America’s Top Concerns

The newest Barna study asked Americans about what concerned them most and what they would like our national leaders to focus on.

The national survey among 1,000 randomly chosen adults found that more than 40 different national issues were listed by a significant number of people as matters that they consider to be the most important for the nation’s leaders to address. Those issues related to dimensions such as strengthening the nation’s economy, environmental protection, morality, health care, national security, education, international relations, lifestyle, government corruption, constitutional rights, oil dependency, and the role of government.

The population groups among whom the greatest diversity of issues were expressed included adults in their mid-20s to mid-40s; residents of the western states; upscale adults; born again Christians; adults aligned with non-Christian faiths; and spiritual Skeptics.

Top Concerns
Far and away the most common concerns mentioned related to economic issues. Almost all of the adults interviewed (98%) listed at least one issue pertaining to the economy, including job creation, unemployment, financial hardship, national debt, the recession, and taxes. The top-ranked economic issue related to jobs – either creating them or assisting people who lack one.

The only other issues mentioned by at least one out of every ten adults were health care matters (25%) and issues regarding national security – i.e., either defense against terrorism or the nation’s role in the wars in which the country is presently engaged (24%).

More modest levels of concern were registered in relation to immigration and border control (named by 9%), matters of morality (7%), environmental protection (4%), and educational reform (4%)……..

Evangelical Christians emerged as a segment that has a distinct set of issues on its mind. Although evangelicals constitute just 7% of the adult public, they were twice as likely as the nation at-large to list government corruption, national security and the reduction of taxes as significant issues. They were only half as likely as others to include education on their list of primary concerns.

Other faith segments also displayed tendencies that strayed from the national norm. For instance, adults associated with non-Christian faiths were more likely to include global poverty and government corruption on their list, but much less likely to include environmental protection, national security, education, and the wars.

Protestants and Catholics differed noticeably. Protestants were more likely to list government corruption, national security and government spending. Catholics were more likely to include issues related to the recession and national economy……

An outcome of this study that is consistent with past results is that evangelical Christians seem less interested in matters of justice and service than might be expected. On matters such as global poverty, educational reform, environmental care, and health care, evangelicals’ concern about these issues is average or below average. The current survey also provided a surprising departure from the past answers provided by evangelicals: moral values and behavior, traditionally a matter of considerable concern to evangelicals, was rarely mentioned. That does not mean that evangelicals have no interest in the nation’s moral conditions; anxiety about government corruption generated an above-average level of concern among evangelicals, and there are certainly moral elements to the conduct of the wars, national security and related to economic issues. However, within the context of all the issues facing the nation, it seems that few evangelicals consider the moral state of the nation to be a specific issue they want to see political leaders focus upon more heavily.

Remember that Barna has a specific profile for “born again” and “Evangelical.”

“Born again Christians” are defined as people who said they have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in their life today and who also indicated they believe that when they die they will go to Heaven because they had confessed their sins and had accepted Jesus Christ as their savior. Respondents are not asked to describe themselves as “born again.”

“Evangelicals” meet the born again criteria (described above) plus seven other conditions. Those include saying their faith is very important in their life today; believing they have a personal responsibility to share their religious beliefs about Christ with non-Christians; believing that Satan exists; believing that eternal salvation is possible only through grace, not works; believing that Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth; asserting that the Bible is accurate in all that it teaches; and describing God as the all-knowing, all-powerful, perfect deity who created the universe and still rules it today. Being classified as an evangelical is not dependent upon church attendance or the denominational affiliation of the church attended. Respondents were not asked to describe themselves as “evangelical.”