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Does Americans’ faith run only skin-deep?
You may well wonder—as I often do—how we have reached such a low point in our culture. Divorce rates soar. Abortion is not only condoned by society, it’s common. Fewer and fewer children grow up living in the same household with both their mother and father. Marriage dwindles in importance and is at risk of losing its meaning altogether.
The answer I come back to time and again is that as a society we have turned away from God. This is hardly an original thought. Many have decried for years the fact that God is being slowly (or maybe not so slowly) but surely driven from the public square.
We blame the secularists and the cultural elite, the mainstream media and the ACLU. But maybe we have only ourselves to blame.
In a newly released poll from the Barna Group, only 12 percent of those surveyed said faith was their top priority. This despite the fact that, as the Barna press release points out, more than 75 percent of American adults identify themselves as Christians. David Kinnaman, president of the Barna Group, commented on the numbers: “The gap is vast between self-described affiliation with Christianity and ascribing highest priority to that faith. When it comes to why so much of American religion seems merely skin-deep, this gap between what people call themselves and what they prioritize is perhaps most telling.”
The group that ranks faith highest is evangelicals, with two out of five (39 percent) saying it is their highest priority.
If there is any good news to be had from the survey, it is that Americans care about family issues, specifically “having a good family life, being a good parent, and having a good marriage.” Whether those should rank highest on the priority scale is another matter.
back to top51 Comments to “Does Americans’ faith run only skin-deep?”
Well, they should rate the highest. When everything is said and done, that’s what matters most.
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Put faith at the top and all that other stuff will come more naturally.
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“Everyone did what was right in their own eyes.”
That’s the root cause of it all.
What always surprises me is people seem unable to take a step back and recognize how bad it really has become. Frog in the boiling water syndrome . . .
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The Barna group is unwise, in my view, in the first place for giving credence to or setting up self-described affiliations of Christianity as potentially valid. They are worthless and Jesus and Paul both made that clear (Matthew 7:21 and Titus 1:16). The results of this poll would be pretty much the same at any time in history.
Better to do polls on the basis of those who actually attend church regularly. It is action or actual practice of faith and not self-descriptions that begin to approach accuracy with regard to affiliation.
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But this poll does correctly illustrate the obvious. There is a whole lot of surface religion in America. There was a lot of that in Jesus’ day too and his teaching makes that obvious.
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We still try to serve two masters. (”I’ll be the one to pull it off.”)
What is the definition of “faith”? Is it intellectual assent; emotional response; or is it life commitment?Any “faith” that is not priority #1 is not “life commitment”.
To think of it as anything less is to misunderstand what God requires and offers.
Together we allow ourselves and each other to live with misunderstanding. We are content with God counseling us and miss out on His transforming us. We are content being conformed to the world as long as we can say religious things to each other. Jesus would ask us if we are “luke warm”. Our answer ought to be very heart-searching, for Jesus’ response is very sobering. The solution is not more earnest religion but more real dependence on God’s Grace.
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As for blaming “…the secularists and the cultural elite, the mainstream media and the ACLU”, YES, by all means–they are the most culpable in our current cultural slide into a moral coma. And this is their inteneded mission to boot. The fact that faith is often skin-deep in too many Americans also stands, but that does not mitigate the blame that must go to those listed above.
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Neil Evans, good comment. Thank you. May I quibble with your use of the phrase “earnest religion.” I do think that is part of the solution and I use the word “religion” in its biblical sense, as seen in James 1:27.
* “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” (emphasis added).
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Joel Mark,
I whole-heartedly agree with your comment about religion.
Of course I am referring to the Pharisee-type religion to which we are all prone.
James comment assumes that there are forms of religion which God does not accept as pure and faultless.
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I have several people in my family who would identify themselves as Christians on a poll. However, if you bring up a biblical principle, they say, “Yes, but. . .”
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Joel Mark, I really don’t think we can “blame” the ACLU and others–we’re blaming them for what? for not being Christians? They aren’t, and they have no responsibility for being. It’s we who are supposed to be salt and light, not they. If a culture is dark, it’s futile to try to make the darkness feel ashamed of itself; it’s time to turn the light on. Jesus Himself put the blame on the religious leaders, not on the tax collectors and prostitutes who were at home in the darkness.
Taking seriously the 75% of self-identified Christians is likewise pointless. A survey can fairly point out that number as an “interesting statistic,” but it can’t use it for anything relevant. We might just as well include five-year-olds playing dress-up in a survey of adults. Start with a meaningful subgroup, those who attend church regularly and believe the Bible, who believe that Jesus is truly God and the only way to be saved, and the numbers are far more relevant.
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Cheryl D,
Read the first paragraph of Marcia’s post. She did not say anything about “Christian” divorce rates or “Christian” abortion rates. The fact remains that policies forcefully pushed on us to promote sexual chaos and cultural decay do indeed come from secularists and the ACLU and others. These policies are matters of public concern, not just for people of faith. Blame can and should indeed go to those who push them. I am not talking about blaming them for not being Christians but for using public courts and political intimidation to push and enforce deeply hurtful policies.
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The OT shows us, as the leader turn from God and embrace sin. Society also turns from God and embrace sin.
As Church leaders abandon God’s Word to embrace society views, the people will reject God’s Word an embrace society views.
Which brings about God’s judgment onto a Nation or society.
We have both happen in our Nation. Is God pouring out His Judgment? I do not know. It does seem, that as our Nation leaders and churches leaders fall deeper into sin, the more divide and hateful our Nation has become.
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Cheryl D wrote; “Jesus Himself put the blame on the religious leaders, not on the tax collectors and prostitutes who were at home in the darkness.”
Incorrect. The leaders of Jesus’ day whom he criticized so severely were every bit as much civic leaders as they were religious. In fact, the distinction would have been unintellibible to them.
Cheryl, I think Christians tend to rush far too quickly to condemn each other for public pathologies while giving a pass to non-Christians for what they do that is so harmful to our culture and society.
Cheryl D, your second paragraph was excellent.
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The word ‘faith’ is a loaded word and requires definition. Everybody has ‘faith’ but the nature of that faith depends upon their worldview. Faith maybe in Jesus Christ, Budda, Allah, or one-self or an elite corp (as in Humanism).
Without realizing it, faith (or worldview) is #1 for everybody and all other issues will be prioritized upon that faith.
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Joel Mark (12): The fact remains that policies forcefully pushed on us to promote sexual chaos and cultural decay do indeed come from secularists and the ACLU and others. These policies are matters of public concern, not just for people of faith. Blame can and should indeed go to those who push them. I am not talking about blaming them for not being Christians but for using public courts and political intimidation to push and enforce deeply hurtful policies.
Frank: Good point.
Although Oklahoma introduced no-fault divorce in 1953, the rest of the states did not rush headlong into this evil until after California passed it in 1969.
Interestingly, it was signed into law by none other than Gov. Ronald W. Reagan, who “later said that he regretted” doing so “and that he believed it was one of the worst mistakes he ever made in office.”
Reagan was a Christian, which goes to show that destructive social policies are not the exclusive provence of “secularists and the ACLU.”
I strongly suspect that Reagan repented of his error. It would do us believers well to tend our gardens first, then talk to our secularist neighbors about the weeds in theirs.
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BTW, the here’s the link for the quotes above — they’re from Michael Reagan’s book Twice Adopted, as cited by Judy Parejko, author of Stolen Vows: The Illusion of No-Fault Divorce and The Rise of the American Divorce Industry.
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Joel, I stand by my assessment that while civic leaders are responsible for good governance, holiness is the purview of the church. Blaming civic leaders for an unholy society is as useless as blaming a pig for the mud. Biblically we have responsibility for society’s holiness; unbelieving leaders do not. Is it good if they enact righteous laws, absolutely. That is their responsibility. But biblically judgment begins at the house of God if a society is unrighteous. We are our brothers’ keeper.
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1. I just realized that my response to Joel Mark should have begun with “Good point. But … (etc.)”
2. Doug Wilson has pointed out that society follows the church’s lead, not the other way around. “There were women in pulpits long before they were in the cockpits of fighter jets — and the Bible prohibits both.” In the case of NFD, it appears that the actions of a well-meaning but misled Christian governor set a godless standard for the rest of the nation. (I seem to recall a similar pattern re. King David and his sons?)
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It’s truly hard to be a part of a Christian community.
My husband and I attend church and volunteer, etc. But being a part of a smaller group means a bigger commitment to do what THAT group wants to do. Also going out at night to do anything is getting more difficult as we get even older. And we use our Saturdays to just get work done around the house in the morning, then my husband needs the afternoon for a nap. Sunday a.m. church, afternoon, nap. He works all week and doesn’t feel all that good physically so I lay low on requests.
Besides it is getting harder and harder to find people who attend church and DON’T have that “OBAMA will save us” feeling. If I disagree about what Obama stands for, I feel that it won’t be all that helpful discussing the Bible and what IT stands for with that person. (As well as discussing Evilution.)
And then it seems some people can be too sensitive to extremes the other way as well. On Sunday someone in the pulpit said to love your neighbor and mentioned including hispanics and it was construed as being against the 1070 bill.
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Obama and his minions: “Divide and conquer!”
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Frank in Spokane: Reagan was a Christian??? He certainly used a whole lot of religious imagery. But he very rarely attended church any time from late adolescence to his death. This has been widely noted even dating back to the time of his Presidency.
The man, was, after all, an actor.
I wonder what JoelMark who noted above that
would say about his favorite President’s demonstration of faith.
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#18 – “Joel, I stand by my assessment that while civic leaders are responsible for good governance, holiness is the purview of the church.”
Cheryl D, you are mincing words here. You are not fairly addressing my point. You are shifting the terminology. I am talking about decency here ,Cheryl D, not just “holiness” (a word you introduced as if that is what I was saying).
Divorce, abortion and public policy are matters of decency, not just “holiness” alone.
Cheryl D, Would you stand by an assessment that while civic leaders are responsible for good governance, decency is the purview of the church?
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Joel, society’s drift is morally the responsibility of the church. That’s different from saying “it’s all the church’s fault.” But when fornication is prevalent in the church (and it is), we have no call to be arguing against society’s divorce rate and homosexual marriage as though those are the main problems, and if society would just get its act together we’d all be OK. Repentance must begin with us, and it hasn’t. We can’t blame the world for acting like the world; we simply cannot. Especially when we act like the world ourselves.
But I don’t want to “debate” this, nor do I have time to do so.
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Only God can know the heart, but Reagan and I both attended Bel Air Presbyterian Church in the 1970’s.
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I would dread it if I were the pastor of any church and the Prez and family came to worship there. All the Secret Service, the media and other attention would draw folks away from focussing on the Savior.
Like Michelle in #25 I won’t purport to know the “heart state” of any politician.
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There is a lot of theological confusion.
Take a story I found at the website of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America (bpfna dot org) if you’re interested.
Seems a liberal gay-friendly church (Myers Park Baptist in Charlotte NC) was the target of a protest by an evil group that was described as being anti-gay, anti-abortion and anti-Islam.
Isnt a Christian church by definition anti- nonChristian religious teaching??
I had some difficulty accepting how any church group could be pro-gay or pro-abortion, but I know there are some obviously which in fact are just that.
But what church or denomination would deny being anti-Islam? Conversely, should one be surprised to hear anti-church, anti-Christian stuff from the neighborhood mosque? Not at all.
Go read the story at Bpfna dot org for yourselves.
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Those who should be blamed for the rise and spread of abortion are those who advocate for it, regardless of what they say or claim about matters of faith. This includes atheists who advocate for it. Not claiming to be a Christian does not make a lawmaker “blameless” for the harm they do to babies and to society.
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Cheryl D wrote; “Joel, society’s drift is morally the responsibility of the church.”
I agree with that. I wish more Christians understood this. And if I understood your next sentence correctly, I also agree that it is also the responsibility of any and all who cause that drift–church goers or not. That’s what I was saying.
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Cheryl D wrote; “But when fornication is prevalent in the church (and it is), we have no call to be arguing against society’s divorce rate and homosexual marriage as though those are the main problems, and if society would just get its act together we’d all be OK.”
Huh? Who is “we” in this statement? All Christians (regardless of their purity)? Does this mean that because fornication occurs among some Christians that we (all Christians?) cannot argue agaisnt society’s divorce rate and homosexual marriage? Look at what you wrote, Cheryl. If we have no call to argue against those things, that means our only options are to be totally silent on those moral issues or to argue for them. What other options are there?
Repentance must begin with all sinners. Nothing new there. That does not change what the church should argue in the moral realm. As Christians, we can and should lay responsibility for moral decay at the feet of whoever is willfully causing that moral decay (regardless of their particular faith claims or not).
Cheryl, you don’t have to debate this, but I thank you for giving voice to a point of view that does need healthy debate among those who care about the direction of our society (inside and outside the church).
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Joel, read my whole sentence that you just quoted and your question “Does this mean . . .” is answered. You know me well enough by now to know I argue against these things–but I don’t think America’s primary problem is the world acting like the world. I think the church acting like the world is a bigger problem; ultimately to focus on “reforming the world” is completely pointless. We can speak out politically, sure, but when we do so at the expense of the church’s primary roles (worship, service, evangelism), then we lose. Even if we get a good law passed today, we’re still rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
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Thank you, Cheryl. I agree with your positive points but I also think it is not pointless to seek moral reform wherever it is needed (inside or outside the church). Can’t control the response but we can try. God may call some to focus more on the church and God may call another to seek it in society and God may call some to seek it in both realms. Let God issue the call as He sees fit.
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I haven’t attended a Church Service/Mass in 30 years.
I have never answered a pollster.
Faith? What else do I have?
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I am curious, Carlos, are reporting information, bragging, regretting, reflecting, or what? In what is your faith? I believe that our faith is indeed as significant as “all we have”, but if the object is ineffectual then what we have is a tragic loss rather than a glorious blessing.
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Only one in 500 Americans has any affiliation with the ACLU. Probably no more than one out of 50-100 Americans could be classified as a “secularist”.
If these folks had any influence on the breakdown of the family in the US, that influence is marginal at best. Couples don’t get divorced because “the secularists made us do it.” Nor do young women seek abortions because “the ACLU forced me to the clinic.” At some point, we have to take responsibility for our own choices in life, and stop trying to absolve ourselves by casting blame on the leftist fringe.
The problem is not that we’ve become too influenced by the ACLU. The problem is that the church has ceased to be a central part of the lives of many who call themselves Christians. I don’t know that I’d go so far as to say that the church is at fault for our moral decay. But I do believe that our best remedy for cultural renewal is a robust parish life (not mega-churches that meet in former sports complexes).
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For those attempting to exonerate the churches and direct attention to “the real enemies”, I commend http://www.aboms.com to your attention.
It is a daily litany of sexual and other criminal offenses committed by clergy of all faiths. And yes, daily.
In additional to the usual reports on the RC meltdown, just in the last day or so are stories about sexually “corrupt” pastors or leaders in Minnesota, California, Arizona and Israel.
And when one thinks of the well-known recent incidents of scandal affecting the relatively small number of protestant pastors who have climbed to national prominence, as well as the recent university study of female protestant reports of improper approaches by pastors, it is exceptionally clear that SOMEBODY’S house needs cleaning a whole lot more than the ACLU’s, NAACP’s, NARAL’s or any other hobgoblin of little pastoral minds does.
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I haven’t seen people here “attempting to exonerate the churches”. God says that “all day long He holds out His hands to a disobedient and contrary people.” And, “He has consigned all to disobedience, that He may have mercy on all.” (Romans 10 & 11)
Some people choose to accept His mercy, others choose to go it alone. Mercy gives hope. Hopelessness, cynicism, endless searching, blaming others, all are signs of going it alone (often in groups).
By the way, there is a difference between pointing out the sins of others and belittling others for their sins.
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“Only one in 500 Americans has any affiliation with the ACLU.”
If this is accurate (who knows?), then that makes it all the more appauling and shameful that the ACLU uses legal means so often and so cynically to enforce it’s will and whims on the entire society!
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#36 – “For those attempting to exonerate the churches and direct attention to “the real enemies…”
Exonerate them for what? Do you agree with the premise of this thread–that due to widespread condoning of abortion, soaring divorce rates, increasing attempts to redefine marriage and the falling rate of children growing up in homes with their mom and dad that we have reached a low point in our culture?
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#36 and others — I don’t necessarily see a reason to lay blame on groups and institutions per se, or on people who wear certain labels or not (it’s too easy to hide behind a label), unless those groups or people actually and actively advocate the moral decay we are discussing on this thread.
For immoral atrocities like abortion, I simply blame those who advocate it. Whatever else you look like or call yourself is beside the point. Do you support aborting innocent babies? Then you deserve blame for the abortion epidemic. Did you have an abortion and you are sorry enough to repent of it? That’s admirable. Repentance means you ACCEPT some blame but also that you accept God’s forgiveness.
Do you support sexual chaoes (adultery, homosexuality, pronography, etc)? Then the shoe fits, regardless of whatever labels you try to wear for show or supplemental identity.
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Joel Mark (38):
Google tells me that the approximate population of the USA is 308,000,000 and the ACLU official blog site gives approximately its membership as 500,000.
About one in 616 are ACLU members. RSD’s ratio is very close.
Ken Bland
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Joel,
I agree that such advocacy may be worthy of a measure of condemnation. But there’s little, if any, evidence to suggest that such advocacy has been a cause-in-fact or our moral decline. After all, these groups represent a mere fraction of 1% of our population, and are generally viewed with suspicion by most Americans.
So, by focusing your attention on the ACLU, NARAL, and the like, you run the risk of ignoring the forces that are actually causing our moral decline.
I suggest that a big part of our decline lies in the church’s abandonment of a parish-based model of ministry and the adoption of an entertainment-based model of ministry.
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RSD,
Those who have had a hand in our culture’s moral decline are many. Marcia’s reference to the ACLU and elites and secularists and others was just for brief illustrative purposes. It was not an analytical cause and effect essay. Her point stands. The ACLU, unfortunately, does weild repressive power over others and over our legal culture in unjust excess of their numbers.
But that the ACLU and ARAL are minor players in comparison to the Democrat Party and the media (same thing, really) which has done far far more to hurt our nation and run down our morals than any other group(s) I can think of. Some people who call themselves Christians and build buildings they call churches have also failed us in many ways (although there is certainly nothing wrong with building a building).
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I think each one of us has a “field of influence”. Rather than lamenting the shallowness of “Americans’ faith”, wouldn’t it be more productive to give our efforts to that part of the field in which we find ourselves? We have lots of opportunity to do good, to edify, to be an example, to serve, etc. We also have plenty of cultivation to do in our own lives and, perhaps, that visible growth will cause another to want to put down some deeper roots.
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In learning this week of the two university students that risk expulsion unless they recant their Christian values toward homosexuality and transgender lifestyles. I ask myself how did our society get this unwise. Our universities are becoming places of lower learning rather than higher. Christianly is villainized while other religions are not. Israel of old had this same problem. Rejecting God brings social and material decay.
We humans love our freedom. With freedom in proper balance society prospers. But we naturally want more freedom. Let me give an example. First the police have one hundred laws to enforce. The people want more freedom and the police want less strenuous work so fifty laws are all they have to enforce now. Our cultural gate keeper is the church. The easiest message to preach is the “Be Positive” message. We don’t offend anyone that way. We don’t take the risk of being sued or losing our tax-exempt status. More people treat us better and we get better offerings. But it does not address sin or its damage to society so down we go. God loves us enough to call some things sin. He is wise and loving enough to send Jesus to save us from our sins. If we need to be saved from it, it must be bad, regardless of what some higher learning says.
Faith to me is not just believing God is real. Its believing when he said not to do something (sin), that I believe, trust and love him enough to not do it.
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Buddy, actually we love our freedom and we love our safety, and leaders love having a society “under control,” so the fifty laws becomes 100, then 150, and finally one of them is “Thou shalt never look at anyone with a funny look on thine face.”
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sorry, thy face . . .
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Hopesprings #44, very well said. It seems that most of us want to have, and usually think we have, influence much wider than we really do. The problem is that in focusing on the wider we tend to neglect the near-at-hand influence we have. Another problem is that we tend to think our words (protests, causes, groups, blog comments
etc) to the masses have more influence than our behavior with the people right around us. Even Jesus chose to influence the masses by focusing on those few people near him. The genuinely (divine) real life they saw in Him changed their lives and in turn the lives they touched, an on an on. But of course we know today that a mass march of loud people is much more effective at changing culture even if the personal lives of the individual marchers aren’t much different. (Not saying that marching is inherently wrong, just that our individual behavior with our family (neighborhood, church) is of much greater influence and value. But of course it is much more difficult, requiring the heart/life transformation that only presenting ourselves to God’s grace can achieve.
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Just to be clear, “Buddy” and I are not the same poster.
To answer Marcia’s question: Yes.
Judging by various polls I’ve seen, probably only 5-15% of the population is seriously committed to what I would consider “orthodox” Christianity.
Consider this Barna survey:
http://www.barna.org/transformation-articles/252-barna-survey-examines-changes-in-worldview-among-christians-over-the-past-13-years
He classifies someone as having a “biblical worldview” if they answer a certain way on six questions. They’re pretty standard stuff. 0.5% of Mosaics (i.e. those in the 18-23) age group have a biblical worldview, compared to 11% in older adults.
Even if we suppose that some of the questions were “debatable” or that some may have been misunderstood by responders, consider that only 28% answered “no” when asked whether a person can earn his way to heaven through good works.
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Marcia’s question simply cannot honestly be answered with a ‘yes’ or a ‘no.’ It requires the recognition of a spectrum.
I love “America” but I also know that “America” will not (and cannot) go to heaven, good works or not. Jesus died for sinners, not politically defined nations per se. Only believers can go to heaven and they will come from all nationalities.
But I asm grateful for the awesome legacy of serious faith in America.
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Funny thing, that frog in the boiling pot allegory. Such a great way to put a spin on any old evaluative statement. But as a wise sage once said, “But the thing about spin is that you can spin in two directions…Funny thing, spin.”
See, maybe things have been getting gradually worse and worse. But what I was blessed to learn over past years is that the frog in the boiling pot analogy can be applied just as easily to ANY situation with ANY kind of change, real or imagined. Maybe it applies to the moral fiber of America’s culture (whatever that means), or maybe not.
But fifty years ago, in a conservative small town in the American heartland, there were two bitterly theologically divided groups of Protestant Christians. There was so much animosity between them that they cooperated in nothing, and members of one group could not afford to be seen with members of the other in public.
Now, however, all that pretension, self-righteousness, small-mindedness, misplaced idealism, and hypocrisy has been scattered like chaff to the four winds. Thanks to “social progress,” “liberalism,” and “syncretism,” the children of the two groups go to each others’ schools and even intermarry occasionally. There is still human nature. But there is more unity now. Priorities are…better now. And I don’t care if this comes at the expense of young Christian children being zealously taught what makes them so different from all the rest. To older generations, that was good doctrine. To me, that’s xenophobia and self-righteousness.
Thank God for the kind of change that buries the evils of the past and digs up new ones for us to confront.
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