Barna, who also serves as a senior fellow at Family Research Council, highlighted that within five generations, "the national incidence of adults holding a biblical worldview has plummeted from 12% to today's 4% level" -- a number expected to drop to 2% within the next 15 years.
According to the inventory data, 2024 shows "a dramatic shift in morals." For instance, the majority of adults hold that issues such as lying, abortion, gay marriage, "and the rejection of absolute moral truth" are "morally acceptable." Additionally, "Less than half of all adults embrace the Bible as their primary guide to morality." As the study made clear, "Millennials have proven to be social disruptors, reshaping the moral belief and behavior norms established by Boomers and Busters [Gen X]." And Gen Z has merely followed in their footsteps.
The research also revealed "young adults tend to form their worldview primarily through feelings and personal experiences, rather than logic and facts." And over the years, AWVI noted, there have been notable increases of divorce, crime, war, terrorism, bullying, pedophilia, and child trafficking, which inevitably affects younger generations who have lived with these things as a "part of their life's narrative" shaping the way they view right and wrong.
Drawing his own conclusions from the report on Friday's episode of "Washington Watch," David Closson, FRC's director of the Center for Biblical Worldview, agreed with Barna that the term "new morality" is an "appropriate way" to describe current societal circumstances. "There really is a new morality that is guiding the American public," he said, "and I think what we can trace this to is that there has been a tectonic shift in the animating worldview that drives American adults." READ MORE