You know I’m a bit of a church stats geek, right? Sorry. It is what it is. Live with it. I like to learn about trends in church attendance and religious belief. I enjoy trying to imagine the real people behind those stats so that I can understand better how the church can reach them. At times I take this too far and I become, well, boring.
But at least I’m not Ryan Burge. He wins the prize for boring church stats geek. I subscribe to his newsletter and he never fails to go beyond the limits of human endurance. However, last week he revealed some stats about how pleased people are with their own moral development. I found the headline findings so interesting that I thought I’d share them with you.
Burge asked people, “How close do you feel you are to being the kind of person you ought to be, morally speaking?” I wonder how you would answer that. Well, according to Burge, your answer may be linked to your age. Among the youngest adults, a significant portion (38%) say that they are “very far” or “somewhat far” from being the person that they ought to be from a moral standpoint. Older folks seem pretty content with the person that they’ve become. Take a look at the table attached to the beginning of the article.
But regardless of age, there is a clear trend for people to overwhelmingly admit that they are ‘not there yet’ when it comes to personal morality. I am very pleased with this. Humility is the forgotten virtue and I’m happy to learn that it still exists. When people acknowledge that they need to change there’s a chance they actually will. It’s the folks in the yellow on the graph that trouble me. Lord, let me never get the point of spiritual apathy and self-righteousness that I think I have arrived.
Next Burge asked the survey group whether they (1) make a deliberate effort to improve their character, and (2) how often they reflect on whether their actions were right or wrong? Again, the findings are fascinating.So, older folks are about 11 percentage points more likely than younger adults to say that they are trying every single day to improve their character. And yet, those same older folks are less likely to reflect on their actions. Interesting. I wonder if this indicates that older people are more able to ‘let things go’. I don’t know. However, I suspect that not reflecting on your actions is a negative thing. How sincere is someone who says they want to be a better person but isn’t willing to look in the mirror at who they are right now?
At this point in Burge’s newsletter I lost interest. I didn’t pay much attention to the next dozen graphs. But I’d got what I wanted: a refreshing revelation that most people want to be better, morally speaking; and an encouragement to keep examining myself and to strive for progress. Lord have mercy.