{"id":26172,"date":"2012-03-17T00:05:11","date_gmt":"2012-03-17T06:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?p=26172"},"modified":"2012-03-16T20:49:53","modified_gmt":"2012-03-17T01:49:53","slug":"are-we-in-a-moral-decline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2012\/03\/17\/are-we-in-a-moral-decline\/","title":{"rendered":"Are we in a moral decline?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>Kris and I have been away for a week for Spring Break, so no Weekly Meanderings today\u2026 and I want to thank RJS for maintaining the blog \u2026 but we do have a few posts today worthy of reading and discussion.<\/em><\/p>\n

There are some who look at life and see decline; there are others who look at the same life and say we are getting better. Some Christians tend to see the decline.<\/p>\n

Anyone who claims statistics often has an agenda, but this little post at The Economist<\/a><\/strong> caught my attention, and we need folks like Brad Wright and Mark Regnerus to keep us all straight. Anyway, here it is:<\/p>\n

ASKED to explain his support for Rick Santorum in Michigan\u2019s primary, voter\u00a0Sandy Munro\u00a0said<\/a>, \u201cNow what we need is a strong political leader to do something to get us out of the moral slump that we\u2019re in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Santorum would agree, having noted that \u201cSatan has his sights on the United States of America.\u201d As would Mitt Romney, who has attacked the decay caused by Barack Obama\u2019s \u201csecular agenda\u201d. Newt Gingrich has gone the furthest,\u00a0stating<\/a>, \u201cA country that has been now since 1963 relentlessly in the courts driving God out of public life shouldn\u2019t be surprised at all the problems we have.\u201d<\/p>\n

But what are these problems? When considering America\u2019s moral decline, my first instinct was to look at the crime rate. If Satan is at work in America, he\u2019s probably nicking wallets and assaulting old ladies. But over the past several decades the crime rate has\u00a0fallen dramatically<\/a>, despite\u00a0what you may think<\/a>. The homicide rate has been cut in half since 1991; violent crime and property crime are also way down. Even those pesky kids are committing\u00a0less crime<\/a>. There are some caveats to these statistics, as my colleague\u00a0points out<\/a>, but I think we can conclude that crime is not the cause of America\u2019s moral decline.<\/p>\n

So let\u2019s look elsewhere. Abortion has returned as a hot-button issue, perhaps it is eating away at our moral fiber. Hmm, the abortion rate\u00a0declined<\/a> by 8% between 2000 and 2008. Increases in divorce and infidelity could be considered indicators of our moral decay. There\u2019s just\u00a0one<\/a> problem<\/a>: according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the divorce rate is the lowest it has been since the early 1970s. This is in part due to the recession, but infidelity is down too.<\/p>\n

Other areas that might indicate declining virtue are also going against the perceived trend. For example, charitable giving\u00a0is up<\/a> after a decline during the recession. The teenage pregnancy rate is at its\u00a0lowest level<\/a> in 40 years. And according to\u00a0Education Week<\/em><\/a>, \u201cthe nation\u2019s graduation rate stands at 72 percent, the highest level of high school completion in more than two decades.\u201d So where is the evidence of this moral decline?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kris and I have been away for a week for Spring Break, so no Weekly Meanderings today\u2026 and I want to thank RJS for maintaining the blog \u2026 but we do have a few posts today worthy of reading and discussion. There are some who look at life and see decline; there are others who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1732],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-public-issues"],"yoast_head":"\nAre we in a moral decline?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Kris and I have been away for a week for Spring Break, so no Weekly Meanderings today... and I want to thank RJS for maintaining the blog ... but we do\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2012\/03\/17\/are-we-in-a-moral-decline\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Are we in a moral decline?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Kris and I have been away for a week for Spring Break, so no Weekly Meanderings today... and I want to thank RJS for maintaining the blog ... but we do\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2012\/03\/17\/are-we-in-a-moral-decline\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-03-17T06:05:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-03-17T01:49:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/files\/2012\/03\/Screen-shot-2012-03-04-at-9.19.13-AM-300x180.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2012\/03\/17\/are-we-in-a-moral-decline\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2012\/03\/17\/are-we-in-a-moral-decline\/\",\"name\":\"Are we in a moral decline?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-03-17T06:05:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-03-17T01:49:53+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\"},\"description\":\"Kris and I have been away for a week for Spring Break, so no Weekly Meanderings today... and I want to thank RJS for maintaining the blog ... but we do\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2012\/03\/17\/are-we-in-a-moral-decline\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2012\/03\/17\/are-we-in-a-moral-decline\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2012\/03\/17\/are-we-in-a-moral-decline\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Are we in a moral decline?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\",\"name\":\"Jesus Creed\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\",\"name\":\"Scot McKnight\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. 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