New Research Shows Majority of Americans Think They Have More Authority Than God
America has a reputation around the world for being a country full of people who love their independence and freedom.
It’s a country originally founded on Biblical principles, with a justice system that was originally rooted in the Ten Commandments.
In fact, the Museum of the Bible opened a 4D experience in 2018 in which it highlighted all the places in Washington, D.C. where scripture is publicly displayed, according to Charisma News.
Many would argue that America has been in a moral free fall for at least 40 years.
Family Talk rebroadcasted a classic Francis Schaeffer message, in which he points out that America’s moral decline is the result of a shift from a Christian worldview to a humanistic one. The message was originally broadcast back in 1982, yet its relevance for today is flat out uncanny.
Interestingly, a poll conducted by the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University found that most Americans today see traditional moral values as separate from “Biblical morality.”
About 71 percent of American adults say they support traditional moral values in America today. However, a little less than half of those who who support traditional moral values also embrace “Biblical morality” as a core value. About 42 percent believe that “what you feel in your heart” is the way a moral life should be led.
According to the poll, traditional moral values were defined as: integrity, justice, kindness, non-discrimination, trustworthiness, free expression, property ownership, individual growth, and self-control.
The poll also found that three-quarters of Americans maintain that people are basically good, while less than half believe in God or that the Bible is God’s true, relevant and reliable words to humanity.
George Barna, who directed the survey pointed out that, “Consequently, Americans have become comfortable with the idea of being the arbiters of morality. In the same way that most Americans contend that there is no absolute moral truth, they now believe that there is no divine guidance required or even available to define right and wrong.”
Barna added that, “The research indicates that people are now more likely to take their moral cues from government laws and policies than from the church teachings about Biblical principles. Americans have historically said that when they elect a president they are choosing a chief executive, not a pastor-in-chief, but that distinction appears to be passé.”
“One could reasonably argue that the nation’s ideas about right and wrong are now more likely to come from the White House and the halls of Congress, than from our houses of worship. The laws of the land are replacing the laws of God in determining good and evil.”
It’s ironic that Americans think they have more authority than God where defining morality and values are concerned, yet several polls show that Americans also feel that the country is headed in a wrong direction.
A Rasmussen poll on October 31 reported that only 29 percent of likely voters think America is headed in a right direction.
The notion that America is in a moral free fall even crosses party lines. A Gallup poll from May reported that 72 percent of Republicans rate moral values in America as poor.
As for Democrats, 36 percent rate moral values as poor, but 48 rate them as fair. Only 15 percent rate America’s moral values as good or excellent.
The overall number of Americans (regardless of political persuasion) who feel that America’s moral values are poor is 50 percent. Gallup said this number is the highest it has ever found over the course of its 20-year trend.
Gallup went on to report that 78 percent of Americans think that moral values are getting worse.
Based on the above numbers, it would seem that today’s Americans are double-minded regarding morality and values.
If one believes in the authority of God’s Word, one could argue that America’s moral free fall began before it ever became a nation.
There’s been a moral free fall in humanity overall that really started back in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve decided to go by their feelings and eat the fruit from the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil — in direct rebellion to God’s directives to them.
Perhaps the one bright spot in all of this is that Jesus told us in Matthew 24:37-39, “But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.”
