Americans believe being a good person is good enough according to a survey conducted in January of 2020 with a sample of 2,000 adults in the U.S.
A majority of Americans no longer believe Jesus is the path of salvation and instead believe being a good person is enough. 68% of Christians, 56% self-described evangelicals, 62% Pentecostals, 67% mainline Protestants, and 77% Catholics embraced the idea.
More than half of Christian respondents--a figure that includes 46% of Pentecostals, 44% of mainline Protestants, 41% of evangelicals, and 70% of Catholics--believed a person can attain salvation by "being or doing good."
George Barna, director of the Arizona Christian University-based Cultural Research Center's American Worldview Inventory shared his insight upon the results collected from the survey.
"If you look at some of the dominant elements in the American mind and heart today, as illuminated by the Inventory, most people believe that the purpose of life is feeling good about yourself," Barna shared.
Barna commented that much of the current culture has become increasingly self-focused when 30 years ago, people spent considerable time thinking and learning about God.
"That philosophy of life contradicts a fundamental basis of what may be the two most significant documents to the longevity and success of America--the Bible and the Constitution of the United States. Those documents agree that this nation will only be healthy and fruitful if it is populated by moral people. By abandoning our moral standards and traditions, and replacing them with inclusive and conditional preferences, we're losing the foundations that have enabled the 'American experiment' to succeed for more than two centuries. We can only hope that our critical moral institution--particularly the family and the church--will wake up and help the nation to get back on track."
