A poll commissioned by BBC Religion and Ethics as part of the BBC’s RE:THINK 2012 Festival, which …[went on recently] at MediaCityUK in Salford, suggests that young people think caring for family and putting others before themselves is more important than having religious faith or belief.
Of 585 16-24 year olds asked to rank the most important moral issue for them, from a list of eight options, pollsters TNS BMRB found that 59 per cent said looking after family was the most important moral issue for them.
Just 4 per cent said that having religious faith or beliefs was the most important moral issue. The same percentage listed paying taxes and playing a part in your community. Twelve per cent said that putting others first, 8 per cent said being faithful to a partner, 5 per cent said caring for the environment and 1 per cent listed buying ethical products as the most important moral issue
What a silly juxtaposition of values which are neither mutually exclusive or at the end of the day separable in any way.
#1 — Actually, they are separable. Very much so. This “putting family first” bit sounds good but, from I’ve seen, it is used to justify a lot of bad and enabling behavior. It’s also a problem when people are so insular that they don’t care about anyone or anything outside of their own immediate family.
Religion, especially Christianity, asks people to look and operate outside of their comfort zones. Jesus said that His “family” is anyone who does God’s will. So, it’s a problem when young people refer to their families as the most important facet of values. A whole lot of families don’t live or model good values and that becomes self-perpetuating!
#1 — Actually, they are separable. Very much so. This “putting family first” bit sounds good but, from I’ve seen, it is used to justify a lot of bad and enabling behavior. It’s also a problem when people are so insular that they don’t care about anyone or anything outside of their own immediate family.
Religion, especially Christianity, asks people to look and operate outside of their comfort zones. Jesus said that His “family” is anyone who does God’s will. So, it’s a problem when young people refer to their families as the most important facet of values. A whole lot of families don’t live or model good values and that becomes self-perpetuating!
I don’t see as ‘caring for ones family’ and ‘putting others before oneself’ as anything but consistent with the Christian ethos. See the first sentence of the article.
I would suggest that these are works evident of a faith not yet in the conscience of the people interviewed, though I freely admit to being an optimist.