The collapse of a Christian worldview by parents has greatly impacted the next generation from Prophecy News Watch
“Kids these days” are shaped by watching their parents. That’s the takeaway from the Cultural Research Center (CRC) at Arizona Christian University’s latest survey. “Young children are watching their parents.
They’re listening to their parents, and they’re trying to put those two things together,” said George Barna, CRC Director and FRC Senior Research Fellow for the Center for Biblical Worldview. “The problem is, they’re seeing a contradiction between word and deed. The conclusion we discovered that children draw is, ‘what a shame.
My parents seem as confused as I am. So, this faith that they’re talking about must not have the answers.’” The statistics are appalling. Among American parents of children under age 13, only two percent have a biblical worldview, and even among self-identified born-again Christians, the number is only eight percent.
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“Between 15 to 18 months of age is when most children start forming their worldview,” explained Barna on Washington Watch. “By the age of 13, it’s almost completely in place.” Barna’s worldview research discerns the presence of a biblical worldview with questions about biblical inerrancy, the character of God, the life of Christ, absolute moral truth, and salvation by faith.
Just because parents aren’t consciously building their children’s worldview doesn’t mean one isn’t forming. “A child needs a worldview, so if we don’t help them develop it, somebody else will.” Barna’s research found “four major influences on worldview”: public schools, media, arts and entertainment, and “the laws of the land… because that’s what teaches us right from wrong partly.” So, if a biblical worldview isn’t dominant, what is?
“More than nine out of 10 parents of preteens (94 percent) have a syncretistic worldview — a grab bag of beliefs and behaviors taken from a variety of philosophies of life,” said Barna. “Most parents mix some biblical ideals with… Marxism to Eastern mysticism and everything in between.”
