In a new look at national morality, a Barna poll has found that close to 50 percent of American adults say watching a sexually explicit movie, cohabiting and having sexual fantasies are morally acceptable behaviors.
Fifty-eight percent of Americans said cohabitation was morally acceptable and an equal percentage said having sexual fantasies was morally OK. Fifty-four percent of mainline Protestants thought both behaviors were morally acceptable, compared to 43 percent of non mainline Protestants.
Researchers found that 37 percent of Americans thought profanity is morally OK, compared to 29 percent of mainline Protestants and 25 percent of non mainline Protestants.
A higher percentage had little trouble with speeding. Thirty-nine percent of Americans thought breaking the speed limit is morally acceptable, while an equal percentage of mainline Protestants and 34 percent of non mainline Protestants said it was all right.
Researchers also determined that more than 60 percent of Americans – whether they were classified by religious breakdown or not – said they tithed in the past year when they actually had not.
Although the Bible permits divorce only in cases of adultery, Barna said, 63 percent of Americans said divorce for any reason is not a sin, compared to 70 percent of mainline Protestants, 49 percent of non-mainline Protestants and 39 percent of born-again Christians.
George Barna, president of the Ventura, Calif.-based research firm, said the findings should worry clergy. “Religious leaders and people committed to biblical standards of living will be discouraged to realize that matters are highly likely to get worse in years to come,” he said.
The survey of 1,003 adults was conducted by telephone in May 2001 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
(RNS)
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