VENTURA, Calif. (ABP) — If a recent survey is correct, there is a bigger generation gap between Baby Boomers and Baby Busters than most people care to admit, especially when it comes to opinions about sex.
According to recent research by the Barna Group, Busters — people born between 1965 and 1983 — significantly differ from older Americans in their opinions of extramarital sex, pornography, homosexuality and sexual fantasies.
More than two-thirds of the Buster generation, for instance, believe adults living together before marriage is morally acceptable. Most young adults also said pornography and sex outside of marriage are not morally wrong. Only one-third of Boomers — people born between 1946 and 1964 — agreed. And roughly 50 percent of Busters believe homosexual relationships are acceptable, compared to half as many older adults.
The director of the research, David Kinnaman, said in the report that Busters' perception of morality comes from their environment. Whereas Baby Boomers took moral experimentation to new heights, he said, Busters view things like divorce, crime, single-parent households and suicide as much more normal than their parents did.
“It is rare to see such large gaps between population segments, and it confirms a major shift in the way Busters think and behave sexually,” Kinnaman said about the survey results. “Sexual experimentation is not new. But it is striking to see sexual behaviors and attitudes that were uncommon now becoming part of the accepted, mainstream experience of young people.”
To be sure, Busters have an individualized view of morality — one that disconnects the individual from the group. Almost 50 percent of Busters said ethics and morals are based on what is right for the person, while just one-quarter of pre-Busters agreed. Half of the Boomers believe in absolute truth, but only three of 10 Busters agree.
That belief in situational ethics affects morality in a big way. The report listed Busters as twice as likely to watch sexually explicit movies; two-and-a-half times more likely to commit adultery; and three times more likely to look at sexually graphic content online.
Gregory Koukl, founder and president of Stand to Reason in Signal Hill, Calif., said he is not surprised at the survey's results. Koukl made Stand to Reason as a training resource for Christians who want to think about their faith and defend classical Christianity in the public square. Moral relativism and religious pluralism continue to pervade culture, he said, especially in implicit messages from TV news and sitcoms.
Although blaming TV for causing lax morals seems reactionary, he said, television's implicit messages about sex and violence are far more powerful than blatant images of pornography or murder.
“The emerging Christian generation is more like the world than their predecessors,” Koukl said. “I think that shows the aggressive nature of culture…. We do not realize how aggressive and corrosive culture is in the lives of our kids.”
Put simply, he added, kids believe what they're taught, and they receive far more instruction from culture saturation than from the hour they spend in church each week.
Apparently, the Buster generation does not follow Christian teaching, even though Busters may know correct terms and are able to recite tenets of the faith. Instead, when it comes to daily life, Busters follow peer groups.
One way to reach those groups, Koukl said, is to stop giving “topical” sermons and start preaching scripture.
“When we have topicals that are geared to life enhancement, people never learn the message as it was originally given,” he said. “Now when you have teachers that are consistently preaching topically to make it consumer-palatable, those who listen never learn the Bible in the sense in which it was originally given. They don't learn the structure, they just have all these bits and pieces.”
The key is to contextualize the message for the culture, Koukl continued. Leaders at Stand to Reason, for instance, say their goal is to make “engagement with culture look more like diplomacy than D-day.”
Kinnaman, the researcher, also emphasized that point. He said young adults do not want to hear monologues about regulations or complaints about current society.
“It is important for churches to understand the natural skepticism of Busters, as well as their desire for spiritual and conversational depth,” he said. “To earn access to their hearts and minds, you have to understand each person's unique background, identity and doubts, and must tangibly model a biblical lifestyle for them beyond the walls of the church.”
For the survey, the Barna Group conducted telephone interviews with more than 7,000 adults nationwide. The Ventura, Calif., group is a privately held, for-profit corporation that has conducted research and produced media resources since 1984.
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