By Editor Bob Terry
This is a strange time in American culture. It is a time of contradiction and confusion. A study by Barna released May 25 found that 8 out of 10 American adults are concerned about the nation’s moral condition. Unfortunately there was little agreement on what constituted morality in the first place.
Barna reported for example that 59 percent of American adults agreed or strongly agreed that the Bible provides moral truths which are the same for all people in all situations without exception. Thankfully the percentage of practicing Christians affirming the statement was much higher — 83 percent. Another interesting finding was that 53 percent of those practicing non-Christian religions also agreed.
At the same time, two-thirds of respondents also said moral truth is relative to circumstances or had not given the question much thought. Among practicing Christians, 42 percent fell into this category as did 62 percent of those practicing non-Christian religions.
‘Attempting to fill the void’
It is difficult to see how nearly 6 out of 10 adults could affirm the moral code of the Bible as absolute and then two-thirds of the same respondents say morality is based on circumstance or they had not thought about the issue.
David Kinnaman, president of Barna Group, explained it this way: “Christian morality is being ushered out of American social structures … leaving a vacuum in its place. The broader culture is attempting to fill the void.”
Tragically this trend is not limited to Americans in general. It is impacting practicing Christians as well.
Right and wrong for the majority (57 percent) of American adults is a matter of personal experience according to this most recent study. Barna asked respondents to react to the statement “Whatever is right for your life or works best for you is the only truth you can know.” Less than half of elders and boomers supported the statement but 59 percent of Gen-Xers (born between 1975 and 1983) and 74 percent of millennials (born between 1984 and 2002) agreed or strongly agreed.
Forty-one percent of practicing Christians also affirmed the statement.
When asked to react to the statement, “Every culture must determine what is acceptable morality for its people,” 65 percent of adults agreed or strongly agreed. Again the younger age groups offered the most support although every age group affirmed the statement.
Forty-seven percent of practicing Christians agreed.
When each culture must determine its own morality and when truth is what works best for the individual can anarchy be far behind?
Kinnaman added, “The highest good, according to our society, is ‘finding yourself’ and then living by ‘what is right for you.’”
It is hard to reconcile that cultural value with concern about some of the issues making news today.
Symbols of the Confederacy are coming down from southern State Houses to the National Cathedral in Washington. Their connections with slavery is their ruin. But if each society must determine its own moral norms what justifies the outrage against a society that embraced slavery?
Please understand, this is not an attempt to justify slavery or the display of Confederate symbols. It is only an effort to point out the dilemma created when moral norms are based on what works best for an individual or cultural preferences.
These dilemmas are not imagery. They impact real-life situations.
Racism is a current issue in America. Racism is a form of idolatry from a biblical perspective. It elevates part of God’s creation while denigrating the image of God in others. Yet when right and wrong are based solely on what an individual judges best for him or her, where is the moral ground to condemn this evil?
Barna posed other issues to respondents. Eighty-nine percent said people should not criticize someone else’s life choices. Eighty-six percent said to be fulfilled in life you should pursue the things you desire most. Practicing Christians agreed with the statements 76 percent and 72 percent respectively.
How do these individual values relate to the widespread abuse — physical, mental and sexual — plaguing society? Where is moral authority when the determinant is personal desire or life choices?
How do these values inform the experience of individual greed? For centuries greed was labeled 1 of the 7 deadly sins. Is it now a virtue despite its impact on others?
In the mid-1970s the Khmer Rouge slaughtered more than 2 million people in Cambodia as the Pol Pot regime attempted to establish an agrarian utopia. Intellectuals had no place in that society so in some cases people were executed because they wore glasses, making them look intellectual.
Thirty years earlier the Germans killed more than twice that number of Jews, Gypsies and others in the Holocaust because a society without these people was the choice of the country’s leaders.
If there are no absolute norms — if right and wrong, good and evil are based on personal choice and desire and every society sets its own values — then where is the moral ground to condemn these horrific acts?
Kinnaman is correct when he illustrates the rising tide of secularism and the tremendous amount of individualism in today’s society through this most recent study. It appears the world is descending into a dark time.
But this is no time to curse the darkness. It is time for the Church to embrace the moral code of the Bible in word and deed. The Bible is clear that we are “to prefer one another in love” (Rom. 12:10). Jesus said, “A new commandment I give you, that you love one another” (John 13:34).
Following Jesus’ example
When Jesus announced His ministry in Luke 4, He described it in terms of helping the poor, the prisoner, the blind and the oppressed.
In Matthew 25, Jesus teaches that Christians care for those who are hungry, naked, sick, imprisoned or strangers.
Christianity is not a “me-centered religion.” It is a faith that calls the followers of Christ to pour themselves out in service to God and others as Jesus poured Himself out for us.
Only when Christians unapologetically embrace these Christian values and demonstrate them in their lifestyles can the darkness of selfish me-ism be pushed back and the Way of the Cross become the light of the world.
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