I was checking my e-mail the other day when I got an interesting message from the Barna Group, an evangelical group that prides itself on providing statistics and other resources to “be a catalyst in moral and spiritual transformation in the United States.”

This message was entitled “Young Adults and Liberals Struggle with Morality,” and it presented a survey of 1,003 Americans based on their moral behavior over a recent week. This survey presented data claiming that evangelicals supposedly have higher moral standards than other groups surveyed.

Based on the survey, the message concluded with the idea that young adults, liberals and skeptics (agnostics and atheists, apparently) have created a new moral system based on convenience, feelings and selfishness.

As a young adult and a liberal who is also a former evangelical, learning that I was not only struggling with morality but that I had potentially created a new, rather base, moral system was pretty shocking.

But then I read a little further.

The Barna Group asked respondents whether or not they had participated in the following activities over the last week: exposing themselves to pornography, cussing in public, gambling, gossiping, having sex out of wedlock, retaliating against someone, getting drunk and lying.

All I can say is, yeah … and so? I mean, some of those questions may be a little bit murky, but cussing? Gambling? Gossiping? Really?

Cussing in public is pretty much a necessity in some circles.
Gambling is just another morally ambivalent activity most of the time. Gossiping is almost the very foundation of celebrity and just about every TV show in existence — at least on MTV … or so I hear.

You see, the Barna Group asked all of these questions under the assumption that there’s this thing called “Biblical morality,” and that the above eight conditions are essential parts of it.

How you can get a consistent moral framework from the contradictory Bible boggles my mind, but that’s another story for another day.

In any case, the Barna Group’s questions assume that morality depends simply on whether or not people are living by an individualistic, rather lame standard.

Other than gossiping, lying and retaliating, the Barna Group assumes that being moral is essentially what one does with oneself, toward oneself, or — in the case of pornography and unmarried sex — toward willing others.

More importantly, no mention is given to how one treats other persons beyond the most minimal standards.

The Barna Group assumes that acting morally toward other people results from simply conforming to a laundry list of “thou shalt nots”, as opposed to positive “thou shalts.” This kind of mentality is all about trying to get people to conform to negligible standards, not about trying to get people to be better people.

I’m no saint or anything, but if you ask me, this seems like a rather selfish sense of morality.

Taking care of oneself is great and all, but what about doing some good in the world? What about helping others instead of spending all day worrying about oneself?

Brett thinks the Barna Group doesn’t get how cool Inigo Montoya is. Agree with him at blivingo@asu.edu