America's New Moral Code

A great moral shift has been underway in the United States and recent polls indicate that the pace has only accelerated. Todays debates in the public arena are increasingly over homosexual marriage, transgender rights and abortion. But the basic principles at play are now changing. 

At the same time that the focus of the debate changes to these social issues, the grounds of the debate have shifted as a collection of splintered minority groups each assert the validity of their own moral code. Polls show that an increasing percentage of Americans no longer sees moral truths as absolute. 

In a great departure from both traditional morality and logic, they see rather a world in which moral decisions are relative, circumstantial and based on self-interest.

The slow chipping away at the bedrock of American culture, its moral compass, is a trend that can be seen in a cross-generational survey conducted recently by the Barna Group. The survey found that Millennials were split 31/51 on the question of morality being absolute or relative while the older Generation X responded with 33/44 and the older Baby Boomers 42/41. 

The belief that morality is absolute has fallen, when comparing across age groups in the same survey, from 42% to 33% and then to 31% in the youngest group while the belief in moral relativism has grown with the youngest respondents, showing a jump from 44% to 51% just between Generation X and Millennials.

Societies change over time and one might simply ascribe this trend to a natural process, except that its 'anything but' natural and it has Americans worried. Across all demographics of age and belief, a great majority of Americans voiced their concern recently about the moral state of the country. 

Among the eldest polled, 89% were concerned; Baby Boomers showed concern at a rate of 87% and both the younger Generation X and Millennials were closely tied at 75% and 74%. 

The numbers start to make sense when sorted by religious belief, since practicing Christians are far more likely, at a rate of 90%, to express their concern over the moral direction of the country than those with no religious belief who show concern only a rate of 67%, and this difference holds true when adjusted for race, income levels and other demographic factors. 

So if this is progress, it is of the sort that has a majority of Americans worried.

Whereas traditional morality, and even the notion that there can be a standard of morality, is being questioned, little is being offered to replace it except the belief in a sort of flexible, individual moral relativism and personal experience. 

In the same poll, 74% of the younger Millennial Generation agreed with the statement Whatever is right for your life or works best for you is the only truth you can know, while only 38% of the eldest generation agreed with this statement. 

The new moral code is no moral code at all, as it turns out. In denying the existence of an absolute moral code, uncertainty is inevitable.

The long term trend towards moral relativism is undeniable. On most of these moral issues, Americans views have shifted in a more liberal direction over the last 15 years, with the greatest change in views of the morality of gay-lesbian relations, premarital sex and having a baby outside of marriage, reads an analysis by Gallup.

Our traditional moral code is based on fundamental principles of right and wrong that form the basis of functional and prosperous societies. The new moral code, a belief based on moral relativism, places individual experience over faith or society and it is little wonder that Americans feel more concerned now for the moral state of the nation under such a belief.

David Kinnaman, President of Barna, says that, based on the research, it is clear that American adults have pledged their allegiance to the new moral code of self-fulfillment, and have thrown out Christianity as the cultures moral norm. 

What the research means, according to Kinnaman, is that for American people, the highest good is finding one's self and living by his/her perception of right. One reason for individualism in today's society is because of the majority of churchgoing Christians embracing corrupt and self-centered theology.