Kerby Anderson

You have probably heard about the Wall Street Journal and University of Chicago poll on American values. Many radio and TV programs have talked about it, and my radio guests on three separate days a week ago referred to it.

If you haven’t heard, the survey documented a remarkable change in the values that built America. For example, only about a third (38%) of respondents said patriotism was very important to them. Back when the question was asked in 1998, seven in ten (70%) said it was important.

The survey found a similar difference when asking about religion. Nearly two thirds (62%) in 1998 said religion was very important to them while just over a third (39%) said it was important today. And the survey also found that the importance of having children, involvement in their community, and hard work have also fallen.

One writer then commented that these declining values were being replaced with other values. When you remove patriotism, family values, and hard work from society, new values surface like multiculturalism, identity affiliations, and love of money. She then noted the “stark increase in deaths of despair, particularly among white men. The intentional racial and gender identity divisions are implemented by the elite classes, creating an America that hates itself and roots for its own failure.”

She also talks about the decline in what are called “third spaces.” Those are places that are not work, school, or home. In the past, that is where friendships were made, and communities were formed. Instead, that “third space has been eaten up by screen time, social media, and these activities, while they may have all the feel of camaraderie, or community, they are entirely solitary.”

This is an opportunity for Christians (pastors, parents, and teachers) to educate the next generation and encourage civic and biblical values.