AMERICAN VALUES SOLID

News Analysis — By Uwe Siemon-Netto, UPI Religious Affairs Editor

PARIS, July 30 (UPI) — For all the talk about the Americans' descent into secularism and postmodern confusion, their Judeo-Christian values in key areas seem to be rock-solid, a new survey showed.

Only 18 percent of all adults favor the removal of signs listing the Ten Commandments from public buildings, as recently happened at the Alabama Supreme Court, according to a poll taken by the Barna Research Group in Ventura, Ca.

This seems to run counter the "breathtakingly uniform universalist" worldview of leading media personalities, a uniformity recently bemoaned by Rep. Mark Sounder, R-Ind., during a recent Pew Forum event in religion and public life in Washington.

Sounder defined this worldview as one considering "all the great religions of the world (as) equally true and good," as opposed to the "particularist" position such as his own, which affirms Christianity as the one true faith. "Universalists often intimidate, mock and condescend to particularists," he went on. "Universalists assert that education, science and reason back their position."

The Ten Commandments are of course part of the Judeo-Christian scriptures. Yet even 32 percent of non-Christians and even 45 percent of atheists and agnostics oppose their removal from public buildings, the Barna Group reported.

The groups most supportive of their removal were Asian immigrants (48 percent), adults under the age of 35 and college graduates (25 percent each), men (23) and Hispanics (21 percent).

Amazingly, the figure for Roman Catholics opposed to the public display of the Commandments is identical to that of the adult population at large — 18 percent — and thus considerably higher than that of Protestants (6 percent) and higher even than that of "notional Christians" (16 percent).

The Rev. Gerald E. Murray, pastor of St. Vincent de Paul Catholic parish in Manhattan and a prominent canon lawyer, finds this result "troubling." He told United Press International, "This shows that a lot of Catholics have bought into the fallacious notion that one must not give offense to anyone."

"The point is that Christianity will always offend some people," he continued.

Catholics in the United States are often viewed as "theologically wobbly" by their coreligionists in other parts of the world, according to Claus-Peter Clausen, editor and publisher of a conservative Catholic newsletter in Germany.

Other results of the Barna survey seem to confirm this impression, at least in part. On the issue of whether the words "In God We Trust" should be taken off the U.S. currency, 15 percent of Catholics polled said "yes," compared with only 13 percent of the national average, 12 percent of the notional Christians, four percent of the Protestants and a mere 1 percent of evangelicals.

Significantly, only minorities of atheists and agnostics (37 percent) and non-Christians (28) favor such a move. But then a lower average of Catholics (13 percent) than of American adults (15) in general want to have the words "One Nation under God" taken out of the Pledge of Allegiance.

On this issue, Catholics are exactly in line with "notional Christians" but out of step with Protestants (7 percent) and evangelicals (4 percent). Surprisingly, less than a quarter of all non-Christians (24 percent) would support such a move, and even 60 percent of atheists and agnostics would rather live with the Pledge than without it.

"On balance," commented pollster George Barna, "the research shows that an overwhelming majority of Americans want Christian values and symbols to prevail, although most people stop short of declaring the U.S. to be a Christian society."

But as Barna stated, almost 70 million Americans — though still a minority — are supportive of an amendment declaring Christianity the official national religion.

Given that according to a previous poll only 28 percent of U.S. ministers affirm basic Christian tenets, that latest result "is a huge vote of confidence in the Christian faith — and a tacit statement about people's concerns regarding the direction and lukewarm spirituality of the nation," according to Barna.

"If nothing else," he added, "this certainly indicates that given effective leadership, American Christianity could play a larger role in shaping the norms of our culture in the future."

Uwe Siemon-Netto, Ph.D., DLitt is UPI Religious Affairs Editor