Biblical worldview. . .

You must live under a rock if you are a Christian and have never heard of pollster and researcher George Barna.  His group literally surveys just about every aspect of Christianity today.  It is both fascinating and scary.  Now Barna is saying that less than 2% of parents with children under the age of 13 have a “biblical worldview,” at least according to his new book Raising Spiritual Champions: Nurturing Your Child’s Heart, Mind and Soul.   The overwhelming number of parents reporting a “hodge-podge mixture of competing and often conflicting worldviews.” 

Barna defines “biblical worldview” as “believing that absolute moral truth exists; the Bible is totally accurate in all of the principles it teaches; Satan is considered to be a real being or force, not merely symbolic; a person cannot earn their way into Heaven by trying to be good or do good works; Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth; and God is the all-knowing, all-powerful creator of the world who still rules the universe today.”

In particular, Barna's concern is for "uncommitted church-going Christian parents" who have no plans or will to catechize their children.  For Barna, this will (if it not already has) result in a “catastrophic decline in biblical worldview in America.”  Why worry?  A Biblical worldview is the foundation on which such things as marriage, family, children, and society exist for the Christian.  Furthermore, it is impossible to hold to Scripture's teaching without such a worldview shaped by that teaching.  It is like a theoretical Christianity which does not affect daily life at all.  The Christians become invisible to the world and God and even to themselves.  Chew a while on the following quotes:

"Most parents, even born-again parents, do not really think the spiritual component of their child’s life is a big deal — at least not as big a deal as doing well in school, sports, or relationships. And even if they are focused on building their child’s biblical worldview, very few parents today — only 2 percent — possess a biblical worldview. They can’t give what they don’t have — and this creates a gaping spiritual vacuum as today’s parents are raising their children.”

“A majority of the youngest teens (61%) either believe Jesus Christ sinned while He was on Earth or hold open the possibility He did. Not even half (45%) believe that God created the universe. And an overwhelming majority believe that there are no absolute, objective truths.”

The problem for Christians (and Lutherans) here is that the faith is literally eroding right in front of us and we are helpless to do much about it as long as the Scriptures, Catechism, and Hymnody that reinforce the faith are also distant from our daily lives.  It amazes me how we have turned from a Christianity (and Lutheranism) in which people knew the faith into one in which what we know of Scripture is likely shaped more by a meme than by any catechetical or Bible study.  It is peripheral knowledge without base in our lives and without the power to shape what we think, speak, or do.  And this is something that affects church going folks and not just the Christmas and Easter crowd.

It describes not simply a failing on the part of the people in the pews but in the pulpits as well.  We have learned to give our people an anecdotal view of Scripture and they are happy to receive it in sound bytes that arouse sentiment but cannot and do not inform the mind or transform it.  While this was once supported by strong local family systems, the mobile and dispersed character of modern life has put pressure on our faith and exposed the vulnerabilities.  Belief in certain things without that belief affecting or having the primary affect upon personal views and behavior leaves the door open for the belief to change before the heart and mind.  In part, it is the result of a lack of doctrinal preaching and teaching that reinforces what is believed, taught, and confessed and why.