Moral Breakdown Pt2

Editors Note: In Part 1 we looked at seven items from a recent Gallup poll that helped demonstrate the moral degeneracy of the American culture.  Here we examine seven more stats that indicate where America is headed.

In part 1 of this series, we took a skim over seven moral issues that the Gallup poll studied. In this part, we will be looking at the next seven. A reminder to anyone who has forgotten, the point of these articles is not to touch on every aspect of every issue. Instead, it is intended to give a short, rapid-fire response to a major issue.

71% of Americans Believe Gambling is acceptable.

For anyone paying attention, this should be no surprise.  More and more states have been bringing in casinos, card gambling, and lotteries, and poker is popular enough it airs on a major sports channel. While the playing of the cards themselves may not be sinful, that’s up for debate, the wagering of money undoubtedly is.  The concept of stewardship appears regularly in the Bible. It refers to God giving us something and asking us to use it to His glory. Given that God owns us, He also owns our finances. Wasting our money by gambling it away ignores what God wants us to do.

70% of Americans Believe Smoking Marijuana is acceptable

This one does not surprise me, given the prevalence of harder drugs in our society. I suspect this number is actually higher but people were reticent to give their true opinion.  Analyzing this one is a bit tougher because there is no command in the Bible regarding marijuana. However, I think there is a strong Biblical principle that we also applied to alcohol in part one. Marijuana is a drug that intoxicates people. It causes them to lose control, at least to some extent and essentially serves as a liberator. When men and women are liberated from societal expectations and logical objections the sin nature takes over. For that reason, while I can’t outright say smoking marijuana is a sin, it is a gateway to harder drugs, more dangerous drugs, and it should be avoided for testimonies sake.

66% of Americans Believe Embryonic Stem Cell Research (ESCR) is acceptable.

My only surprise with this one is that it is not higher.   Most Americans have not connected the dots so let me connect them for you. ESRC uses embryonic stem cells. That wouldn’t be a problem except, to obtain these stem cells, a developing embryo must be killed.  This is abortion under another name, in the name of science. The most ironic thing about this is, ESRC has not produced ONE scientific advancement. Not one. ESRC is a failure. Yet scientists from some morbid obsession with murder, or perhaps to beat the definition of insanity (doing the same thing over and over expecting different results) continue to experiment with them. And because the general public does not understand that life begins at fertilization, they view ESRC in an overall positive light.

66% of Americans Believe Having a Child Out of Wedlock is Acceptable

Given that we have a staggering rate of single parenthood in this country, and the massive acceptance of extramarital sex seen in part one, this number did not surprise me either. If people are willing to fornicate repeatedly and call it acceptable, why should we expect them to be upset when a child is produced from that sin? This question’s results follow logically from the belief that all sex is ok so long as it is consensual and neither party is married to someone else. While we are grateful these children are not being butchered in abortion mills, it is still sad that having a child out of wedlock is viewed as morally acceptable.

36% of Americans think pornography is acceptable.

There is no way this number represents the number of Americans who view pornography at least weekly.  The biggest porn site on the internet receives billions of views per year, and there are probably millions of websites like it. Porn is a blight on society and many “performers” are trafficked into the industry, leading to a very blurred line between people doing it because they want to, and people being forced to do it.  This number should be zero.  The Bible makes it clear that even looking at a member of the opposite gender with lust in your heart is sin (Matt 5:28). And that is exactly what pornography is.

34% of Americans believe cloning an animals is acceptable

Wait….animal cloning is less acceptable than pornography? Yikes, are we in trouble!  There is nothing wrong with cloning an animal.  Period. Now obviously we shouldn’t try to increase an animal’s suffering or be cruel, but cloning an animal is perfectly acceptable. We have dominion over the earth according to Genesis. If it meets the needs or wants of man and is not being a poor steward, cloning is fine.  The fact that it rates worse than pornography just shows how sick and twisted our society has become.

20% of Americans believe Polygamy is acceptable

I mean, we’ve redefined marriage from the Biblical definition of one man and one woman for life to include two men or two women so why not make it more than two?  We wrote an article and did a podcast on polygamy so I won’t repeat myself here. Instead, I will note that, when the culture rejects the foundation of Genesis, nothing, even two people in a relationship, is safe.

Pt 3 will be published next week. We will link to the Gallup poll in that article. There may or may not be a part four, depending on how long next week’s article is before we get to wrapping things up and drawing a conclusion. 

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