20% believe in God's Word: What does that portend for America?
Exclusive: Joseph Farah fingers parents for failing to teach their kids about faith and the Bible
By Joseph FarahPublished July 8, 2022 at 7:01pm
- Only 20% of us see the Bible as the inerrant Word of God – in America;
- 29% call the Bible "fables" and "legends";
- 49% of Americans say it is "inspired" by God but is NOT to be taken literally.
Overall, says the results of Gallup polling, the 20% who believe the Bible is actually God's Word is at a record low – down from 24% in 2017 and about half of what it was in 1980 and 1984.
This year, when those claiming it's "fables, legends, history and moral precepts recorded by man," stands at 29%, is the "first time significantly more Americans have viewed the Bible as not divinely inspired than as the literal word of God."
"The shift in attitudes about the Bible is not an isolated phenomenon," said the Gallup's May Values and Beliefs survey. "It comes even as a number of indicators show a decline in overall religiosity in the U.S. adult population. These measures include declines in formal identification with a religion, self-reported membership in a church, self-reported religious service attendance, personal importance of religion, and a decline in belief in God. Thus, it is not surprising to find that views on the nature of the Bible have shifted in a less religious direction as well."
The report said the polling questions all segments of the U.S. adult population, meaning the numbers include those who identify with religions outside of Christianity.
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The report explained, "Thirty percent of Protestants say that the Bible is literally true, compared with 15 percent of Catholics. Almost two-thirds of Catholics choose the alternative that the Bible is the inspired word of God, but every word should not be taken literally."
What's happening here?
America is becoming dumbed-down – just as it is about everything else.
How do you see Americans answering questions about who their president is, or who their member of Congress is? It's amazing how many don't know. Is it surprising that they don't know who their God is? If they don't know Him, He probably isn't taking much interest in them.
I've been talking about this intentional dumbing-down for more than 25 years at WND – longer in my journalism career. It's been across the board in every facet of education, the academy, the media, politics – it's generational! And parents are participants in the dumbing-down of their children.
Proverbs 22:6 says: "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." What is it that parents don't understand? It's their responsibility. I didn't grow up in a particularly faithful family. But my parents knew the importance of faith. They saw to it that the kids went to church. They weren't going to sentence their children to a meaningless life. They wanted the best for their kids – in every way.
Parents, today, are the problem.
Too many kids don't know what is in their best interest.
They're being shortchanged. In a life without faith, there's nothing for them to see, to aspire to, to yearn for.
And if parents are the problem, we're are in trouble.
Parents weren't always the problem in this country – this nation that was once a stronghold for responsible adults. It's what made America a shining city on a hill. And it can be again.
Jesus said, in Matthew 5:14: "Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid."
It was because of that quote that John Winthrop recalled in a 1630 sermon, "We shall be as a city upon a hill." Ronald Reagan used some of that language to get Americans inspired. That's the purpose of such lofty language. Somebody should tell Joe Biden.
But it was our founders who had knack for summarizing the strength of their country.
First, James Madison comes to mind: "Wherever the real power in a Government lies, there is the danger of oppression. In our Governments, the real power lies in the majority of the Community, and the invasion of private rights is chiefly to be apprehended, not from the acts of Government contrary to the sense of its constituents, but from acts in which the Government is the mere instrument of the major number of the constituents."
That's what a real republic is based upon.
Thomas Jefferson, not to be outdone, said: "Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government; that whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights."
George Washington issued one of my personal favorites: "If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter."
And that's where we in America in 2022, isn't it? Content created by the WND News Center is available for re-publication without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@wndnewscenter.org.
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