Heroes, Ethics and Arminians

The word for the day is Цагаан Сар (Tsagaan Sar), which means “white moon” or “white month.” It’s the lunar new year celebration, which begins tomorrow and continues through Friday. This means I have the next couple days off of school. Unfortunately, it also means that everything is closed.

Instead of reporting on Mongolia tonight, I want to point out a few interesting statistics I found on ChristianPost.com. The first article is entitled “Americans Pick Obama as Personal Hero; Jesus Comes Second.” Here’s a snippet.

Following Barack Obama, the next most popular personal heroes are Jesus Christ, Martin Luther King, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, Abraham Lincoln, John McCain, John F. Kennedy, Chesley Sullenberger, and Mother Teresa, respectively, to round out the top 10 people Americans say they admire and would call their hero.

In the top 20 list, God held the No. 11 spot while evangelist Billy Graham tied with former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt for the 13th slot. . . .

Among other observations made by the poll’s conductors, six of the top ten heroes are dead (including Jesus Christ); the top 10 list includes five presidents; and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ranks higher in the 2009 list (No. 12) than her husband, former President Bill Clinton (No. 16).

I’m not sure what the most disturbing part of that poll is, so let’s move on to the second article. It was “Poll: Only 3 Percent of Teens See Clergy as Role Models.” This is a startling headline, but it only tells a small part of the story:

But the poll’s major finding is that although the overwhelming majority of teens (80 percent) believe they are ethically prepared to make moral business decisions, nearly 40 percent believe they need to “break the rules” in order to succeed.

More than one in four teenagers (27 percent) think behaving violently is sometimes, often or always acceptable, according to the poll. One in five teens (20 percent) reported to have personally behaved violently toward another person in the past year.

Furthermore, among those who say they are ethically prepared for business, nearly half (49 percent) say lying to parents and guardians is acceptable. More than three out of five teens (61 percent) say they have lied to their parents or guardian this past year.

I don’t usually give much credence to doomsday prophets, but these stats don’t seem to bode well for America’s ethical future.

One last link for all of my Calvinist or otherwise theologically-inclined brothers and sisters: Survey: Are You an Arminian and Don’t Even Know It?