Morality — Is there really, really a ‘right’ and ‘wrong?’
Do you believe there is an absolute, unchanging standard for the moral choices people make, a source of moral truth that does not depend on the circumstances or your own feelings?
If you believe that, you’re in the minority among your fellow Americans. The Barna Group, a major US research and polling organization that concentrates on issues in religion, finds that only 35 per cent of Americans hold that there is an absolute, external standard for moral right and wrong.
Jim Gammon, who served as evangelist with Central Church of Christ, 1986-99, discusses America’s moral condition and changing currents in religious beliefs and ethical attitudes when he appears on WCPI’s new weekly program “Focus” Thursday at 6:30 p.m. The public radio broadcasting service of the non-profit Warren County Education Foundation, WCPI is on the air at 91.3 FM.
Gammon returned to Central this week to speak at the downtown congregation’s gospel meeting and homecoming. The church invites the public to attend the last meeting in the series this evening (Wednesday) at 7 p.m. Radio listeners may tune in to a live broadcast on WCPI or on WBMC at 960 AM. The well-known preacher and Bible scholar has been evangelist for a Church of Christ congregation in Clovis, NM, since 1999.
In a one-on-one dialogue with Bill Zechman, a member of the Central congregation and one of the volunteer producers at WCPI, Gammon reacts to the findings of the latest Barna Group poll, which was released August 9 and which was based on interviews with 1,004 Americans.
Among Barna’s findings: “About half of all adults (54%) claim that they make their moral choices on the basis of specific principles or standards they believe in. Other common means of making moral choices include doing what feels right or comfortable (24%), doing whatever makes the most people happy or causes the least conflict (9%), and pursuing whatever produces the most positive outcomes for the person (7%).”
While the 2004 annual survey of religion by the Gallup organization found that 80 per cent of Americans claim to be Christian, Barna discovered that only 16 per cent of our fellow citizens name the Bible as the sole source for their ethical principles.
Also in the 30-minute Focus program, Gammon talks about the intersection of Bible teachings and contemporary Christian media and entertainment, including the wildly popular “Left Behind” series of end-times books by Tim LaHaye.