This is Nancy Pearcey in the Public Square
How did September 11 change America? Our hopes went up when polls showed a spike in church attendance, but that has fallen off. The lasting change may be bleaker, says pollster George Barna.
The number of Americans who say they believe in unchanging, absolute moral truths dropped from 38 percent before the attacks to only 22 percent after.
Weve heard the slogan, time and again, that the enemy is not Islam, its intolerance. And Americans seem to be taking that to heartdefining tolerance as fuzzy relativism.
Barnas research also shows that some 64 percent of Americans agree with the statement, It does not matter what religious faith you followand that Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Muslims and all others pray to the same God.
This growing relativism may be the greatest challenge facing Christians in America after 9/11. The very idea of truth has been put on trial. Im Nancy Pearcey. Copyright 2002 Nancy Pearcey. All rights reserved.
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File Date: 06.13.02