Gallup Reveals the Obvious: Our Moral Collapse Continues

Gallup is out with its latest “moral acceptability” survey. On 19 issues, Americans were asked, “In general, do you find the following morally acceptable.” The responses were ranked on a scale from “highly acceptable” to “highly unacceptable.” There was one issue—birth control, with 90% approval—that rated “highly acceptable” and nine, with approvals from 57% to 69%, that rated “largely acceptable.”

Of those 10 issues, the response to seven of them is Exhibit A in the case of the collapse of the family in America that we have witnessed the last few decades. On two of the other three issues—wearing animal fur, and medical testing on animals—Gallup wasted its time. What another sad indictment on our culture that one of the oldest, most distinguished research companies in the world sees fit to deem issues that result in the clothing of humans and advancements in medicine as morally questionable.

Of the seven issues that have direct impact on American families, along with birth control, there’s divorce, sex between an unmarried man and a woman (otherwise known as fornication), stem cell research using human embryos, gambling, out of wedlock births, and homosexual behavior.

Certainly not all of these issues involve things that are intrinsically evil. There certainly can be a moral case made for both birth control and divorce in certain situations. Also, though out of wedlock births almost always are the result of an immoral act at some point, given the prevalence of abortion (which, according to Gallup, 42% of Americans deem as “morally acceptable”) in our culture, choosing life is never the wrong choice.

Notice that, of the seven issues highlighted, six of them revolve around sex. This is no surprise in a culture that is obsessed with sex. As John MacArthur noted several years ago, the war that is raging between the City of God, or biblical Christianity, and the City of Man, or the satanic world system, surrounds one single area: sex. MacArthur observed that, “Within the moral realm in our society the conflict is almost exclusively about sex.”  Abortion, fornication, homosexuality, divorce, etc., he added, are all sexual issues.

Thus, it is also no surprise that out of the desire to do whatever we want to do sexually, biblical morality is increasingly abandoned and most Americans have decided to do “what is right in their own eyes.” Things that Americans once overwhelmingly considered immoral, to the point that many of such things were also illegal, have become popular to the point that, not only are such things now legal, but it is also easy to find churches in the U.S. that give their blessing to these behaviors.

Gallup reveals that it has been tracking annually the moral acceptability of most (12) of these issues since 2001 and the rest since 2002 (though the earliest I can find the question about porn use in the poll is 2011). In that short period of time we have witnessed a significant increase in the acceptability of many of the [im]moral issues, but particularly homosexual behavior—38% acceptability in 2002 to 58% acceptability in this year’s poll. As recently as 1961, sodomy was a felony in every state in the U.S. Additionally, every other sexually related issue in Gallup’s polling has gained in popularity since Gallup began its tracking.

Unsurprisingly, those identifying as Democrats have led the way in the increase of the acceptability of many of these [im]moral issues. For example, in 2003 52% of Democrats viewed having a child out of wedlock as morally acceptable. The number this year is 72%. Similarly, from 2003 to 2014, Democrats’ support for the moral acceptability of abortion went from 43% to 59%. Likewise, over the last dozen years, on every other [im]moral issue, Democrats have become significantly more “tolerant.”

In contrast, on out of wedlock births, moral acceptance by Republicans is unchanged (40%) from 2003 to 2014. Over the same period, the moral acceptance of abortion by Republicans has seen only the slightest increase: 27% to 28%. Democrats are also much more likely to support allowing gays to adopt than are Republicans.

Of course, as behaviors become more popular—as the immoral is deemed moral—then we see them occurring more often. The morally bankrupt media assists greatly in helping to paint the immoral as moral, often portraying good as evil and evil as good. Thus, whatever stigma was attached to immoral activity wanes from year to year.

For example, out of wedlock births has been steadily increasing from a rate of about 5% of all births in the U.S. in 1960, to over 40% of all births today. Likewise, U.S. marriage rates are at an all-time low. Porn performers and prostitutes seek legal legitimacy and “moral” acceptance, while transvestites grace the cover of our “distinguished” news magazines.

Ready to push the envelope of immorality even further, Time Magazine joyfully declares, “Nearly a year after the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage, another social movement is poised to challenge deeply held cultural beliefs.” Time goes on to conduct a very sympathetic interview with Laverne Cox, a man who is living his life as a woman. Of course, in this “mixed up, muddled up, shook up world,” this is something we are supposed to celebrate.

As schools begin to accommodate the transgendered, as states pass laws giving students the “right” to use whichever bathroom or locker room they feel like, as athletic departments seriously debate banning the use of gender pronouns, how long before Gallup decides it is time to ask Americans about their moral acceptance of transgenderism?

As our culture continues its descent into more and greater immorality, perhaps the best question to ask is “How long?” How long until families led by fathers and mothers are the minority? How long until it is no longer legal to speak or write the truth, as revealed by God, on sexual issues? How long before America wakes up? How long before we are past the point of no return in this moral collapse?

How long before we become as those described in the Psalms? “So I gave them over to the stubbornness of their heart, to walk in their own devices.” (Psalm 81:12) The great Charles Spurgeon provides the perfect insight here: “No punishment is more just or more severe than this. If men will not be checked, but madly take the bit between their teeth and refuse obedience, who shall wonder if the reins are thrown upon their necks, and they are let alone to work out their own destruction. It were better to be given up to lions than to our hearts’ lusts.”

“‘[T]o walk in their own devices.’ –There was no doubt as to what course they would take, for man is everywhere willful and loves his own way,—that way being at all times in direct opposition to God's way. Men deserted of restraining grace, sin with deliberation; they consult, and debate, and consider, and then elect evil rather than good, with malice aforethought and in cool blood. It is a remarkable obduracy (stubbornly persist in wrongdoing) of rebellion when men not only run into sin through passion, but calmly ‘walk in their own counsels’ of iniquity.”

(See this column on American Thinker.)

Copyright 2014, Trevor Grant Thomas

At the Intersection of Politics, Science, Faith, and Reason.
Trevor and his wife Michelle are the authors of: Debt Free Living in a Debt Filled World
tthomas@trevorgrantthomas.com