Jeff Dixon
    
    So that G-d will not smite them
    - Evermyrtle
      
      HE who laugh's last, gets the best laugh. When laughing at GOD remember that!
  - Vrae
    
    Their conscience forbids using the name the because worried that they'll use it the wrong way, like the Jews used to do with the Tetragrammaton. (They used to substitute in the name "Adonai" whenever it appeared in the scriptures.
  - mallen11
    
    We are God's children and He is our heavenly Father who loves us even when He disciplines us to get us back in line (Hebrews 12:7 It is for discipline that
    you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his
    father does not discipline?)
    When we want to go our own way and not do things God's way we no longer honor Him. We go before the throne of grace confessing our sins in prayer and we are always accepted by Him. He is our God and there is no way we will ever get lost from here to eternity. As believers we should have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ who gave us the way to God the Father to whom we pray.
  - evermyrtle
    
    A mystery to me, too, chessed1!!!
tomaspaul

The source of our love -including and particularly that beyond what our animal instincts give us – is God. To put God second, or even equal, to family is to not understand that you are putting the sustaining source of your love at risk. The greatest love you will ever be able to give your family is by loving God first.

That said, it is impossible for someone who loves God first not to love her family in the most exemplar fashion. Otherwise, that person needs help understanding their faith.
Chris

At least some people have common sense. Having a Catholic Bishop denying a woman an abortion when it is certain that to give birth will kill the mother is but one example for people to use their brains instead of following some cult leader's edict.
- http://www.answersingenesis.org/ keyboardshark
  
  How do you know there are cases where "it is certain that to give birth will kill the mother"? That can only be an opinion of a doctor, not a certainty. Of course there can be cases where the mother dies as a result of giving birth, but they are extremely rare with modern medical care, and it cannot be known "for certain" ahead of time whether it will happen. However, an abortion is 100% fatal to the baby.
  
  "A Bristol woman who was told she could die if she became pregnant has given birth to a healthy baby son – which she had no idea she was carrying for eight months.
  
  Julianne Lewtas, who has kidney failure and needs constant dialysis, was told if she became pregnant she could suffer a miscarriage or even die. But, against all the odds and while she was taking the contraceptive pill, the 20-year-old discovered she was expecting her first child at the start of October.
  
  An emergency scan showed she was about 28 weeks pregnant. Four weeks later she gave birth to Gene, weighing in at 4lbs 7ozs.Doctors at Southmead Hospital have since told her Gene is the first baby to be born at the hospital in 40 years while the mother was on "peritoneal" kidney dialysis.Miss Lewtas was put on the donor list just over a year ago and the kidney team at the hospital had been considering a live donor transplant from her mother Liz, but that has now been put on hold until her body has recovered from the Caesarean.Miss Lewtas, of Hartcliffe, was born with kidney failure, which has been controlled with medication since she was four years old. She has been undergoing kidney dialysis for almost a year."
  http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/Bristol-woman-gives-birth-odds/story-11313399-detail/story.html
- Lee Anne
  
  Abortion is always murder, the Catholic church does say the mother may undergo procedures to save her life, some of which may incur the death of the fetus, such as removal of the Fallopian tube in the case of an ectopic pregnancy, or the removal of a cancerous uterus. (note, I am a Roman Catholic)
- Evermyrtle
  
  Chris have you ever personally known anyone who died in childbirth?? I haven't? For a doctor to know for sure a woman would die in childbirth would be a very isolated case. Anyway, GOD gave nobody the right to choose which one should die. That is HIS choice, alone!
aceituna

Those who write questions for surverys do slant their questions in order to get the answers they want. Sometimes when given a choice of answers your real answer is not represented. What then do you say? Jesus said, "Thou shalt love the Lord you God with all your heart and all your mind and with all your strength and your neighbor as yourself." God is to be first and foremost in one's life, but because we love God we are to love others and look out for their welfare. IN m any passages we learn that our family is a gift from God and that they are to be first priority when it comes to loving our neighbor. If we truly love God we will love the gifts he has given us and will protect and provide for them. God knows our heart and will guide us in what is importent to us so we make the right choic es. It may seem as if a Christian is putting their family above God, but if his Christianity is real God is guiding him in his priorities.
- Disgusted
  
  You said it all, here. I hate surveys because they all are like this one.
  If one loves God in Christ Jesus above all, the rest all falls into place. Whithout Him, there canbe only chaos.
tomaspaul

The source of our love -including and particularly that
beyond what our animal instincts give us – is God. To put God second, or even
equal, to family is to not understand that you are putting the sustaining
source of your love at risk. The greatest love you will ever be able to give
your family is by loving God first.

That said, it is impossible for someone who loves God first not to love her
family in the most exemplary manner. Otherwise, that person needs help
understanding their faith.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Ruth-Walker/528948232 Ruth Walker

About 16% don't believe in anything supernatural, even more don't claim to be atheists, but don't belong to a religion either. Of course they love their families!
But perhaps there are even Christians who have read the bible:
What the Bible says about Family Values

Genesis 19:8
Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray
you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes.

Genesis 19:32-36
Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we
may preserve seed of our father. And they made their father drink wine that
night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father; and he perceived not
when she lay down, nor when she arose. Behold, I lay yesternight with my father:
let us make him drink wine this night also; and go thou in, and lie with him,
that we may preserve seed of our father. And they made their father drink wine
that night also: and the younger arose, and lay with him; and he perceived not
when she lay down, nor when she arose. Thus were both the daughters of Lot with
child by their father.

Genesis 22:2,10
And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and
… offer him there for a burnt offering…. And Abraham stretched forth his
hand, and took the knife to slay his son.

1 Samuel 15:2-3
Thus saith the LORD of hosts … Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly
destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman,
infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.

Psalm 137:9
Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the
stones.

Luke 14:26
If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and
children,and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my
disciple.
Lee Anne

If I had been asked this, "faith" would mean for me my religion, which shows me the path to God but is not God. I too would have said family then faith in this context. Ask the question of God or family and I think women would say God.
- Evermyrtle
  
  Anyone can love their children and not love GOD, but it is impossible to love GOD and not love your children because "GOD IS LOVE!" It fit's together, hand in fist!"
Mary Wood

Simply family values are based in faith: faith in ones spouse, faith in onesanother person, faithquestion, do Christian women value family over
faith, reminded me immediately of what Ann Romney said when asked about their
wealth, that "It is not about money, it's about family," or words to
that effect. Family-work and work-work – if you know what I mean – are
intertwined in the successful family. And to make it all work, the two have a
backdrop of faith, in each other and in the case of religious faith, in their
higher power. Another example: there is a two-man radio talk show, Rick and
Bubba, these guys are always talking about their marriages. One said the other
day, that the reason why his family works well, is because, even though both he
and his wife are strong personalities and they often clash, their marriage
works because they "both love Christ" more than they love each other.
So I guess these could address the issue of how marriages can work within the
realm of faith in a higher power, yet are not cases in the sense that family is
deemed to be "over" faith, or vice versa, but are examples of the
balance these marriages embody.
Byron

Sometimes GOD can take the back seat when it comes to family. Yes, I know what the N.T. says, SCREW that, Family comes first. God dos not need to come first, family comes first. God can simply humble Himself.
- mallen11
  
  Without God, there is no family. God provides everything we have and all glory and honor goes to Him.
  
  Jeremiah 17:5 -Thus says the LORD, “Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind and makes flesh his strength, and whose heart turns away from the LORD.
  
  Rom 12:3 For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.
- Evermyrtle
  
  I really do not think you will even get near first with screwing the N T? NEW TESTAMENT.
  You cannot possibly put your family first and have a relationship with JESUS CHRIST. If you put HIM first it naturally brings your family into the circle with JESUS and then you will be one very secure, loving, prosperous unit. .
Jeff Dixon

Because rational people understand that family is more important.
Evermyrtle

When will we have the same question about men??? Women are usually more faithful than men, and how does this affect family life??
http://www.facebook.com/people/David-B-Severy/557985964 David B Severy

Gee, why can't we give ourselves a break and simply admit and teach that family loyalty is much admired by God? Faithfulness to God will require we serve our family well. Can't we stop tearing at things and find a way (LOVE AGAPE LOVE) to build?
Aristophanes

Why do I get the feeling that the company (Barna Group) that did this so-called "study" is a liberal group? Besides being locate in California, I also question asking a question like this. It seems like the question is worded to be negative no matter what these women answered. If they say God is most important, then they are lousy mothers. If children are most important, then they are lousy Christians. Why would anyone ask a question like this? And are you sure you are asking Christians? This whole thing is just really convoluted and dubious to me. Too many variables to be a legitimate "study".
David S.

In order:
1. God
2. Spouse
3. Family, friends, relatives, etc.
4. Your job
Not sure why that is so hard to understand. Get your priorities straight!