God and America Part 2 - main article to come

The Barna Group of Ventura, California
A Biblical Worldview Has a Radical Effect on a Person's Life

December 1, 2003


(Ventura, CA) - Any objective social analyst would conclude that the United States faces its fair share of moral and spiritual problems. A new research study from the Barna Research Group'suggests that a large share of the nation's moral and spiritual challenges is directly attributable to the absence of a biblical worldview among Americans.

Citing the findings from a just-completed national survey of 2033 adults that showed only 4% of adults have a biblical worldview as the basis of their decision-making, researcher George Barna described the outcome. "If Jesus Christ came to this planet as a model of how we ought to live, then our goal should be to act like Jesus. Sadly, few people consistently demonstrate the love, obedience and priorities of Jesus. The primary reason that people do not act like Jesus is because they do not think like Jesus. Behavior stems from what we think - our attitudes, beliefs, values and opinions. Although most people own a Bible and know some of its content, our research found that most Americans have little idea how to integrate core biblical principles to form a unified and meaningful response to the challenges and opportunities of life. We're often more concerned with survival amidst chaos than with experiencing truth and significance."

Not Just Any Worldview

The research indicated that everyone has a worldview, but relatively few people have a biblical worldview - even among devoutly religious people. The survey discovered that only 9% of born again Christians have such a perspective on life. The numbers were even lower among other religious classifications: Protestants (7%), adults who attend mainline Protestant churches (2%) and Catholics (less than one-half of 1%). The denominations that produced the highest proportions of adults with a biblical worldview were non-denominational Protestant churches (13%), Pentecostal churches (10%) and Baptist churches (8%).

Among the most prevalent alternative worldviews was postmodernism, which seemed to be the dominant perspective among the two youngest generations (i.e., the Busters and Mosaics).

For the purposes of the research, a biblical worldview was defined as believing that absolute moral truths exist; that such truth is defined by the Bible; and firm belief in six specific religious views. Those views were that Jesus Christ lived a sinless life; God is the all-powerful and all-knowing Creator of the universe and He stills rules it today; salvation is a gift from God and cannot be earned; Satan is real; a Christian has a responsibility to share their faith in Christ with other people; and the Bible is accurate in all of its teachings.

The Difference a Biblical Worldview Makes

One of the most striking insights from the research was the influence of such a way of thinking upon people's behavior. Adults with a biblical worldview possessed radically different views on morality, held divergent religious beliefs, and demonstrated vastly different lifestyle choices.


People's views on morally acceptable behavior are deeply impacted by their worldview. Upon comparing the perspectives of those who have a biblical worldview with those who do not, the former group were 31 times less likely to accept cohabitation (2% versus 62%, respectively); 18 times less likely to endorse drunkenness (2% versus 36%); 15 times less likely to condone gay sex (2% versus 31%); 12 times less likely to accept profanity 3% versus 37%); and 11 times less likely to describe adultery as morally acceptable (4% versus 44%). In addition, less than one-half of one percent of those with a biblical worldview said voluntary exposure to pornography was morally acceptable (compared to 39% of other adults), and a similarly miniscule proportion endorsed abortion (compared to 46% of adults who lack a biblical worldview).

Among the more intriguing lifestyle differences were the lesser propensity for those with a biblical worldview to gamble (they were eight times less likely to buy lottery tickets and 17 times less likely to place bets); to get drunk (three times less likely); and to view pornography (two times less common). They were also twice as likely to have discussed spiritual matters with other people in the past month and twice as likely to have fasted for religious reasons during the preceding month. While one out of every eight adults who lack a biblical worldview had sexual relations with someone other than their spouse during the prior month, less than one out of every 100 individuals who have such a worldview had done so.

Some Groups Are More Likely to Have a Biblical Worldview

Adults who have a biblical worldview possessed a somewhat different demographic profile than those who did not. For instance, individuals who attended college were much more likely than those who did not to have this perspective (6% versus 2%, respectively). Married adults were more than twice as likely as adults who had never been wed to hold such a worldview (5% versus 2%). Whites (5%) were slightly more likely than either blacks (3%) or Hispanics (3%) to hold this ideology. One of the largest gaps was between Republicans (10% of whom had a biblical worldview), Independents (2%) and Democrats (1%).

Residents of Texas and North Carolina were more likely than people in other states to have a biblical worldview. Among the states in which such a worldview was least common were Louisiana and the six states in New England. The nation's largest state - California - was average (i.e., 4% of its residents had a biblical worldview).

Attributes such as gender, age and household income showed no statistical relationship to the possession of a biblical worldview.

Some Churches Are Helping People

The research found that one of the most effective methods of enabling people to develop a biblical worldview is by addressing seven critical questions that consistently lead to beliefs and behaviors that are in tune with biblical teaching. Outlining that process in a new book he has written as an outgrowth of the research, entitled Think Like Jesus, Barna also noted that many churches are already helping their congregants to implement such a way of addressing daily challenges and opportunities.

"The emphasis of these churches is to not only teach biblical perspectives," according to Barna, "but also to help people connect the dots of the core principles taught. Rather than simply provide people with good material and hope they figure out what to do with it, these are churches whose services, programs, events and relationships are geared to weaving a limited number of foundational biblical principles into a way of responding to every life situation. The goal is to facilitate a means of interpreting and responding to every life situation that is consistent with God's expectations. These are not perfect people, but once they catch on to the critical principles found in the Bible and train their minds to incorporate those views into their thinking, their behavior varies noticeably from the norm."


Research Source and Methodology

The data described above are from telephone interviews with a nationwide random sample of 2033 adults conducted during September through November 2003. The maximum margin of sampling error associated with the aggregate sample is ±2.2 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. All of the interviews were conducted from the Barna Research Group telephone interviewing facility in Ventura, CA. Adults in the 48 continental states were eligible to be interviewed and the distribution of respondents coincided with the geographic dispersion of the U.S. adult population. Multiple callbacks were used to increase the probability of including a reliable distribution of adults.

The data from the 2003 survey was compared with figures on worldview possession compiled from Barna Research Group surveys conducted in 2002 in order to assess the reliability of the new data. The 2002 surveys also showed that just 4% of the aggregate population and 9% of the born again segment had a biblical worldview. Other repeated measures were compared, producing virtually identical results to the current measures.

"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 "born again" is not dependent upon any church or denominational affiliation or involvement.

The Barna Research Group, Ltd. is an independent marketing research company located in southern California. Since 1984, it has been studying cultural trends related to values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors. If you would like to receive regular e-mailings of a brief overview of each new bi-weekly update on the latest research findings from the Barna Research Group, you may subscribe to this free service at the Barna Research web site (www.barna.org).


Copyright Disclaimer: All the information contained on the barna.org website is copyrighted by The Barna Group, Ltd., 1957 Eastman Ave. Ste B, Ventura, California 93003. No portion of this website (articles, graphs, charts, reviews, pictures, video clips, quotes, statistics, etc.) may be reproduced, retransmitted, disseminated, sold, distributed, published, edited, altered, changed, broadcast, circulated, or commercially exploited without the prior written permission from The Barna Group, Ltd.
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God and America part 1

The Following link was taken from KLTY 94.9 Family Friendly Morningshow Website. It is a link to a copy of President Ronald Reagan's speech to a convention in Texas on the importance of religion and morality IN POLITICS! For those who talk about separation of church and state all the time, you will have your opinions checked by the comments this man made. A wonderful speech, and a powerful message.

http://www.klty.com/mp3/reagan-audio.mp3


The next link is from the same website and is a simple compilation of speech segments from President George W. Bush and Evangelist Billy Graham.

http://www.klty.com/mp3/freedom.mp3

I have been working on compiling some information for a piece I'd like to add here, but the html is slow workings, so I will have that up as soon as possible. For now, Enjoy these links and let their messages sink in.

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Athos

Exorcism

I recently had some questions posed to me on exorcism. Should it be done?, and if so, how frequently? Should only men perform exorcisms as spiritual leaders? Is it a good thing to do, or does it cause more problems than it solves? Well, here are my answers. I would invite feetback!

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Issue #1: Frequencey

Exorcism isn’t very much of an activity in the normal sense of the term. An activity is something you do on your own decision, by your own will, as often as you choose to do it. Being that Exorcism is a battle and authority claim in the spiritual realm, I would say that it is only done (frequency-wise) upon the leading of the Holy Spirit. With that as a starting point, you would do it ONLY as often or as little as the Holy Spirit prompted you to do so. Case in point, you don’t see a situation and say to yourself, “Self, I think you should perform an exorcism right now because it seems like the thing to do. Then we’ll go have lunch.” It doesn’t work that way. It happens in specific cases [e.g. the Geserene demoniac = 1 isolated case where Jesus cast out Legion-Mat. 8:28-34, Mk. 5:1-20, Lk. 8:26-39], and it works in broad case [e.g. the bible records that Jesus went to a town and spent all day casting out evil spirits and healing the sick among the many other activities He did while He got down with His God self - Mat. 10:1,8; Luke 6:18-9:11]. So it’s not governed by frequency, but by the leading of the Holy Spirit. Note: Jesus is God, and so is the Holy Spirit so His choosing to spend all day casting out demons is no big deal on principle, it also gives him the perfect ability and right to give that authority to the disciples who later did the same exact thing. Conclusion: If the Holy Spirit of God can give Jesus (Himself…it’s that whole Trinity thing) and the disciples the same ability to cast out demons en masse or 1 by 1, then He can do the same thing today (and probably does and would more if more Christians didn’t treat the Holy Spirit as something that only worked in power 2000 years ago…..but I digress…).



Issue #2: Male or Female or Both

We must always keep in mind the context of the world-through-the-eyes-of-God. In reality, anytime someone is possessed, they have a family, friends, or church that could in fact be called upon by the Holy Spirit to be an instrument of God for the freeing of that person from that demon. With that in mind, we have the issue of headship. Many would argue that if a spiritual battle is going to take place within the life of a person, then FIRST ( not only) it would fall to the God-given head of that family to lead the effort of prayer and war against the evil spirit. That would be part of his duties as the spiritual head of the family. It is assumed by those who support this view that the leading of the Holy Spirit would by necessity go to this person because his role of head-of-family is God-established, and God doesn’t contradict Himself. If the possessed person was also a member of a local church, it would then fall to the “heads” of the church (biblically instructed to be men – aka elders, presbyters, shepherds, etc.) to assist the head of the family or to take the lead if no head of the family is available, for the same reasons as listed above. Both of these situations assume present, available, God-led men are a part of the situation. But what if there are only women available? What if a man is not willing to fulfill his role? Can we say that the Holy Spirit would never lead a woman to take on the role of authority over an evil spirit? I don’t believe that we can. When the bible mentions Jesus and His “disciples” we automatically think of “the 12”, but this is not always an accurate picture. For instance, Jesus sent out 70 of His disciples on one occasion, and the gender is not specified, it is only said that the disciples traveled 2 by 2 – Luke 10:1-24. According to Luke 24:33 and Acts 1:12-15, there were those who stayed in company with “the 12” who were women and were disciples. Could any of these women have been capable of casting out of a demon. Well, back to the headship issue. In the above contexts of headship, we would say that the leadership would fall to the men, but with no men available, the leadership would fall to God Himself. Why? Because in an exorcism, the “headship” that is being established is not between man or women, but between God and Satan. In said context, full authority and ability is at the disposal of God to call whom He wishes, and that person would not be committing the sin of setting up female headship where it should not be so, but would rather be establishing the headship of God in the possessed person’s circumstances over the powers of Satan. Also the exOrcism of a demon is in very simple terms the exErcising of the power of God over the power of not-God himself, Satan. NEVER in scripture is that ability given only to men, in fact many examples are given where women speak and act in the power and authority of God. Also, exorcism is never listed as being an issue of male/female instruction, which stands in contrast to topics such as Pastoring, or being head of household, where the position is given to be exclusively male. There is also the Great Commission of Matthew 28:18-20. Christ claims that ALL authority has been given to Him, and then, BECAUSE of that, he sends the disciples out with HIS authority at their disposal through the Holy Spirit. Exercising spiritual authority of God over the powers of Satan was considered to be a primary action of Jesus disciples while He was on Earth, and was limited only by their faith. Being that He again begins the great commission with the issue of authority, there is no reason to assume that any of Christ’s disciples should downplay that same primacy in their own lives. That would simply be the error that many Christians have fallen into in assuming that Spiritual warfare is something you only read about that would only happen to someone else. It should also be considered that women would be considered disciples under the great commission, as that commission is considered a mandate to ALL who follow Christ. Conclusion: It can be seen that not only is the exorcising of a demon a Holy Spirit-led activity occurring with the frequency of His leadership, but that the authority being established is that of God over Satan, and can therefore not be limited to men only. Women would be just as capable and probable to be asked to fill this duty.



Issue #3: Is Exorcism a good or bad thing?

Considering that a) God is never bad, wrong, evil, incorrect, misplaced, etc. in His leadership, b) retaining a demon within one’s life is never seen to be a blessing or good thing in any way physically, mentally, emotionally, or spiritually in scripture, c) exorcising of a demon is a living example of the freedom from sin found in Christ, and d) every establishing of God’s power and authority (based on issues answered above) is an opportunity for God to be glorified through the actions of His people acting in the power of His Holy Spirit, it can with all reason be assumed that exorcism is a very good thing.



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Athos