Ethics Survey 2008

The Josephson Institute did The Ethics of American Youth Survey, and the results are in! You can read the full article here, but let me give you a couple of highlights.

There were 29, 760 high school students surveyed.
35% of the boys and 26% of the girls (30% overall) admitted to stealing from a store this last year.
42% said that they sometimes lie to save money.
64% said they cheated on a test this last year (38% did so two or more times)

You might think that those numbers sound bad, but get this:

More than 26% said that they lied on one or two questions on the survey (The site states, "Experts agree that dishonesty on a survey is an attempt to conceal misconduct.")

And the best part (or maybe the scariest part):

93% said that they were satisfied with their personal ethics and character

There is so much that I would like to say about this article. I would love to discuss how I am not surprised. I would love to take a few paragraphs to talk about how it is getting this way. I would be more than happy to offer discourse on where this is going and how bad it could get.

Instead of writing our all of that, I am simply going to take a moment to challenge you (and me) with two thoughts:

Number 1 - Re-evaluate your own moral character. Where do you stand in these areas? Have you become satisfied with your own "personal ethics"?

Number 2 - Pray for this generation. Pray specifically for those in that generation who are trying to match their ethics with the ethics of the cross. It is a challenging world to live in, and students who take a stand for what is right are getting to be more and more alone. Pray for them today.

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