America’s preteen children are following in the spiritual footsteps of their parents and according to new research released by the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University, not only is there massive resistance by young people to traditional biblical teachings, the foundational beliefs held by today’s 8- to 12-year-olds have them on track to abandon biblical Christianity in record numbers.
The most troubling belief patterns among American preteen children revealed in the research include:
The Bible
America’s preteens are receiving an inadequate introduction to the Bible. Currently, only 60% have read even part of it. Just half say it contains information about how to lead a good life. A mere one out of four (26%) consistently consult the Bible when trying to determine right from wrong. Even fewer (21%) believe turning to the Bible is the best way to distinguish right from wrong. Genuine Christians are committed to the notion that the Bible contains the true, relevant and reliable words of God and that those words can be deployed as a moral guide. Unfortunately, only a minority of U.S. adults (46%) endorse that thinking. Worse, only half as many young people (25%) agree that the Bible is the true words of God and provides value as a guide for life.
Absolute Truth
Today’s children are not being raised in an environment in which the concept of absolute moral truth receives favorable treatment, and the widespread doubts about absolute truth are clearly affecting children.
While a robust 97% of 8- to 12-year-olds believe that there is an identifiable difference between right and wrong, a paltry one out of five (21%) believes that absolute moral truth exists. That is slightly less than the norm among adults (25%)—and indicative of the direction in which the nation is moving.
Means to Salvation
One out of every three preteens (36%) believes that the means to eternal salvation is by confessing their sins and asking Jesus Christ to save them from the consequences of their sin. That is the same proportion as found among adults (35%). The fact that 8- to 12-year-olds display a higher likelihood of acknowledging Jesus Christ as the only means to eternal life than do teenagers (21%) raises the probability that the current percentage will decline as today’s adolescents age, unless there is a concerted effort to prevent such a drop.
Life Purpose
Although nine out of 10 preteens believe that they have an important reason for living, only one-quarter of them (27%) identified knowing, loving, and serving God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength as their chief purpose in life. That lags the proportion of adults choosing that as their dominant life purpose (36%). The most common life purpose listed by preteens was making the world a better place, while the other popular description related to facilitating their own happiness.
Success
Americans are known for their relentless pursuit of success. The catch is how “success” is defined. Most adults perceive success to be achieving personal happiness or freedom, being a “good” person, or experiencing a healthy and productive life without economic oppression. Three times as many adults select such outcomes as say that consistently obeying God’s principles and commands are the primary indicator of success. Not surprisingly, our young people are following the lead of their elders. Only one out of six (17%) consider the most accurate definition of life success to be consistent obedience to God.
George Barna, director of Research at the Cultural Research Center and professor at Arizona Christian University, says, “Children are intellectual and spiritual sponges in their preteen years. They are desperately trying to make sense of the world, their identity, their purpose and how to live a meaningful and satisfying life.
“Parents, in particular, have a duty to focus on and invest in the development of their child’s worldview, which is simply their decision-making filter for life. If parents do not fill that vacuum, other sources—such as the media, the schools, and even the child’s peers—will influence that worldview construction,” he said. “The child’s worldview will inevitably develop. The critical questions are who will shape it and what worldviews will be most forcefully and consistently proposed.”
Like a growing chorus of the nation’s spiritual leaders, Barna believes this has reached crisis proportions in America. “If you follow the data, you learn that we have had a decreasing percentage of Americans embracing a biblical worldview since we started tracking this in the early 1990s. We have endured more than 30 years of consistent decline, with a very limited response by the Church. The incidence of biblical worldview among adults has dropped to just 4%, and among parents of young children it’s just 2%. You cannot get much lower.”
In conclusion, Barna placed the issue in its proper context. “Because of the strong correlation between biblical worldview and genuine Christian discipleship, we are on the precipice of Christian invisibility in this nation unless we get serious about this crisis and invest heavily in fixing what’s broken. The worldview development of children is the existential challenge facing the American Church today.”
