A study released by WalletHub that gauged the "sinfulness" of a state revealed which ones were sinful and which ones were not.
Church Leaders explained that the WalletHub study "2022's Most Sinful States In America" ranked how sinful a state is based on seven sinful categories, which included anger, greed, hatred, jealousy, laziness, lust, and vanity.
The top five most sinful states, in their ranking order, are Nevada, California, Texas, Florida, and Louisiana. Nevada is the most sinful of all states since it is where the "Sin City" of Las Vegas is located. On the extreme end is Idaho, which is the least sinful state. With it are, New Hampshire, Iowa, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming.
These states were ranked accordingly through the use of 47 key indicators on illicit or immoral behavior. The study also used as metrics violent crimes per capita to excessive gambling and drinking disorders. As such, the study showed that more than $300 billion are spent annually in the United States for smoking and almost $5 billion on gambling. These temptations heightened during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study said Wisconsin has the most excessive drinkers and Utah has the least recorded.
In addition, WalletHub reviewed anger and hatred metrics on bullying rates, mass shootings, road rage, sex offenders, and teen dating violence. The metrics revealed that Alaska, Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, and Tennessee are the top five states with the most violent crimes. While Maine was seen as the least violent one.
Adult entertainment was seen highest in the states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Rhode Island ranked as the number state on adult entertainment. While the states of Arkansas, Hawaii, and Mississippi were the least that spent time for adult entertainment.
Kentucky ranked as the laziest state in the sloth category for garnering the most number of adults who do not exercise. Following behind are Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Oklahoma. Utah, on the other hand, ranked as the least slothful for the category.
As per the Dallas Observer, it is the second year in a row that Texas ranked as the third most sinful state behind Nevada and California in the WalletHub study. Texas also ranked as the most lustful state as seen in having the country's highest teen birth rates. Texas ranked 12th in the category of jealousy, evidenced by fraud and theft. While it garnered the sixth most vain state based on the number of beauty salons per capita. These data seem ironical considering Texas is home to some of the biggest megachurches in the United States.
The WalletHub study also highlighted the need to work together to battle sin in our lives. Catholic University of America Associate Professor Maryann Cusimano Love raised that virtuous conduct should be encouraged among the public in addition to seeing a list of the most sinful states.
"We must better support 'the little ones,' the most vulnerable who are targeted and pushed into harm. We must work together to fight sin," the WalletHub quoted Love in saying.
Notwithstanding, the Dallas Observer highlighted the need to consistently define what sin is for us to battle it. The media outlet noted that WalletHub's basis of defining sin and vices was on statistics that could not be considered as totally having a biblical definition of it, such that so many would really be labeled as sinners.
"WalletHub partly based its excesses and vices rankings according to each state's share of coffee drinkers and marijuana users. (Under that line of thinking, about half of Denton would be in the lake of fire.)," the Dallas Observer emphasized.
