Glendale, AZ — With the midterm election just days away and as the nation continues to fight for a set of values and morals that will define its future, a new survey from the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University notes that more than seven out of ten American adults (71%) support traditional moral values.
It’s what those “traditional moral values” are and where they come from that they’re changing their minds on.
The America's Values Study, directed by Dr. George Barna, reveals that millions of Americans now deem the idea of “traditional moral values” to suggest notions of right and wrong that transcend guidance provided solely – or, perhaps, even in part – by the Bible.
When asked to identify the nation’s most appropriate determinant of right and wrong, regardless of people's religious faith, forty-two percent (42%) suggested that “what you feel in your heart” is the best guide, compared to twenty-nine percent (29%) who said we should base morality on majority rule and an equal number (29%) who look to principles taught in the Bible.
Stated differently, seven out of 10 adults (71%) now contend that man rather than God should be the judge of right and wrong.
“Americans have become comfortable with the idea of being the arbiters of morality,” Barna said. “In the same way that most Americans now contend that there is no absolute moral truth, they also now believe that there is no divine guidance required or even available to define right and wrong.”
Among the subgroups for whom a majority believe that personal feelings would serve Americans best as the arbiter of right and wrong were those who have no religious affiliation (53% opted for emotions as the determinant of right and wrong), people whose priority values for life are happiness, comfort and equality (51%) and LGBTQ adults (50%).
Nearly half of those surveyed between the ages of 18-29 (47%) also fell into this category, as did forty-six percent (46%) of Catholics.
Subgroups boasting a majority who listed the Bible as their main source of determining right and wrong were typically either politically or spiritually conservative. Those segments were SAGE Cons (66% of adults who are Spiritually Active, Governance Engaged Conservative Christians), adults who possess a biblical worldview (66%), people who attend an evangelical church (62%), Republican conservatives (58%) and theologically-defined born-again Christians (54%).
Though there is no official source of what is commonly referred to as traditional moral values, Barna says one way of determining what such values are perceived by Americans to be is to identify the consensual values adopted by a cross-section of population segments defined by spiritual perspectives. Moral values, after all, refer to right and wrong—which he says ‘is the jurisdiction of the spiritual realm.’
Considering the views of the three major spiritual segments in America – self-identified Christians, people who identify with a non-Christian faith and those who reject religious faith altogether (i.e., “the nones”) – the result is a body of nine moral values that majorities of each of the three spiritual segments embrace and those that are accepted by a majority of the public that claims to support traditional moral values. Those moral values are: integrity, justice, kindness, non-discrimination, trustworthiness, free expression, property ownership, individual growth and self-control.
