1

The Majority Does Not Determine Morality

It’s always nice to be able to point to the polls when they support your position. But polling, when done accurately, does nothing more than tell you what other people think. And just because you have the majority on your side doesn’t mean you are right. In fact, when it comes to morality, the majority is often at odds with the Bible, which sets the standard of morality for practicing Christians.

But this should come as no surprise.

After all, Jesus famously said, “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Matthew 7:13–14).

As the related saying goes, the road to destruction is broad.

Ironically, a Gallup article from June, 2018 indicated that, “Forty-nine percent of Americans say the state of moral values in the U.S. is ‘poor’ — the highest percentage in Gallup’s trend on this measure since its inception in 2002. Meanwhile, 37 percent of U.S. adults say moral values are ‘only fair,’ and 14 percent say they are ‘excellent’ or ‘good.’”

So, almost half of the country thinks that the moral values of the country are “poor,” leading to an obvious question: Are we right about our morals being wrong? If so, then why are so many of us immoral?

Gallup reported in May of this year that, “A majority of Americans (63 percent) continue to say same-sex “marriage” should be legal, on par with the 64 percent to 67 percent Gallup has recorded since 2017.”

As recently as 1996, however, only 27 percent of Americans believed same-sex “marriage” should be legal.

As for same-sex relationships in general (outside of marriage), Gallup reports that in 1987, 57 percent of Americans said that consenting, adult relationships between gays or lesbians should not be legal while only 32 percent said they should be legal. By 2019, those numbers had more than flipped, with only 26 percent saying those relationships should not be illegal and 73 percent saying they should.

The Gallup chart is quite graphic, with the numbers crisscrossing somewhat through 2004 and then becoming an ever-widening gap from roughly 2005.

Are these numbers significant? Absolutely.

Do they point to major social shifts? Obviously, they do.

Are they great news for LGBT activists? Without a doubt.

Do they prove anything when it comes to determining what is moral? No, they do not.

During the time period from 2003 to 2017, support for polygamy in America rose from 7 percent to 17 percent, an even more dramatic shift from a statistical point of view. And it’s up to 18 percent in 2019.

Gallup noted that this “may simply be the result of the broader leftward shift on moral issues Americans have exhibited in recent years. Or, as conservative columnist Ross Douthat notes in his New York Times blog, ‘Polygamy is bobbing forward in social liberalism’s wake …’ To Douthat and other social conservatives, warming attitudes toward polygamy is a logical consequence of changing social norms — that values underpinning social liberalism offer ‘no compelling grounds for limiting the number of people who might wish to marry.’”

Gallup also observed that, “It is certainly true that moral perceptions have significantly, fundamentally changed on a number of social issues or behaviors since 2001 — most notably, gay/lesbian relations, having a baby outside of wedlock, sex between unmarried men and women, and divorce.”

Interestingly, Gallup also noted that there were social reasons that help to explain some of this larger leftward shift (including the rise in divorce and changes in laws; another obvious reason is that people have friends and family members who identify as gay or lesbian).

In contrast, “there is little reason to believe that Americans are more likely to know or be polygamists now than at any other time in the past. But there is one way Americans may feel more familiar with or sympathetic to polygamy: television.”

But of course.And it is television (and movies and the print media and social media) which has helped change public opinion on same-sex relationships as well, along with other moral issues. (I have documented this for years now; for detailed information on TV and movies through 2011, see here.)A recent article on the Oprah Magazine was titled, “Pete Buttigieg’s Husband Chasten Has an Incredible Backstory.” But the article’s more important point was found in the subtitle: “With a win for Pete, Chasten would become First Gentleman of the United States.”

Yes, let’s normalize this concept too: The First [Gay] Gentleman! Let’s get used to this new concept – an utterly wrong and immoral concept – using Pete and Chasten as our lovable role models. It’s the new normal!

Remember: We’re not talking about a female president and her husband, who would become the “First Gentleman of the United States.”

We’re talking a male president with a male spouse who would be the “First Gentleman of the United States.” That’s quite a different story.

Yet it’s a story that many Americans might soon be at home with, which proves that the majority does not determine morality.

Morality must be determined on wholly other grounds and argued for holistically.

When the majority embraces morality, that bodes well for a nation. When it’s the opposite, look out.

As Proverbs 14:34 states, “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.”


This article was originally published at AskDrBrown.com.



Last Call for Event with Dr. Del Tackett

Earlier this week, I wrote an article promoting this weekend’s IFI Worldview Conference with Dr. Del Tackett and the Truth Project.  At that time, I underscored the importance of intentionally pursuing a biblical worldview. A recent article written by Dr. Frank Newport of Gallup gives us a striking example of how quickly and effectively biblical truth is being undermined in our culture and why worldview is vital.

According to Dr. Newport, over the past 13 years, attitudes about the morality of homosexual relationships have shifted enormously from forty percent acceptance to almost sixty percent acceptance. In the same article, Dr. Newport points out that church attendance is a good predictor of how people view the moral acceptability of homosexual relationships. According to these surveys, sixty-five percent of those attending church once a week thought homosexual relationships were wrong. On the other end of the spectrum, eighty-one percent of those who never went to church thought that homosexual relationships were acceptable.

We can clearly see how the preaching and teaching of God’s Word informs the worldview of those who have at least weekly exposure.

That is why The Truth Project and this weekend’s event with Dr. Del Tackett is so important. Dr. Tackett will teach you and your family the importance of pursuing a biblical worldview. If you are concerned about the downward spiral of our culture and want to take seriously the challenge to be salt and light, join us for an exciting two days of training and equipping.

Invite your pastor, relatives, and neighbors! Students get in free with an ID!  (Click HERE for a flyer.)

What:  IFI Worldview Conference with Dr. Tackett
 
When:  Fri. 7-9 PM & Sat. 10 AM to 3:30 PM
 
Where:  Medinah Baptist Church, 900 Foster Ave, Medinah, IL 60157 (map)
 
How much:  $20 per person/$50 per family

Register-Now-Button-Orange

Teach me Your way, O Lord;
I will walk in Your truth;
Unite my heart to fear Your name.
~Psalm 86:11


SAVE the DATE:  May 7th: IFI will be hosting our “Islam in America: A Christian Perspective” forum with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, more info HERE.




Gallup Poll Finds More Americans Pro-Life Than Pro-Abortion, The “New Normal”

The Gallup released the results of a new survey confirming, for the third time in the last year, that more Americans call themselves pro-life than “pro-choice” on abortion. That’s enough for the respected polling firm to say a pro-life majority is the “new normal” in the United States.

According to a May 3-6 Gallup poll, 47 percent of Americans say they are pro-life on abortion versus 45 percent who say they are “pro-choice,” supporting legal abortions.

This is nearly identical to the 47% to 46% division Gallup found last July, which was down from the 51-42 percent split favoring the pro-life position last May.

Because this is the third consecutive time Gallup has found more Americans taking the pro-life position, the polling firm calls the results “a real change in public opinion.”

Looking at the Gallup polling data dating back to 1995, the pro-life movement has been successful in changing public opinion on abortion — as Gallup found a 56-33 percent pro-abortion split in 1995. That 23 percent pro-abortion majority has shifted 25 percent towards the pro-life position to the pro-life majority the movement against abortion enjoys today.

Massachusetts Citizens for Life president Anne Fox credits that shift to the pro-life movement’s focus on legislation such as a partial-birth abortion ban that highlights how abortion kills unborn children.

“The battles we have had to fight at the legislative level, Partial Birth Abortion Ban and Obamacare among them, and at the political level (which provides our only chance to get abortion into the media) are the cause of these positive moves in public opinion,” she said.

“You and I are working to educate people about the value of every human life and we are succeeding,” she added.

The new Gallup poll presents other good news for the pro-life movement.

“All age groups have become more attached to the pro-life label since 2005, with particularly large increases among young adults and those aged 50 to 64 years,” the poll noted.

Meanwhile, men and women have also become more likely to identify as pro-life, with the increase among women coming mainly since 2008, whereas the increase in men started after 2006.

Conservative writer Ed Morrissey notes that the Gallup poll found 18 percent more Americans say abortion is morally wrong than say it is morally right.

He suggests the pro-life number is moving up because people are internalizing that through people they know who have experienced the pain of an abortion and are taking that message to heart.

“We are looking at a cultural shift on abortion, where its perceived morality (consistently rejected by majorities over the same period of time) has finally come into closer relationship with personal identification on the issue,” he said. “It’s not the political divide that’s driving these numbers – but it may be that the cultural shift has started to impact political identification as well. If so, pro-choice Democrats could find themselves in a minority party in the next several years.”

Gallup’s own conclusion is that politics are playing a role as Republicans an independents become more pro-life and Democrats more pro-abortion.

Republicans have become more likely to call themselves pro-life since polling conducted in 2003/2004, as have Republican-leaning independents since 2005/2006. Independents who lean to neither party also became more likely to call themselves “pro-life” between 2003/2004 and 2005/2006, but have since held steady.

Democrats’ self-identification with the pro-life position has moved in the other direction, declining from 37% in 2003/2004 to 31% in 2009/2010. Among independents who lean Democratic, there has been no movement in either direction.

“Barring evidence that Americans are growing more wary about the morality of abortion per se, the trends by party identification suggest that increased political polarization may be a factor in Republicans’ preference for the “pro-life” label, particularly since Barack Obama took office,” Gallup notes.

“Whatever the cause, the effect is that the pro-life label has become increasingly dominant among Republicans and to a lesser degree among independents, while the pro-choice label has become more dominant among Democrats,” the polling firm concludes.