Worldview And Millennials, Part 2 – With George Barna: What is the dominant worldview in America today? What is wrong with Evangelical churches in America? What percentage of American adults think they have a Biblical worldview? What percentage actually have a biblical worldview? What happens when you have a nation full of people who believe they are something that they are not? Tune in to hear George Barna discuss the trajectory of Biblical worldview in America!

Air Date: 01/25/2022

Guest: George Barna

On-air Personalities: David Barton, Rick Green, and Tim Barton

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Transcription note:  As a courtesy for our listeners’ enjoyment, we are providing a transcription of this podcast. Transcription will be released shortly. However, as this is transcribed from a live talk show, words and sentence structure were not altered to fit grammatical, written norms in order to preserve the integrity of the actual dialogue between the speakers. Additionally, names may be misspelled or we might use an asterisk to indicate a missing word because of the difficulty in understanding the speaker at times. We apologize in advance.

Faith and the Culture

Rick:

Welcome to the intersection of faith and the culture. It’s WallBuilders Live, where we’re talking about today’s hottest topics on policy, faith, the culture, other things that affect you and your family, your backyard, your community, the state, and our nation. All of those topics, though, we address them from a biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective.

When you take those three perspectives, when you look at what its history teaches, what works, what doesn’t work, we can learn from those things. When you look at what the Bible teaches us, greatest wisdom ever in the history of the world, of course, and it’s God giving us the answers to every issue in life. 

Sometimes we just don’t look close enough so that we can then apply it to what’s happening today. Or sometimes we even think it’s outdated or doesn’t apply to some of the things in our particular culture. But the Bible has answers for every question and every issue of the day.

And then, of course, that constitutional perspective, we love diving into the foundational principles that made America the greatest nation in history. And knowing that constitutional perspective helps us to apply that biblical and historical perspective to what’s happening in our nation right now in this particular culture. And also at our website, wallbuilders.com, you can get a lot of great tools for yourself and your family. They will equip and inspire you.

And then it wallbuilderslive.com our second website, that’s specifically for our radio program. You can get archives the program. You can back several weeks, if you missed a program and you’d like to listen to it, you can do it right there at wallbuilderslive.com. Also at wallbuilderslive.com, please consider making a donation, check out that donate button. Think about becoming one of the listeners that supports WallBuilders Live.

We call it a listener-supported program which requires supporters that are listening, actually supporting and we do. We have tons of you across the nation that do that. Thank you. Thank you for making those contributions. 

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We’re here with David Barton, America’s premier historian and our founder at WallBuilders. My name is Rick Green. I’m a former Texas legislator and thrilled to be a part of this program and get to serve with these guys. Tim Barton is our third in this little trio. He is the president of WallBuilders and a national speaker and pastor. We’re looking forward to being able to bring you great interviews as well. But today we’re going back to the ProFamily Legislators Conference. Yesterday we started with George Barna’s presentation to the legislators, we got about halfway through. Here’s George Barna at the ProFamily Legislators Conference.

What Percentage Have a Biblical Worldview?

George:

What’s the problem? Look at that you got 51% who say they have a biblical worldview, look up at the top, only 6% of adults actually have a biblical worldview. Now, that doesn’t mean that they know and live out the Bible perfectly. When I first started doing this research, I thought, well, that should be the goal. And I was disabused of that notion by a number of wise pastors who said, no, no, no, remember, we’re all imperfect. We’re all in process. And so if you’re looking for perfect people, biblical worldview is going to be zero.

But if we look for people who more often than not are believing, and following biblical thinking, that’s where we’re getting the 6%. We do an exhaustive survey at the beginning of every year, where we look at beliefs and behavior, 6% have a biblical worldview. Now, here’s the problem. 

When you’ve got a nation where most people think they are something that they’re not, the chances of them being willing to change are very slim. Because when you talk to them about the importance of emptying their worldview of all the garbage that it contains, they think, oh, he’s talking to them. They don’t think that you’re talking directly to that individual. And so that’s part of the issue we have.

The other issue that we have is, where did I have that slide? Remember this? It would be much easier if what we had was a society where, people instead of having a biblical worldview, let’s say they were predominantly postmodern, most of their thinking was postmodern, or most of their thinking was nihilistic or they were predominantly Marxist in their orientation. That would be easy, because then you know what to attack, then you know what to argue against.

But when you’ve got a population of people who are buying bits and pieces from many different competing worldviews, you don’t even know what to attack because they could be coming from anywhere on that map. And so that makes it much more difficult. We’re up against a very clever, insidious enemy, who understands if I make the target too simple and too obvious, they’re going to blow it up. But the idea here is that we can’t do that because we don’t even know what the target is half the time.

So, we’re in this situation where even when we look at how many people are born again Christians, you got 35% of the population who claimed to be that. We know, theologically speaking, at least half of them are not. So once again, don’t be seduced by the self-identification labels that people are embracing. 

The Trajectory

When we look at it theologically, we find that about 28% of Americans might be construed to be born again, only God really knows. We just try to estimate based on what we believe the scriptures are teaching us. But obviously, a much lower number. But look at the fact that that’s still about five times more than we have of people with a biblical worldview. I’ll get to that in just a moment.

But if we look at the trajectory of biblical worldview in America, it’s certainly going in the wrong direction. When we started doing the survey we’re doing now back in 1995, what we found was about 12% of Americans had a biblical worldview. We’ve cut that in half in just 25 years. And so obviously, we’ve got to change what we’re doing.

Because look at this. I mean, yeah, we talked about 6%. If we look at it generationally, with each succeeding generation, the number is decreasing. And so we’re down with millennials at 4% who have a biblical worldview. And by the way, the latter half, it’s even lower. I’ll talk about that in a few minutes.

Look at people who attend the evangelical churches, which are partly defined as churches that believe that the Bible is God’s truth. It contains no errors. It’s infallible. And yet only one out of five people attending those churches have a biblical worldview. I do a whole session on what’s wrong with evangelical churches, and it revolves around the fact that we’re not teaching God’s truth as truth. And so that’s part of it.

We can look at again theologically defined born-again Christians, only one out of five of them have a biblical worldview. Pastors across the country, when we do our research, we asked them, how they structure their ministries, how it’s going, they tell us that’s who they based their ministry on. That’s the backbone of the church, the born-again folks in their church. Most of those people don’t have a clue what God’s Word teaches. Or if they do, they’ve chosen not to limit.

What Are They Buying Into?

So, we look at, well, if it’s not a biblical worldview, what are they buying into? Here’s the ironic thing. If we look at the various worldviews that people can choose from, the biblical worldview is the most popular single, comprehensive, coherent worldview in America. It wins the race with 6%. That’s pathetic.

I mean, why run the race? But I mean, you look at all these others, it’s not the people are saying, oh, yeah, I want to be Marxist. I want to be a secular humanist. Oh, post-modernism is for me. What we find is they don’t even know what those things are. But they’re exposed to the principles of each of those ideologies. And they find the principles more attractive than biblical principles. And that’s why they’re buying into them. That’s why they’re drawing from all these different areas.

Rick:

Alright, friends, got interrupt just for a second get to take a quick break. We’ll be right back. You’re listening to WallBuilders Live.

AMERICA’S HISTORY

This is David Barton with another moment from America’s history. Since the Ten Commandments have formed the basis of civil law in the western world for over 2000 years, an individual’s more likely to find a copy of them in a government building rather than a religious one. Yet amazingly, numerous rulings over recent years now make it unconstitutional to display the commandments in many public arenas.

Consider what Founding Father John Adams said about this. He declared, “The moment the idea is admitted into society, the property is not as sacred as the laws of God, anarchy and tyranny commence. If thou shalt not covet and thou shalt not steal were not commandments of heaven, they must be made inviolable precepts in every society before it can be civilized or made free.

John Adams believed that no society could remain civilized if separated from the Ten Commandments. For more information on God’s hand in American history, contact WallBuilders at 1808REBUILED.

Rick:

Welcome back to WallBuilders Live. Thanks for staying with us today. We’re going to dive right back in with George Barna speaking at the ProFamily Legislators Conference.

ProFamily Legislators Conference

George:

The elephant in the room, so to speak, is thing at the bottom, the big line that goes all the way across. It’s like inflation under Biden, that thing is going. And that’s syncretism. Syncretism, that is actually the dominant worldview in America today. Now the ironic thing about that is that syncretism isn’t even a worldview. All it means is that you’ve taken a lot of disparate pieces and thrown them together into an unorthodox customized mix. And that’s what’s happening. 88% of Americans are living with syncretistic worldviews. It’s hard to get a grip on them because they don’t make sense.

Now, before I move on to tying this to the millennial generation, which is where I want to wind up, does this whole worldview issue matter? I know you guys are thinking about educational policy and tax policy, and all these other great things, praise God, that you’re there to think about. But worldview has to be the underpinning of even all of your policy choices. 

Does worldview matter? Let me show you. And I’ve got a whole presentation just of these kinds of charts. If you ever want your eyes to glaze over, call me, I’ve got it. I’m just going to show you two.

One of them, I’ve chosen a few things to show you. What a dramatic influence having a biblical worldview makes. And so in that first column of data, those are people who have a biblical worldview. That middle column of data are people who do not have a biblical worldview. That last column of data just shows you the ratio between the two. But look at some of these seminal issues that each of us has to wrestle with in life, whether or not there’s absolute moral truth. People with a biblical worldview by an 11:1 margin are likely to say, of course, there is.

Success, what is success? 98% of people with a biblical worldview would say it’s consistent obedience to God. Less than one out of five other Americans would concur with that. What do you do with wealth? Someone with a biblical worldview would say, well, it’s resources that are given to you by God to invest in advancing His Kingdom. 

Relationships

It’s not for you to squander on your own desires and pleasures. It’s to advance his agenda. And yet, only about one out of six people across America who do not have a biblical worldview would agree with that. Yeah.

Sexuality, is it okay to have sexual relations with somebody or not married to? Most Americans would say, well, sure, as long as you feel at that time that you love them, you might even get married to them. Yeah, perfectly acceptable, morally acceptable. 97% of people with a biblical worldview would say absolutely not. These kinds of things are what we’re talking about. Having a biblical worldview dramatically changes the way that you understand yourself and your world.

We can look at it even in terms of politics. And whether or not somebody has a conservative ideology in different areas, social policies, fiscal realities, governance, the extent and power and authority of government, those things, dramatic differences. Who people voted for in the 2020 election?

People with a biblical worldview, 80% of them voted for Donald Trump. Only 20% voted for Joe Biden. Very different kind of reality among people who don’t have a biblical worldview.

So, when we talk about the importance of worldview, realize that every decision that every person makes, doesn’t matter what it is, what they think and do about pornography, or abortion, or homeschooling, or the poor, LGBTQ, kinds of issues, all of those decisions are based on people’s worldview. And that’s why I say that worldview isn’t just a game-changer. I believe that worldview is the game. And it’s because we do what we believe, we’ve been called to be like Christ, and that means we’re first going to have to think like him so that we can live like him.

Now, given all of that, what I want to do is transition for the last bit of time that I have here to talk about this other big project that we just released two weeks ago. And this is all about millennials. And what I want to do is relate some of this information about what we’re discovering related to worldview, to who Millennials are, how they’re choosing to live, and what you can do to affect the future, given who they are, and how they’re choosing to live.

Rick:

Alright, friends, quick break, we’ll be right back. You’re listening to WallBuilders Live.

CONSTITUTION ALIVE!

Have you ever wanted to learn more about the United States Constitution, but just felt like man, the classes are boring, or it’s just that old language from 200 years ago, or I don’t know where to start? People want to know, but it gets frustrating because you don’t know where to look for truth about the constitution either.

Well, we’ve got a special program for you available now called Constitution Alive! With David Barton and Rick Green. And it’s actually a teaching done on the Constitution at Independence Hall in the very room where the constitution was framed. We take you both to Philadelphia, the cradle of liberty and Independence Hall and to the WallBuilders’ library, where David Barton brings the history to life to teach the original intent of our Founding Fathers.

We call it the Quickstart Guide to the Constitution, because in just a few hours through these videos, you will learn the citizen’s guide to America’s constitution, you’ll learn what you need to do to help save our constitutional republic. It’s fun, it’s entertaining, and it’s going to inspire you to do your part to preserve freedom for future generations. It’s called Constitution Alive with David Barton and Rick Green. You can find out more information on our website now at wallbuilders.com.

Rick:

Welcome back to WallBuilders Live. Thanks for staying with us today. We’re going to dive right back in with George Barna speaking at the ProFamily Legislators Conference.

Why Focus on Millennials?

George:

Why focus on millennials? There aren’t too many of them in this room. But the reason that I want to do that is because they are, maybe, the most significant generation for us to be focusing on in terms of policy prescriptions. Now, we could also talk about children. I mean, if you got me alone in an alley and threatened to beat me within an inch of my life, I’d say it’s children, okay, because I always come back to that. Really, the future of everything comes down to children and how you equip them for life.

And as we talked about before, a worldview developed between the ages of one and 13, children, children, children. Part of the big reason churches aren’t effective in America today, they waste all their money on adults. Too late, they are who they are, they don’t change. The best thing you can be doing is putting money into adults simply to equip them to develop the worldview of their children. If we did that, that would radically change the country in two generations. But we’re not doing that. So, anyway.

Many reasons I would say why millennials are very significant. There are a lot of different things. By the way this report, you can get it at culturalcenter.com, download it for free. You can download the whole report and read about all this in greater detail. I’m going to fly through what I think are the four most significant things that the research showed. And these relate to with millennials, their sense of purpose and meaning in life, some of the mental and emotional health issues that are facing the generation, where they’re at in terms of relationship, as well as faith.

And again, I come to all these things because you ultimately can have influence on these. Let’s start with the area of purpose. Blow out number one, 75% of millennials, who in the research we define as people born between 1984 and 2002. If you talk to 10 sociologists, you’ll get 12 different age cohorts of whom Millennials are. You talk to the media, they don’t have a clue. I mean, they come up with a generation as a 10 year period of time. We went back to the scriptures tried to figure out what is that define as a generation, or speak of as a generation. That’s why we came up with what we did. We can talk about that later.

Addressing the Problem

But blow out number one, three out of four Millennials, 18 to 36-year-old, 37-year-old people say they have no purpose in life. They’re searching for their purpose in life. Really? You’re an adult, and you’re searching for your purpose in life? Now, understand, I’m against the whole Sean Hannity approach of constantly battering the generation as a bunch of narcissistic snowflakes. These are children. And if I’m a disciple of Jesus, I’m called to love these people, not beat the daylights out of them.

So I’ve got to try to figure out how can I address that problem because this is obviously a problem. And this is the kind of thing that will keep you from developing a biblical worldview and therefore being able to live like a successful human being. Because you know what God requires of you, you’re willing to be obedient to that and you recognize by the way that biblically, you do have a purpose given to you from God.

See, but some of the things that keep them from being effective in this arena are the fact that only one out of five of them believe that life is sacred. Once again, let me tell you that the minute media has led us down the wrong path. Can you imagine that? And so we’re in this situation where the media continually tell us that this young adult generation is the most pro-life generation in the history of America.

Baloney. They are not. Why not? Because they don’t even believe that life is sacred. They don’t believe that life is from God. They don’t believe that life has any inherent value.

And so when you start to put all of these things together, what you find is that yeah, things are happening with this generation, like the highest suicide rate of any young adult generation we’ve ever seen. Why is that? Well, why would they be? They have no reason to get out of bed in the morning. They don’t believe that life has any value. Put it together. Why keep going? It’s tough to get out of bed and propel yourself through the day. I get this. But we’ve got to stop this by helping to address that issue.

Rick:

Alright, friends, got interrupt just for a second, got to take a quick break. We’ll be right back. You’re listening to WallBuilders Live.

PATRIOT ACADEMY

Have you noticed the vacuum of leadership in America? We’re looking around for leaders of principle to step up and too often, no one is there. God is raising up a generation of young leaders with a passion for impacting the world around them. They’re crying out for the mentorship and leadership training they need. Patriot Academy was created to meet that need.

Patriot Academy graduates now serve in state capitals around America in the halls of Congress, in business, in the film industry, in the pulpit, and every area of the culture. They’re leading effectively and impacting the world around them. Patriot Academy is now expanding across the nation and now’s your chance to experience this life-changing week that trains champions to change the world.

Visit patriotacademy.com for dates and locations. Our core program is still for young leaders 16 to 25 years old, but we also now have a citizen track for adults, so visit the website today to learn more. Help us fill the void of leadership in America join us in training champions to change the world at patriotacademy.com.

AMERICA’S HISTORY

This is David Barton with another moment from America’s history. Federal Courts have made several amazing rulings recently ordering the removal of across from cemetery, banning religious holiday displays, removing the Ten Commandments from public view, prohibiting student prayers whether verbal or silent and numerous other similar restrictive rulings.

As one current Justice has noted, “The Supreme Court has now become ‘A National Board of theology.’ Our founding fathers would be astounded. They designed the First Amendment to keep the federal courts completely out of this issue.” As Thomas Jefferson forcefully declared, “I consider the federal government as prohibited by the Constitution from meddling with religious exercises. The First Amendment was designed to keep decisions on religious expression out of the federal courts and in the hands of the local communities.”

For more information on God’s hand in American history, contact WallBuilders at 1808REBUILD.

Rick:

Welcome back to WallBuilders Live. Thanks for staying with us today. We’re going to dive right back in with George Barna speaking at the ProFamily Legislators Conference.

Looking for Purpose

George:

It’s not that they haven’t tried. What we found is that they’ve tried to find purpose in all kinds of ways. It’s perhaps the most active generation politically and socially active generation that we’ve seen since the baby boomers, certainly. But they found that that kind of political public, civic engagement is not giving them that sense of purpose that they’re looking for.

They’ve tried volunteering and donating in community organizations. And they found that while that’s nice and they’re glad they did it. It’s not given them the sense of purpose they’re looking for. They’ve pretty much given up on religious faith as something that might help instill their sense of purpose. I’ll talk about that in a few minutes when we talk about transitions in their faith. See, but despite all of the activity that they’ve gone through, they haven’t found that purpose.

And so, when they look at their life, they don’t feel like it’s all that worth living. They’re not that satisfied with it. We’ve looked at a number of different dimensions, the highest proportion of life activity for which we found these they’re likely to say they’re very satisfied, was less than 4 out of 10 of them saying that they’re very satisfied with their most intimate relationships, their spouse, or the people that they love. 38%, with their intimate relationships? That’s as good as it gets. That’s sad. That’s sad.

Worldview And Millennials, Part 2 – With George Barna

Rick:

Hey, friends, we’re out of time for today. That was George Barna you were just listening to as he was speaking at the ProFamily Legislators Conference. He’s the most listened-to pollster in the country. His research and data is absolutely incredible. You should check out his books as well. In fact, he’s got one with David Barton called ‘U-Turn’ that you can get a link to today at our website wallbuilderslive.com.

Of course, while you’re there if you missed any of our other programs from Foundations of Freedom Thursday to the interviews Monday through Wednesday, and some of our Constitution programming that we air periodically here as well, all of that’s available there at wallbuilderslive.com.

As always, I would like to encourage you and remind you to please hover over and then click on the donate button there at the website. That does a lot of things, folks. I know this is typically where you might tune me out because I’m closing out the program. But I’m asking you to listen just for this last 20 seconds or so. When you donate to WallBuilders Live, you’re literally helping to save the country. I know that sounds like an exaggeration. But what it does is it allows us to equip more citizens with truth and to inspire them to go take action in their communities and that impacts your life, it impacts my life.

George Barna with us again tomorrow, we’ll pick up right where we left off today. And you’ll get the conclusion of that presentation he gave there at the ProFamily Legislators Conference which by the way, you want to tell your legislator friends about. It’s a great weekend for them each year to come and share ideas and sharpen each other’s countenance and take great ideas back to their home states and their state legislators. We’ll pick up the conclusion tomorrow right here, don’t miss it on WallBuilders Live.