June 2007 –People who look back with sadness at the moral changes wrought by the cultural movements of the 1960s and 70s might not want to look ahead.

Research indicates that underneath the moral facade in our nation, troubling trends are threatening to make the Sexual Revolution, for example, look like a time of innocence.

That’s because young adults, by and large, appear to have abandoned traditional morality and are rushing headlong into a hedonistic free-for-all.

A moral ‘generation gap’
Such alarming news comes via a report issued by The Barna Group, an organization that focuses on cultural trends in the U.S., and especially those related to religion.

The Barna Group analyzed 16 different areas of moral and sexual behavior as well as 16 different perspectives regarding sex and morality, and compared the results from two groups. The first was those over the age of 40; the second – which was the focus of the study – was the so-called  “Baby Buster” generation, generally those in their 20s and 30s.

The data found significant differences as the older group seemed much more prone to hold to traditional moral beliefs, while the younger set departed dramatically.

This departure was seen clearly in the area of sex – both in attitudes toward sexual matters and in sexual behavior. Compared to the over-40 crowd, there was a far greater acceptance on the part of Busters toward cohabitation, sexual fantasies, sex outside marriage, homosexual activity and viewing pornography.

As might be expected, sexual behavior seemed to follow sexual attitudes. “Busters were twice as likely to have viewed sexually explicit movies or videos; two- and-a-half times more likely to report having had a sexual encounter outside marriage; and three times more likely to have viewed sexually graphic content online,” the Barna report said.

David Kinnaman, who directed the research for The Barna Group, said, “[Baby] Boomers took moral experimentation to new heights, but Busters now live in a world where such experimentation is the norm, not the exception.”

“It is rare to see such large gaps between population segments and it confirms a major shift in the way Busters think and behave sexually… ,” Kinnaman said. “We expect to see this mindset of sexual entitlement translate into increased appetites for pornography, unfiltered acceptance of sexual themes and content in media, and continued dissolution of marriages due to infidelity.”

He said many of the sexual horror stories that have been played out in the national media over the last several years – such as the instances of sexual abuse by members of the clergy – might not be “mere aberrations” but rather “symptoms of a sexually unrestrained society.”

A moral miasma
The changes in the attitudes of the nation’s young adults seem to have arisen out of the moral murkiness that has plagued our culture for almost 40 years.

On the one hand, the Barna report said, “Most Americans say they are concerned about the moral condition of the country and the vast majority of adults describe themselves as moral people.”

Such concerns are continually cropping up in studies. For example, according to the Culture and Media Institute’s National Cultural Values Survey, 74% of Americans said they believed “moral values in America are weaker than they were 20 years ago.”

On the other hand, Barna noted, “[T]he nation’s residents have difficulty agreeing on what a ‘moral’ life should look like – much less how to make ethical decisions or how to define moral standards.”

It only stands to reason that, for a system of morality to have any long-lasting effects on a culture, it must be rooted in something outside its own code of conduct. Otherwise a moral system, boiled down to its most basic justification, is simply, “Do it because we said so,” or “It’s the way we’ve always done things.”

Morality, then, must be anchored in a culture’s worldview, and that worldview is usually itself rooted in a people’s view of God and religion.

Unfortunately, our culture cannot agree on what that worldview should be. When that happens, people generally seem to retreat to the only default position left available to them: human opinion. Is it any wonder that statements like, “You have no right to judge me,” or, “It may be right for you but not for me,” seem to fill the air?

This seems to be precisely what the Busters have done. As a group they have jettisoned all external sources of morality, and with them any belief in absolute morality. “Nearly half of all pre-Busters said they view moral truth as absolute, but only 3 out of 10 Busters embraced the concept of absolute truth,” Barna said.

In turn, the concept of absolute truth appears to track with each generation’s view of God. “Two-thirds of those over 40 said humans should determine what is right and wrong morally by examining God’s principles; less than half of Busters felt this way,” the report said.

Once you take away God, what’s left? Only man is left to determine moral standards. Barna found that “nearly half of Busters said that ethics and morals are based on ‘what is right for the person,’ compared with just one-quarter of pre-Busters.”

It should come as no surprise then, that Barna’s research discovered that the morality of Busters can best be characterized as a “pragmatic, individualized form of moral decision-making.”

Naturally, when morality is rooted in human opinion, then in terms of behavior each man ends up doing what is right in his own eyes.

That is to say, a fallen human nature that is less restrained by God’s laws will, of course, act like it. Thus the relativistic and individualized morality of Busters has created “less civility, respect, or patience,” Barna’s report noted.

“Busters were twice as likely as their parents’ generation to use profanity in public, to say mean things about others behind their back, to tell something to another person that was not true, to do something to get back at someone who hurt or offended them, to take something that didn’t belong to them, and to physically fight or abuse someone,” Barna said.

A moral disconnect from religion
Perhaps most shockingly, Barna’s research also seems to reveal a scandalous moral weakness even among Busters who are “born again Christians.”