Some things that make me scratch my head...

I subscribe to the "Barna Update" which is published electronically by the Barna Group - who is the Barna Group - this is from their web page.

The Barna Group provides primary research (through The Barna Research Group); printed resources (through BarnaBooks, an imprint of Tyndale); leadership development; spiritual training; and church facilitation and enhancement. We seek to use our strengths in partnership with Christian ministries and individuals to be a catalyst in moral and spiritual transformation in the United States. We accomplish these outcomes by providing vision, information, strategy, evaluation and resources.

Anyway...

A recent 'update' came out listing the latest research on Americans and their moral and social concerns. Barna identifies 10 top concerns. Here is the content that makes me scratch my head wondering why people are thinking they way they do...

Americans are troubled by a diverse palette of concerns. Three types of issues are of particular concern, perceived as "major" problems facing the country by three-quarters of the population. Those included poverty (78%), the personal debt of individual Americans (78%), and HIV/AIDS (76%).

A quartet of issues emerged as moderate concerns, including illegal immigration (60% of adults said this is a major problem facing the country), global warming (57%), abortion (50%), and the content of television and movies (45%).

Following that, homosexuality was identified as a major problem facing the nation by about one out of every three Americans. This issue was assessed with the use of two questions to determine if Americans have different degrees of concerns about "homosexual lifestyles" or the "political efforts of homosexual activists." One-third of Americans said they were significantly concerned about "activists" (35%) and the same proportion felt "lifestyles" (35%) were of major concern. In fact, out of more than sixty different subgroups reviewed, there were no differences of opinion on these two survey questions, suggesting that the two issues may be linked in Americans' minds.

Christians have garnered both criticism and skepticism in the aftermath of recent elections. Will there be a backlash against Christian voters this November? To help gauge that possibility, the study also examined the percentage of Americans who said they believed "the political efforts of conservative Christians" are a major problem facing the country. While this was the least significant of the 10 issues explored, nearly one out of every four Americans (23%) - representing about 51 million adults - described this factor as a major source of distress.

How do Christian voters rank these issues?

The nation's 68 million registered voters who are born again Christians were most concerned about personal indebtedness (79%), poverty (78%), and HIV/AIDS (77%) - levels similar to that of other voters. However, born again Christians emerged as distinct from other voters in relation to many other issues. They are more concerned than were non-born again adults about illegal immigration (68%), abortion (67%), the content of television and movies (60%), homosexual lifestyles (51%), and homosexual activists (49%).

The subset of evangelicals (representing about 15 million of the born again voters) displayed a significantly different view on many issues. Evangelicals' top concern - by a wide margin - was abortion (94%). This was followed by the personal debt of Americans (81%), the content of television and movies (79%), homosexual activists (75%), and gay and lesbian lifestyles (75%). Evangelicals were more likely than other adults to be concerned about illegal immigration, but they were less worried about HIV/AIDS than virtually any other segment of the population. One of the most significant differences of opinion expressed in the survey was the skepticism evangelicals harbor toward global warming (only 33% identified it as a major issue) compared to the rest of the population.

Since this is a 'political' year - Barna breaks down the details along party lines:

• Out of the 10 issues assessed in the research, born again Republicans are most concerned about Americans’ personal indebtedness (80%) and abortion (80%), while non-born again Republicans are most concerned about debt (74%), HIV/AIDS (68%), poverty (66%) and immigration (65%).
  



• Born again Democrats are most likely to identify HIV/AIDS (86%) and poverty (86%) as major problems facing America. These are the same top-two concerns identified among non-born again Democrats (85% and 84%, respectively).
  



• Born agains who are registered as Independent are most concerned with personal debt levels (77%) and poverty (72%). Interestingly, these are also the leading concerns among non-born again Independents (75% and 77%, respectively).
  



• As expected, born again members of the GOP are significantly more concerned than are born again Democrats about abortion (80% versus 58%), media content (69% versus 48%), homosexual activists (61% versus 38%), and homosexual lifestyles (58% versus 43%). However, born again Democrats are more likely to be concerned than are non-born again Republicans about abortion, media content and same-sex relationships.
  



• As for denominational connections, Catholics and Protestants showed very similar levels of concern in relation to each of the 10 issues. The only exceptions pertained to global warming (an issue of slightly greater concern to Catholics, 59% to 52%) and homosexual activism and lifestyles (each of which was twice as worrisome to Protestants). A majority of both Catholics (52%) and Protestants (56%) described abortion as a major problem.

This report is based upon nationwide telephone surveys conducted by The Barna Group with random samples of adults, age 18 and older. These surveys were conducted in January 2007 and July-August 2007. The January survey involved interviews with 1007 adults; the August survey included 1004 adults. The maximum margin of sampling error associated with the aggregate sample for each of those surveys is ±3.2 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. Statistical weighting was used to calibrate the sample to known population percentages in relation to demographic variables.

So, out of the 10 'top concerns' that Barna defined in his survey - what would you rank on top?

(In no particular order)

1. Poverty



2. Personal Debt of individual Americans



3. HIV/AIDS



4. Abortion



5. Content of TV and Movies



6. Homosexuality (lifestyle)



7. Political efforts of Homosexual Activists



8. Illegal immigration



9. Global Warming



10. The Political efforts of Conservative Christians