"May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears." .. Nelson Mandela 

“Every society can benefit from specific systemic changes, present-day America included. But any systemic changes designed to transform the culture will be short-lived and of limited impact unless the hearts and minds of the people who populate that system are transformed first.” .. George Barna, Barna Group - 6/24/2020

In 2017, a quiet shift in our individual opinions about "end of life" issues occurred. The majority of younger Americans had already favored "abortion on demand", but during that particular year the nation's majority of adults now favored euthanasia as an answer to all other life issues, especially for the terminally ill.*

Now in 2020, It would now appear that America has reached majority opinion upon the issue of the sacredness of life, according to the release of data from a 01/2020 survey conducted by the Cultural Research Center at the Arizona Christian University.

Director of Research George Barna (founder of the Barna Group) said that of the 2000 adults participating, 60% of Americans no longer considered human life to be sacred.

One other rather surprising aspect of this swing in the publics regard for the sanctity of life is the substantial numbers of Christians who have joined into that opinion.

Their numbers are as follows:
40% of evangelical and born-again Christians
54% of Pentecostal
55% of Mainline Protestants
57% of Roman Catholics

As less than 6% of the American Christian community still holds a biblical world view and believe and respect the complete Word of God. It is therefore not surprising that the least moral of the voting block in America (25 to 35 years old) will be the ones who will be the deciding factor as to when we will become like the Netherlands and allow anyone to take their own life for just about any reason.

Several of our states already have some form of assisted suicide or terminal sedation laws in place, but as a nation we are not there yet.** Before that happens, hopefully we as a people will regain our respect for the sanctity of life.

*According to a 2017 Gallup Poll, 73% of Americans support euthanasia.
** Sacred was defined as “having unconditional, intrinsic worth.”

Sources:
- AWVI 2020: Perceptions of the Value of Life (Report #7: 06-23-2020)
- "Around six in 10 Americans do not believe that human life is inherently sacred..” by Michael Gryboski, CP US - June 24, 2020

Rik Charbonneaux is a retired NE Iowan who loves all of God's Word and all of His creatures.