By Deacon Mike Manno
(The
Wanderer) – An “overwhelming majority of American adults
lack a cohesive, coherent worldview, and instead substitute a patchwork of
conflicting, often irreconcilable beliefs and values as they navigate life,”
according to the newly released American Worldview Inventory 2021 by the
Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University.
The report is made up of three surveys: The first found
that only 6 percent of American adults have a truly biblical worldview; the
second found that the most popular worldview is that of “moralistic therapeutic
deism, which recognizes the existence of an uninvolved God, and where being
happy and feeling good is the polestar; and the new generation of Millennials
seek a nation without God, the Bible, and churches.”
The results are a warning of things to come as the
millennial generation comes of age. Beliefs and behaviors of the younger
generations “threaten to reshape the nations’ religious parameters beyond
recognition,” says the report, warning that a “radical spiritual revolution”
has created this generation of Millennials.
The findings confirm a decade’s long decline in the
prevailing Judeo-Christian culture formerly found throughout the United States.
The project’s lead researcher, sociology professor Dr.
George Barna, found that nearly nine of ten adults (88 percent) embrace an
impure, unrecognizable worldview that blends ideas from multiple perspectives,
which Barna call “syncretism.”
Rather than developing an internally consistent and
philosophically coherent perspective on life, Americans embrace points of view
or actions that feel comfortable or seem most convenient. Those beliefs and
behaviors are often inconsistent, or even contradictory, but few Americans
seemed troubled by those failings,” the survey reported.
The survey was taken last February among a nationally representative
sample of 2,000 adults in half-hour long personal interviews. It has an error
rate of plus or minus two percentage points. It compared the generational
attitudes of Millennials (born 1984-2002), Generation X (1965-1983), Baby
Boomers (1946-1964), and Builders (1927-1945) and their worldviews. It found:
“Together, Gen Xers and Millennials (i.e., two generations
currently in their late teens through mid-50s) emerged with many beliefs that
stand in sharp contrast to those held by Boomers and Builders (the two
generations in their mid-50s and older). The younger pair of generations is
substantially more likely than their elders to believe the following:
“Horoscopes provide useful guidance for their life; Getting even with those who
offend or harm them is defensible; God is not involved in people’s lives;
Allowing people to own property facilitates economic injustice; Karma is a
viable life principle; The Bible is ambiguous in what it teaches about
abortion; Human beings have developed over a long period of time from less
advanced life forms to our current condition; and the Bible is not the accurate
and reliable (i.e., inerrant) word of God.
“In fact, the two younger adult generations are
considerably more likely than older generations to rely primarily on Moralistic
Therapeutic Deism for worldview guidance which typically conflicts with core
biblical teachings. They are also significantly more likely than people from
older generations to argue that traditional moral perspectives are irrelevant
today, making a series of formerly rejected behaviors now considered to be
morally acceptable. Those included lying, not repaying loans, taking illegal
tax deductions, speeding, and committing suicide, or allowing for euthanasia.
“The two younger generations are also much less likely than
their older counterparts to accept the Golden Rule,” according to the survey,
or to accept that “wealth is provided by God for its possessors to manage for
His purposes.”
The survey notes that Millennials have gone further than any
other recent generation to cut ties with traditional Christian views and
biblical teachings:
“Gen X and the Millennials have solidified dramatic changes
in the nation’s central beliefs and lifestyles. From a nationwide perspective,
the Christian Church has done shockingly little to push back. The result is a
culture in which core institutions — including churches — and basic ways of
life are continually being radically redefined,” said Dr. Barna.
In expanding on his comments, he continued, “The family unit
and traditional family practices have been reshaped, with some long-term,
fundamental family ideals and practices outlawed. The responsibilities of
government have been significantly broadened and transformed. The influence of
the Christian church has diminished while the influence of arts, entertainment,
and news media has exploded. As millions of parents discovered during the
pandemic, public schools have become indoctrination farms rather than places
for teaching basic life skills.”
Barna lamented the direction that Millennials have
embraced. “Millennials are leading the way toward the new worldview emphases in
America,” he stated. “The research reveals that their rhetoric is often
inconsistent with their behavior. Because people do what they believe, if
behavior does not coincide with stated beliefs we know that people do not truly
hold those beliefs.
“For example Millennials champion the concept of tolerating
different points of view. Yet we see in the research that their behaviors —
such as promoting getting even, situational treatment of other people, or
censoring specific viewpoints or policies — conflict with their alleged embrace
of tolerance and diversity. In fact, Millennials are twice as likely as older
adults to specify that the people they respect are those who hold the same
religious and political views as they do. The attitudinal and behavioral
evidence related to a variety of beliefs and related behaviors suggests that
they are not a tolerant generation despite their self-image and public promotion
as such.”
“More importantly,” Barna continued, “the millennial
generation in particular seems committed to living without God, without the
Bible, and without Christian churches as foundations in either their personal
life or within American society. In the sixties and seventies, Baby Boomers
opened the floodgates of questioning cultural foundations. Baby Busters, or Gen
X, continued that cultural transition, though less emphatically. Millennials
are emulating the aggressiveness of the Boomers in their determination to
reshape culture according to their preferences.
“It is hard to imagine a louder, clearer, and more direct
challenge to the future of the Christian faith in the United States,” Barna
concluded. “If Christian churches, pastors, schools, and individuals believe
that a biblical Christian faith is important — not just for themselves but also
for our nation and the world beyond it — time is running out to aggressively
and strategically act on that belief, before those who so vehemently disagree
succeed in destroying the freedom and opportunity to preserve the ways of God.”
Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, commented
on the report: “These results are the logical fallout of what happens when God
and truth are jettisoned. Having rejected any external basis for truth, the
nucleus of one’s moral compass reverts to oneself. That being the case,
happiness and comfort become paramount, and anything that stands in the way of
their fulfillment is verboten.”
The American Worldview Inventory 2021 is an annual survey
that evaluates the worldview of the U.S. adult population. Begun as an annual
tracking study in 2020, the assessment is based on several dozen
worldview-related questions drawn from eight categories of worldview
application, measuring both beliefs and behavior. The eight are: Biblical
Theism (or a biblical worldview), Secular Humanism, Postmodernism, Moralistic
Therapeutic Deism, Nihilism, Marxism (along with its offshoot, Critical Race
Theory), and Eastern Mysticism (also known as “New Age”).
This new research revealed “that across all four
generations the category in which Americans are least likely to think and act
biblically is the dimension of ‘Bible, truth, and morals’.”
Obviously, this does not bode well for the future of the world
nor our children. It does suggest, however, that our family and religious
values can easily be undermined by a Marxist approach to education, a complicit
media and entertainment industry, and politicians who value their next election
more than they value the worth of the next generation.
Prayer would not be a bad option for us to follow,
especially Eucharistic adoration.
(You can reach Mike at: DeaconMike@q.com and listen to him every Thursday at 10 a.m. Central Time on Faith On Trial on IowaCatholicRadio.com.)
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