55% of American adults discuss moral issues with others in a typical week. The Barna Group asked adults about eight moral behaviors: exposure to porn, using profanity in public, gambling, gossiping, engaging in adultery, retaliating against someone, getting drunk and lying. 28% admitted to using profanity in the previous week. 20% had gambled, 19% intentionally viewed porn, 12% gossiped, 12% got drunk and 11% lied. 9% admitted to adultery and 8% had engaged in some form of retaliation. Adults under 25 were more than twice as likely as other adults to engage in morally inappropriate behaviors. 64% used profanity in public vs. 19% of Boomers. They were also nine times more likely to have engaged in adultery (38% vs. 4%), lied (37% vs. 6%), got drunk (25% vs. 9%), gossiped (26% vs. 10%), viewed porn (33% vs. 16%) and retaliated against someone (12% vs. 5%). Liberals were twice as likely as conservatives to participate in morally questionable activities. Evangelicals were the most likely to follow traditional morality, while atheists and agnostics most unlikely. While evangelicals averaged 6% participation in each of the eight behaviors, skeptics averaged 29%. Within the Christian community, there were few differences between Protestants and Catholics in relation to moral behavior. Catholics were somewhat more likely to gamble (25% vs. 18%) and to get drunk (16% vs. 7%). George Barna says, “The consistent deterioration of the Bible as the source of moral truth has led to a nation where people become independent judges of right and wrong, basing their choices on feelings and circumstances.”
