David Closson, Director of Christian Ethics and Biblical Worldview for the Family Research Council, a pro-life activist, researcher, speaker, author of the recent book, Life after Roe: Equipping Christians in the Fight for Life Today, spoke in several lectures at the Christian Worldview Conference sponsored by the Maryland Family Institute on April 18 in Mt. Airy, Maryland on the moral revolution that has overtaken the West and the lack of clarity that many people, even regular churchgoers, have on its incompatibility with worldview advanced in the Bible.
Worldview Development and Prevalence
Clossen observed that George Barna of Barna Research Group says that an individual’s worldview and attitudes “begins to develop around fifteen to eighteen months of age … and is pretty much in place by age thirteen.” The teen years and the college years are also important, but by that time your idea of “what’s right, what’s wrong, [and] who determines that, it’s pretty much in place.” He said that Barna’s research (2021) has shown that “51 percent of American adults” think that they have “a Biblical worldview.” But after extensive research, including a 54-question survey, Barna found that only 6 percent did. The full list of questions does not appear to be publicly available, but Closson did present “seven cornerstones of a Biblical worldview” which Barna has identified which make it overwhelmingly likely that one has a Biblical worldview. These cornerstones are:
- “God is the all-powerful and all-knowing perfectly just ruler of the universe” – 58 percent of churchgoers said that this was true.
- “People are born into sin.”
- All who turn to Christ in faith and repentance will go to heaven when they die.
- The Bible is the inspired Word of God, with no errors.
- Some moral precepts are absolutely true for all people at all times.
- Knowing and loving God with all one’s heart, mind, soul, and strength is the meaning of life – he added that young men today are looking for meaning and purpose – 40 percent of young men are now attending church at least monthly.
- “Consistent obedience to God” is the decisive indicator of a successful life.
Closson said that the Barna Research Group’s understanding of a Biblical worldview is essentially what C.S. Lewis called “mere Christianity.” While the figures presented above measured the American public as a whole, later research (2023) among Evangelicals shows that 81 percent believe that they have a Biblical worldview, whereas only 21 percent do. This means that only one in five persons in the average Evangelical church “has a consistent Biblical worldview.”
Adherence to a Biblical worldview was also assessed by age. Older people are more likely to think that they have a Biblical worldview. And it is indeed more likely that they have a Biblical worldview, Barna found. For Closson’s own generation, the Millennials, 44 percent believe that they have a Biblical worldview, whereas only 4 percent do. For Gen Z, the figure is even lower – 2 percent. Broken down ideologically, Closson said that about three fourths of conservatives believe that they have a Biblical worldview, whereas only 16 percent do.
After these surveys were conducted at the beginning of this decade, Closson was interested in what churchgoers believe and do. He found from the research of churchgoers’ opinions that 88 percent believe it is important to have a Biblical worldview. Another 80 percent of churchgoers believed it was important “to have training in social and political responsibilities.” Another 71 percent thought it was important to have training on pro-life and LGBT issues (i.e., nearly three out of four churchgoers). He said that 55 percent of churchgoers believe that the Bible is “clear and decisive on the definition of marriage.” On transgenderism, however, about half said it is “morally acceptable,” while 20 percent believed “that the Bible doesn’t address it.”
With the lack of clarity that many churchgoers have, even in Evangelical churches, regarding basic elements of the Bible’s teaching, it is not surprising that there is a similar lack of clarity on the major issues presented by the moral revolution of the last two to three generations. Closson considered first the issues of abortion, and then the issues of marriage and sexuality.
The Biblical Worldview and Attitudes about Abortion
Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the pro-life issue “has not gone away, if anything, it has become more urgent.” More abortions have been performed per year since the overturning of Roe vs. Wade than before. While “hundreds of Planned Parenthood Clinics have closed over the past couple of years,” the numbers of abortions have continued to rise. This is in significant measure due to the prevalence of abortion pills. The Comstock Act of 1873 prohibits the transport of abortion related items through the mail or by common carriers across state lines. However, the Trump Administration has indicated that it will not enforce this legal provision.
In the 2023 survey of Evangelical churchgoers, 53 percent identified as pro-life, while 22 percent identified as pro-choice, the remaining 25 percent didn’t know. One in five women attending church have had an abortion. “55 percent of churchgoers said that the Bible identifies a point at which human life begins, 21 percent said that the Bible does not.” 15 percent of churchgoers thought that “the Bible was unclear or ambiguous” about abortion. Of those who thought the Bible does identify a beginning of life, 52 percent thought life begins at conception, 8 percent thought it was when the baby begins breathing after birth, 7 percent thought it was viability, 6 percent said “six month after fertilization, but before viability,” and 12 percent didn’t know. From these figures it is clear that Evangelical churches are not as monolithic about abortion as is commonly believed. Yet despite the intense, hostile reaction to the overturning of Roe v. Wade, only 44 percent of Evangelical churchgoers reported hearing a sermon that dealt with or touched on abortion in the year after the decision.
The most common pro-abortion argument today is personhood theory, the doctrine that unborn children are human beings but not persons. He referred to Margaret Kamitsuka’s 2019 book Abortion and the Christian Tradition. The book maintains that “the fetus is an unavoidably developmental human being evolving incrementally toward born personhood.” She further said that “until or close to” birth, “the fetus is not a person, and the fetus is not a non-person.” The point seems to be that pro-abortion advocates cannot easily describe unborn children in a way that is both accurate and compatible with abortion. A similar argument has been made by Peter Singer of Princeton University, who proposed a variety of criteria (self-awareness, rationality and autonomy, seeing oneself as a subject, and sentience) by which personhood can be judged.
Closson observed that these criteria call into question the personhood of Alzheimer’s’ patients, or persons rendered unconscious by illness or accidents. He said that Christians must reject the concept of “human non-person.” All humans are made in the image of God, “have moral standing,” and “deserve legal protection.” We have biology to demonstrate that unborn children are new human individuals; to deny that they are persons destroys human equality. It sets up a subjective judgment, which does not necessarily end at birth (as it does not for Peter Singer), about which some humans are more developed, and perhaps more sophisticated, and thus more valuable, than others.
But does the Bible indicate the personhood of unborn children, Closson asked. He said that Genesis 1 teaches that all people are made in the image of God, and therefore “have value and dignity.” Also, there is a prohibition against shedding innocent blood. (Gen. 9:5-6, Ex. 20:13, Deut. 5:17). There are also the manslayer laws which prescribe what should happen if one man accidently kills another (Num. 35:9-34, Deut. 19:1-13). These indicate that one should “take care” to protect human life.
Support for the personhood of the unborn is found in both testaments. A key passage is Psalm 139, which says of God that
“You formed my inward parts, you knit me together in my mother’s womb, I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made, how wonderful are your works, my soul knows it very well, my frame was not hidden from you when I was being made in secret in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance. In your book was written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there were none of them.”
Closson said that the context of this passage in Psalm 139 is the presence of God. Thus “God is personally involved in the development of every unborn child.” It was not an impersonal organism, but David himself, who was being formed in his mother’s womb. Finally, he pointed to Lk. 1:39-45 (really the strongest proof that the Bible teaches the personhood of the unborn), in which John the Baptist leaps for joy in the womb of Elizabeth at the arrival of Mary, early in her pregnancy with Jesus. The “leaping activity of John the Baptist” shows a personal response to Mary’s arrival by the fetus in Elizabeth’s womb, clearly indicating his personhood. Additionally, Elizabeth, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, declared that Mary was the mother (not would be the mother) of the Lord. The Lord Jesus was already in Mary’s womb, at this point just a few weeks after Mary’s miraculous conception, clearly indicating that Mary was already bearing a person, who was still a zygote or an embryo.
Closson observed that everything he said about the Bible demonstrating the personhood of unborn children “would have been uncontroversial for about 1,900 years of church history.” Yet he noted, however, that Joe Scarborough of MSNBC denounced the overturning of Roe v. Wade as contrary to Christian tradition until the 1980s (virtually the opposite of the truth). On the other hand, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Franscisco was denounced by the mass media for denying communion to pro-abortion congresswoman and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Yet the Christian church has in fact been explicitly opposed to abortion since the early Christian era, beginning with the Didache, or The Lord’s Teaching Through the Twelve Apostles to the Nations, which dates to the first or second centuries. Its opposition to abortion (“you shall not murder a child by abortion nor kill that which is born”) was well supported by Tertullian, Augustine, and other early church fathers. This position was then taken by John Calvin during the Protestant Reformation, who referred to abortion as “a monstrous crime.”
The change in the mainline Protestant denominations to adapt theological liberalism meant that the Scriptures were no longer understood as authoritative. In particular, supernaturalism was minimized or set aside. In this case, as applied to the infallibility of Scripture, anti-supernaturalism meant the Bible was treated less as a revelation from God, and more as a collection of human documents. Therefore, the Biblical sexual and life ethics were over time abandoned by these churches in the twentieth century.
Closson’s comments on how the moral revolution has impacted sexual morality, and the resulting confusion, even among committed Christians, will be reviewed in a subsequent article.
It can be viewed here.
More from IRD:
Can Science Resist the Woke Revolution?
The Crucial Worldview Issue in the Church and Society – Part 1
The Crucial Worldview Issue in the Church and in Society – Part 2
Comment by David on May 11, 2026 at 9:02 am
“The Bible is the inspired Word of God with no errors.” Well, the Bible has no problem with slavery and genocide, a serious moral failing. There are major contradictions between the Hebrew and Christian scriptures. “As a cloud vanishes and is gone, so one who goes down to the grave does not return” (Job 7:9) tends to undermine a basic Christian belief. There are good moral precepts in the Bible, but people need to get over Bible idolatry.
By using ultrasensitive hCG tests to determine early pregnancy, it has been found that around 40% of human conceptions fall apart when small balls of cells within a few days. This is usually due to the cells having the wrong number of chromosomes. If there is a divine force behind conception, it is obviously not doing a very good job. Likewise, 99.9% of known species have gone extinct after being seen to be “good” and “blessed” (Genesis 1:21-24).
Comment by Qohelet on May 11, 2026 at 5:02 pm
I gave up reading this after the unqualified criticism of the 20% of church goers who think the Bible has nothing to say about transgenderism.
That 20% is correct. Evangelical Christians don’t like transgender people, but they don’t have any Biblical basis for that.
And before you cite Genesis 1:27 at me just stop. That’s not what that passage is about.
Comment by Glenn Wheeler on May 11, 2026 at 9:56 pm
I would take issue with the list of things Barna says constitute a biblical worldview. When I look at that list, I see sectarian beliefs that in no way reflect the beliefs of all Christians. In fact, I couldn’t say I agree with most of them. But then, I’m not a product of American Evangelicalism. American evangelicals need to recognize that they don’t speak for all Christians and certainly don’t have a monopoly on what constitutes “biblical” beliefs.
Comment by Wilson R. on May 12, 2026 at 11:22 am
The list of items that constitute a Biblical worldview is highly subjective and also an illogical and dishonest form of argument (if you get to set the definitions, then you can always win an argument). I’d agree with some of the items: loving God and consistent obedience to God. Why isn’t love your neighbor in there? You could say it’s implied in “obedience to God,” but why isn’t it clearly stated since Jesus, after all, said it was one of the two great commandments and Paul said the same? Biblical inerrancy? Please.
Should I venture a guess about why “love your neighbor” isn’t in there?
Or why the writer quickly moves away from the list to talk almost exclusively about abortion and LGBTQ issues?
Jesus, like the prophets, talked a lot about caring for the poor and marginalized. You can’t get much more biblical than that. Yet it’s completely absent from this discussion of biblical worldview and moral revival. Revealing?
Comment by John on May 12, 2026 at 3:44 pm
I have several issues with the criteria Barna put forth for the Biblical worldview. The claim that the Bible is without error is not a universally-held Christian doctrine, nor is it actually contained in the official dogma of most historical denominations. This a popular belief among evangelicals and one that I dare say some of them will deny if closely questioned on the subject. If by without error, they mean it is completely historicaly accurate and in-line with scientific fact on matters such as creation most would agree it is not or find some way to explain away inconsistencies, such as the alternate dates for Jesus’ birth given by Matthew and Luke or the manner in which creation occurs in Genesis or the verses in Joshua in which the sun is said to “stand still”. A more telling criterium concerning scripture would be to ask recipients whether they believe the knowledge contained in scripture is sufficient for salvation.
Why is only the first part of the Greatest Commandment to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength listed, but not the second part to love one’s neighbor as one’s self? This seems to me to present a very solidarity and individualistic portrait of Christianity as merely about one’s individual relationship with God being the sole focus with other human relationship being incidental, when the Gospel presents these as running hand-in-hand with one another. None of these criteria address how Christians are to treat others which a vital part of the Gospel.
Finally I would like to know what the proctors of this survey have in mind when they refer to a “successful life” in the final criterium. If they’e meaning to imply in any way that serving God faithfully will lead to worldly success, then they haven’t read the Bible closely in which Jesus more or less suggests the opposition, telling his followers to be prepared to encounter opposition and outright persecution. We don’t need anymore prosperity gospel nonsense in this current age.
Comment by Rick Plasterer on May 12, 2026 at 6:01 pm
David,
Anyone believing in the truth of the Bible should not be perturbed by your comments. The Bible accepts slavery as a reality, just as the Old Testament allowed divorce. American slavery was based on kidnapping (by slaving tribes in Africa, not usually Europeans, but still forbidden by I Tim. 1:10), was racial, did not recognize marriage among slaves, and sometimes involved the breakup of families, none of which are sanctioned in the Bible (practices regarding marriage and the family were really a violation of the creation order). Job’s statement about the permanence of death was true before the time of Christ; souls descended to sheol, only at his resurrection did Christ take “a host of captives” with him (Eph. 4:8).
How many unborn children die naturally before birth is irrelevant to the pro-life argument. As I recall from another one of your comments several years ago, 70% die. The Bible tells us not to kill (unless in war, capital punishment, or reasonably, self-defense). If there are many more people in the new creation than were saved after birth, that is also irrelevant. Evil before the fall of man is indeed a problem to understand, but the Bible recognizes it in the serpent in the garden, and Lucifer before the fall of man. I don’t purport to answer all the questions that could be raised about the Bible, but these seem pretty obvious.
Rick
Comment by Rick Plasterer on May 12, 2026 at 9:51 pm
Qohelet,
Evangelical Christians love everyone but hate sin. No. the 20% of churchgoers who think that the Bible doesn’t address transgenderism are wrong. Deut. 22:5 “A woman shall not wear man’s clothing, nor shall a man put on a woman’s clothing; for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD your God.” In the same sense that God detests thieves or murderers, he hates those who identify with the opposite sex. It’s still true that God and his people love everyone but hate the sin in their lives. Notably the surrounding verses basically command altruism, although that moral command is broader than the specific situations, they describe (e.g., a straying ox or sheep).
Rick
Comment by Rick Plasterer on May 12, 2026 at 10:11 pm
David,
I forgot to address your reference to genocide. Yes indeed God commanded the annhilation of the Canaanites. In Deut. 9:5 and 18:12 God explained that it was because of their wickedness. Here it is a matter of believing God and accepting his judgment.
Rick
Comment by Glenn Wheeler on May 12, 2026 at 11:52 pm
The comment about evangelical Christians loving everyone is so ridiculous snd untrue it’s laughable. I guess they love the Lebanese, but they cheer on the Israelis as they slaughter the Lebanese. I guess they love the Iranians, but they cheer on their ante-christ president who wants to destroy their civilization and blow them back to the Stone Age. I guess they loved the Iraquis, but that didn’t stop them from supporting their president in his bombing that killed at least a million civilians. I guess they love the Libyans, the Afghans, and the Syrians, but that didn’t make them yell “STOP” while their pseudo-Christian government reduced those countries to ruin. And I could go on and on and on…..
Evangelicals love everyone? Please! How stupid do you think people are?
Comment by Wilson R. on May 13, 2026 at 10:03 am
Glenn, it’s interesting to see how young “Nones” respond to evangelical Christianity. They often don’t know what real Christianity looks like, and they don’t know the Bible. They go by what they see. And from what they see of evangelicals, many of them think that Christianity is a religion of hate. It will take a long time to undo the damage they have caused to Christianity. One strategy I have seen some people use is to refer to themselves as Jesus followers rather than Christians when talking with Nones. If they say they are Christians, people assume that they are haters.
Comment by Wilson R. on May 13, 2026 at 3:53 pm
So were the Old Testament scriptures inerrant when they were first written? Or did they not become inerrant until they were edited after the Exile? Or was it when they took their final form some centuries later?
Was Mark’s gospel inerrant as originally written? Or did it become inerrant only after a second ending was added later? Or was it still errant until the final ending was added?
Comment by Qohelet on May 13, 2026 at 7:59 pm
Rick, two major problems with using the Deuteronomy verse as you are. The first is that it seems to be the kind of thing the Council of Jerusalem said Gentiles shouldn’t worry about in Acts 15. It’s not listed as one of the parts of the law binding new converts to Christianity.
More importantly though, a transgender person would argue that your passage not only fails to condemn them, it actually commands them to dress as the gender they believe they are. You may think a person is a man, but if they sincerely believe that God intended them to be a woman, who are we to say they’re wrong? There’s enough cases of intersex people being assigned the wrong gender at birth or East German athletes being so injected with hormones that they seemed to shift genders to give pause in how certain we can be about what God intended for a person. I don’t think it’s a particularly scandalous idea to say we should listen to the person and let them do their best.
Comment by Glenn Wheeler on May 14, 2026 at 12:20 am
Wilson,
The Nones are right when they see evangelical Christianity as a religion of hate. They hate everyone who doesn’t agree with them. The proof is out there, as I detailed in my previous comment. That’s why the Nones avoid it like the plague.
And there will be more and more Nones as time goes on.
And you’re right… the Nones don’t know the Bible. All they know is what the “preachers” and others have said about the Bible, the particular spin that evangelicals have put on the Bible.
When the older generation dies out, evangelicalism will cease to exist as a significant factor in Christianity. In 20 years evangelicalism will be a fringe religion.
But they will still believe that they, and only they, have Truth. Sad.
Comment by Rick Plasterer on May 21, 2026 at 6:02 pm
Qohelet,
It’s been several days since I last looked at this article, but I do want to point out that if Acts 15 lists the only commands in the Old Testament binding on gentile Christians, most of the Ten Commandments is eliminated, as well as the other moral commands of the Old Testament. Act 15 reasonably freed gentile Christians from the ceremonial law and the civil law of Israel.
As to sexual self-determination, that destroys sex. Sex (or “gender” if that’s what you want to call it) makes no sense unless it is based on the body. Otherwise, one is simply declaring an internal, private reality the public has no access to.
Rick