From the Barna Group Website, today: Posted on January 12, 2009 For much of America's history, the assumption was that if you were born in America, you would affiliate with the Christian faith. A new nationwide survey by The Barna Group, however, indicates that people's views have changed. The study discovered that half of all adults now contend that Christianity is just one of many options that Americans choose from and that a huge majority of adults pick and choose what they believe rather than adopt a church or denomination's slate of beliefs. Still, most people say their faith is becoming increasingly important as a source of personal moral guidance. Choosing a Faith The survey shows half of Americans believe the Christian faith no longer has a lock on people's hearts. Overall, 50% of the adults interviewed agreed that Christianity is no longer the faith that Americans automatically accept as their personal faith, while just 44% disagreed and 6% were not sur...
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There are both plays and films that in various ways advocate "menages a trois" or even more "open" relationships. My own reaction to all I've seen is that they gloss over an essential selfishness that motivates the "openness." And they also fail to treat their subject realistically. Certainly some would accuse me of approaching the issue with my own biases, and of course we all do that. Nevertheless, I still think I may be seeing something people who'd suggest monogamy may be too rigid are missing.
Getting back to the larger point, however, I agree that the "freedom" rhetoric is permissive rather than liberating, and that the erosion of social absolutes has the negative effect of "everything is okay" - when we can see that, in effect, it is not, or open relationships would have swept the world by now.