Of more than 75 million American Millennials (those born around the year 2000 and later) only four percent have a biblical worldview, says well-respected pollster George Barna. And he says that’s not good news looking down the road. Barna describes them as “one of the most spiritually challenging generations to reach adulthood in the past century.” They are “raising a new set of challenges to Christianity and to a nation whose morals and values have long reflected biblical principles,” he adds.
When asked questions that would identify their connection to a biblical world view, only one in 25 Millennials came up with answers that put them in the “biblical worldview” category. The younger set, he says, is trending in the wrong direction. “By and large they are not inclined to move toward Christianity,” Barna said.
“They’re less likely to describe themselves as Christians, they’re less likely to embrace Christ as their Savior, [and] they’re more likely to say that they have no kind of faith connection whatsoever.”
According to Barna, Millennials are living out worldviews that have no moral anchor in a stormy culture. “They’re much more accepting of lying, they’re more accepting of cheating, they’re more accepting of abortion and divorce and stealing and pornography,” he explains.
And the church is ill equipped to help. “Only about a third of born-again Christians in America actually have a biblical worldview,” he offers. “That indicates that churches may partly be struggling because they tend to rely on born-again adults as the backbone of the church.”
“The worldview that you have at the age 13 is essentially the worldview that you die with,” said Barna. And since the parents of Millennials may not be any more biblical in their worldview than their kids, those conversations may well fall to their grandparents, further decreasing its chances of transmission.
“…Because 24 of every 25 Millennials lack a biblical worldview today,” Barna says, “the probability of them transmitting such to their children is extremely low. You cannot give what you don’t have. In other words, if today’s children are going to eventually embrace a biblical worldview, people with such a perspective must exert substantial influence on the nation’s children to supply what their parents are unable to give them.”
To add to the problem, roughly a third (32%) of adults of “grandparent” age (50 or older) possess a biblical worldview. So, chances of transmitting a biblical worldview to future generations are seriously diminished.
“The light esteem in which the law of God is held, even by religious leaders, has been productive of great evil. The teaching, which has become so wide-spread that the divine statutes are no longer binding upon men, is the same as idolatry in its effect upon the morals of the people. Those who seek to lessen the claims of God’s holy law are striking directly at the foundation of the government of families and nations. Religious parents, failing to walk in his statutes, do not command their household to keep the way of the Lord. The law of God is not made the rule of life. The children, as they make homes of their own, feel under no obligation to teach their children what they themselves have never been taught. And this is why there are so many godless families; this is why depravity is so deep and wide-spread.” Christian Education, page 220.