Wrong Direction

The latest NBC News poll finds that 71% of Americans believe the country is headed in the wrong direction. Just 22% say we're on the right track. Those are deeply concerning figures. 

I have no doubt that Joe Biden's incompetence as president on virtually every major issue – from Afghanistan to the border, COVID and the economy – is a major explanation for these dismal numbers. But I believe there are other problems the public senses, problems pollsters often ignore. For example:

Every year America is becoming less religious, more specifically less Christian. Every year, not coincidentally, we lose more freedom. Our founding fathers predicted this. They said only a moral and virtuous people could remain free. 

A related trend is that fewer Americans are biblically literate. (For more on this subject, check out this recent presentation by Dr. George Barna with Foundations of Freedom.) At America's founding, we were probably the most biblically literate society in the history of the world. But now, if the Bible is mentioned at all in our culture, it's usually to condemn or mock it. 

Every year, we become more diverse and we become more divided. Diversity can be good, if everyone agrees on the same set of fundamental values. But when diversity extends even to differences on fundamental beliefs on life and death, liberty and values, tribalism grows as there are fewer basic issues to unite us and Americans grow further apart. 

There's more, of course – the breakdown of the family, the coarsening of our culture, the decline of respect for law enforcement. But without the revival of faith, the renewal of Judeo-Christian values and a recommitment to basic morality, America will continue in the wrong direction.