conjectural navel gazing; jesus in lint form: monday

February 28, 2005

monday

Having a significant faith commitment and an identifiable set of religious beliefs was mentioned by just one out of every five parents as an ingredient required for parental success.

Here is a passage from a recent Barna survey that sheds an interesting light on some of the political wrangling that goes around these days.

One of the most startling observations, according to Barna, was how few born again parents indicated that one of the most important outcomes parents needed to help their children grasp was salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. "Only three out of ten born again parents included the salvation of their child in the list of critical parental emphases," he noted. "Parents cannot force or ensure that their kids become followers of Christ. But for that emphasis to not be on the radar screen of most Christian parents is a significant reason why most Americans never embrace Jesus Christ as their savior. We know that parents still have a huge influence on the choices their children make, and we also know that most people either accept Christ when they are young or not at all. The fact that most Christian parents overlook this critical responsibility is one of the biggest challenges to the Christian Church." [emphasis added]

I find this curious when you line it up against this quote from the same report.

The California-based researcher pointed out that there was one substantial distinction. "Born again parents were twice as likely as others to teach their children that there are certain moral absolutes they should obey. However, even on that matter, less than six out of ten born again parents took such a position."

This is a curious thing. Is evangelical Christianity mostly a moral movement and not a spiritual one? Yes, I equate salvation with spirituality. Give me a break. I'm a liberal Baptist. I can't help myself. Christian identity was touted so highly at the presidential election. So many evangelicals came out to vote. We have bandied those stats around until we were all blue...in the face that is. What is surprising is the juxtaposition of these two ideas. I am still chewing on it, but one would think that salvation and moral identity would be more closely tied for the evangelical. Perhaps it is not. Or maybe I am missing something here.

Barna, who is pretty conservative all things being equal, has this to wrap up. I think he's just a little surprised at his own findings.

For years we have reported research findings showing that born again adults think and behave very much like everyone else. It often seems that their faith makes very little difference in their life. This new study helps explain why that is: believers do not train their children to think or act any differently. When our kids are exposed to the same influences, without much supervision, and are generally not guided to interpret their circumstances and opportunities in light of biblical principles, it’s no wonder that they grow up to be just as involved in gambling, adultery, divorce, cohabitation, excessive drinking and other unbiblical behaviors as everyone else. What we build into a child’s life prior to the age of 13 represents the moral and spiritual foundation that defines them as individuals and directs their choices for the remainder of their life. Garbage in, garbage out; there’s no magic that suddenly changes the young person from what they were trained to be in their formative years into a model Christian once they get older.

So, what I wonder is if a goodly percentage of conservative evangelicals (born again?*) are simply more fixated on morality than anything else. It would be interesting to find out if there is a morality shift between generations as well. Religious affiliation may change or evaporate, but does the moral stance do so as well? Perhaps not. This is all very interesting to me. I see the survey saying that there is perhaps a disconnect between faith and morality. Maybe I am reading that into the survey. Growing up, I perceived evangelical conservative Christianity to be this monolithic political and religious/ecclesial power. Falwell, Bob Jones etc have their names all over the media in Virginia. The monolith showed its teeth this past election. And yet, Barna's research shows that it may not be so much a religious power but a plotical one...at least if the reference to how they their children sheds any light on their own since of identity. I dunno. Something is in this for me. Also, Barna's definition of born again is, I don't know, generous. It may be that he is looking at a sample that extends well beyond evangelical conservativism. The "moral absolutes" piece is what makes this unclear. It may be that people like myself and Cliff could fall in Barna's category. I would not classify myself as "born again." And I am not certain that Cliff would. I dunno. You say "born again" and I hear "conservative evangelical." Cliff would have a different nuance to this.

I do not bring all this up to bash conservative people. I love too many of 'em! What I am wondering is if the "family values" political block is actually a Christian block. Perhaps it is not. This survey gives me some reasons to rethink how all Christianity and conservativism are connected. They may not be so hand in hand as we thought. And, honestly, political musings aside, Barna's chief complaint is that a large percentage of people who claim the faith as important are not sharing it actively with their kids...or are not thinking of it as part of child rearing. ([Small] numbers of parents listed elements such as being a praying person (4%) or having integrity or good character (1%) as significant characteristics [of good parenting].) Thus, we see a shrinking of Christian faithful in the majority population.

You can all go here for the free survey. I am going to poke around in it again to see what I can see.

Have a good day.

[*Born again Christians were defined in these surveys as people who said they have made "a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in their life today" and who also indicated they believe that when they die they will go to Heaven because they had confessed their sins and had accepted Jesus Christ as their savior. Respondents were not asked to describe themselves as "born again." Being classified as "born again" is not dependent upon church or denominational affiliation or involvement.]

Posted by tripp at February 28, 2005 06:14 AM

Comments

Or, it may be that "God has no grandchildren".

Posted by: Karl at February 28, 2005 03:06 PM

Tripp:

I think I know why you say this--"The monolith showed its teeth this past election."--but I dispute its accuracy. That is, unless you think the monolith includes not only Falwell and Robertson but Cardinal George, Metropolitan Demetrios and others who voted the same way on certain social matters (to the extent that can be determined).

You do go on to say, "This survey gives me some reasons to rethink how all Christianity and conservativism are connected. They may not be so hand in hand as we thought." And that, I think, is the key. I think Christianity--evangelical and traditional--is necessarily conservative in moral values, but not necessarily so in social policies. For example, many Greek Orthodox would vote Democratic on some social policies (taxation, welfare programs and such), but would, one hopes, be opposed to such things as abortion on demand and other "conservative" social values.

Now you raise the specter of what "born again" means. I think it safe to say that for Barna "born again" and "evangelical" are not co-extensive. In other words, though most or all "evangelical" would doubtless think of themselves as "born agains" not all "born agains" would think of themself as evangelicals; they may be charimatics, unitarian Pentecostals, or non-affiliated Christians. I think, if I'm not mistaken, Barna distinguishes "born agains" as focusing more on the experience of salvation and "evangelicals" more on the assent to specific (evangelical) beliefs. As such, there will be a distinction between the two groups, however deep the identification runs for certain respondents.

As for myself, I do consider myself to have been "born again," but I would not use that term to categorize myself as over against other Christians. Also, my experience as "born again" is not justified solely in terms of the experience and its effect, but primarily in terms of the actions done in concert with dogma and in the discernment of the Church (coupled, inescapably, with my own experience).

Do I think that Christians have tended to abandon dogmatic understandings for the "moral absolutes"? Yes. Regrettably, however, the abandonment of the study and understanding of dogma will ultimately lose them the moral absolutes they fall back on. Morality not grounded in truth can only be grounded in power. And what happens, as inevitably it will, when these moral absolutists are unable to sway those who disagree with them on moral absolutes and also lack the power to assert their will in the public square? They will have nothing. Having sold their heritage for a mass of political pottage, their pitiable "Bless me, even me, father!" will go unheeded.

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