American Christians are less responsive to the Syrian crisis than they were a year ago, according to a World Vision survey conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs.
"It's disappointing to see America's heart closing to refugees. This is not the compassionate and generous nation I know we truly are," said Richard Stearns, president of World Vision. "And it's shocking that Christians, who are held to a higher standard by our Lord, are praying even less for refugees."
The online survey was conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs on behalf of World Vision on 1,096 American adults between September 8 to 12. Among the respondents, about 625 adults were committed Christians.
In 2016, the number of Americans who had taken concrete action to help refugees dropped by four percent from last year to only 33 percent.
Some 64 percent were willing to act on behalf of refugees this year, while last year 71 percent of the Americans wanted to help them.
More Christians wanted to help Syrians than non-Christians.
This year, 38 percent of Christians said they took action for refugees during the last two years, but last year 44 percent had said so.
The proportion of Christians willing to act on behalf of refugees in 2016 was slightly less (70 percent) as compared to last year (76 percent).
Overall, about 22 percent Americans prayed for the crisis in Syria while this year only 14 percent committed themselves to it.
People who shared or liked social media information about Syria increased two percent from 2015 to 14 percent.
The number of Americans who donated to Syrian refugee causes also increased two percent from last year to 11 percent.
In 2015, as many as 51 percent of the committed Christians said they wanted to pray for refugees, however, only 30 percent actually prayed. This year, less Christians expressed their willingness to pray for refugees (41 percent), and even fewer actually prayed (19 percent).
This year, the number of Christians who financially helped the victims of the war in the Middle East increased by 1 percent from 2015. Higher proportion of Christians donated to refugee crisis (12 percent) as compared to non-Christians (9 percent).
