Missed The Exit Again...World views on parade

More from Barna Group, a follow up on the earlier post

Americans Not Concerned About Their Spiritual Condition

Ventura, CA) - Most Americans value their faith and regularly engage in faith practices, surprisingly few say they have specific challenges related to the development of their faith. A national survey of Christian parents commissioned by Good News Holdings and conducted by The Barna Group discovered that four out of every ten Christian parents of children between the ages of 3 and 18 said they do not face any spiritual challenges in their life...

...When asked to identify their biggest personal challenges related to faith or spirituality, the most common response related to raising moral children or youngsters with a strong faith. In total, one out of every seven parents (14%) who identified themselves as Christian listed this as their spiritual challenge. Only one other response - the need to personally invest more time in religious activities, such as reading the Bible or praying - was mentioned by at least one out of every ten parents (10%).

..One out of every three parents (34%) said having enough time to devote to their faith was a major challenge. Almost as many (30%) said helping their children to become more spiritual was a major challenge...

(David adds: note this just screams out about how modern Christians have a compartmentalized faith, a sacred/secular split, the disconnect in world views that would say " having enough time to devote to their faith was a major challenge." they see their faith as something you go do, like getting gas or taking a kid to soccer. Rather than their faith permeating everything you do. This same view of life and their faith will be passed on to the kids. If I were to say that in Romans we're called to give Jesus "Preemimence in all things" I'm sure they would say, Amen. Lord help us, we've been taken captive!)

...George Barna, author of more than three dozen books about the faith and lifestyles of Americans, pointed out that a much larger proportion of survey respondants portrayed each of these challenges more significant than was apparent when those same people were asked earlier in the survey to identify their spiritual challenges. He explained that this is common when people are not conscieous of such challenges and therefore are not seriously engaged in addressing those issues.

..An examination of various faith segments also demonstrated noteworthy differences in emphasis. Evangelical Christian parents were three times more likely than other Christian segments to identify responding to the declining morals and values of society as a major challenge. They were also notably more likely than other Christian parents to feel they failed to devote enough time to their faith - even though they invest a larger share of their time each week to faith-related activities...

"Our studies show that the faith principles and practices that a child absorbs by age thirteen boldly shapes their spirituality for the duration of their life," the researcher stated. "Parents have a greater impact on that process than anyone else." Barna also expressed surprise that the percentage of parents indicating such concern was so small. "This was a study exclusively of Christian parents with young children in their household. Given companion surveys showing that such parents often convey dismay over the eroding cultural environment for raising children, and how difficult parenting is these days, we anticipated a broader emphasis upon the challenges related to bringing up spiritually whole and healthy children."

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Where's my rolaids...