Posted on 01/08/2014 10:23:50 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Ninety-four percent of Americans believe that "being married and having sex with someone else" is morally wrong, the highest figure on a list of eight actions that CNN asked 1,010 adults to ethically classify earlier this month.
"Cheating on your taxes" followed adultery with 90 percent of Americans classifying it as morally wrong. "Having an abortion," "engaging in homosexual behavior" and "looking at a pornographic magazine" came in at 57, 50, and 46 percent, respectively.
Glenn Stanton, the director for Family Formation Studies at Focus on the Family, explained Americans' lack of consensus on what made an action morally wrong by arguing that they lacked a comprehensive ethical framework with regards to how they made their own decisions and evaluated others.
"It's an emotional or gut reaction," Stanton told The Christian Post. "There just seems to be less consistent moral thinking all the way through in terms of a general moral narrative that people have."
"It's kind of a buffet mentality: 'Well, that seems fine to me, that doesn't seem problematic to me,' rather than having a moral system or moral code that people have and hold and run everything through it," he added.
Stanton said he was not surprised that adultery was rated as highly because it is consistent with a philosophy that called for "consent" and "nobody getting hurt."
"It's our biggest sexual ethic today. If two people consent to it than it's fine, regardless of what that might be," said Stanton.
But adultery violated this principle, he said.
"In cheating on your spouse, the two cheaters may be consenting, but the cheated upon-spouse is, in a way, a participant and they are not consenting," Stanton added.
Stanton, who wrote a book about cohabitation in 2011, The Ring Makes All the Difference, was not surprised that only 32 percent of Americans believed it was morally wrong to live "with someone when you're not married."
"I've heard older parents say [to their children] 'Why don't you guys just move in together and see how this is going to work out?' Seventy-five percent of cohabiters have some intention of marrying. They are kind of cohabiting out of the idea of 'let's test this relationship,'" said Stanton. "Rather than a moral thing, they're seeing this as a pragmatic thing."
Americans showed the least judgment toward "drinking alcohol beverages" and "smoking marijuana," which was legalized at the beginning of the year in Colorado. Only 15 and 35 percent of Americans, respectively, agreed that those actions were morally wrong.
ORC International conducted the survey for CNN from Jan. 3-5. The sampling error poll, which was administered over telephone, is plus or minus three percentage points.
Yes, but morals are so last century. /s
Ninety-four percent of Americans believe that “being married and having sex with someone else” is morally wrong,
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Oh dear..
BY wont be happy at this news...
RE: BY wont be happy at this news...
Who on earth is BY?
The income tax is an immoral tax on a man’s labor and so “cheating” on those taxes can’t possibly be immoral.
Where did “Voting Democrat” place on that poll?
“Cheating on your taxes” followed adultery with 90 percent of Americans classifying it as morally wrong.
The state continues to replace God....
Tax Evasion is a crime. Tax avoidance is being clever.
Wasn’t the Bible written in CURSIVE?....
If it were ever discovered that Crown Prince barry obama had ever engaged in adultry would these same people care?
“Pornographic magazine....”??? Do they even exist anymore?
I don’t seem much of an issue with cheating on income tax. Mostly because it is nearly impossible to get do income tax without getting SOMETHING wrong.
my comment was to one who knows..
So-called “tax evasion” isn’t morally wrong, much less a sin. So-called “tax evasion” is a victimless economic regulatory offense, like undocumented immigration, and like undocumented immigration, it should not be viewed as a moral issue.
In fact, it’s high time to get rid of the emotional and prejudicial rhetoric regarding “tax evasive”. No tax payer is evasive. Rather, some tax payers simply fail to fully document their economic activity with the IRS. The fact is that these hard working undocumenting tax payers pay thousands every year in state and local taxes through sales taxes, property taxes, gas taxes, etc. It’s just that the undocumenting taxpayer wants to save a little on his federal taxes so that he can make a better for his family. It’s also important to note that undocumenting tax payers put thousands every year into the local economy, which contributes to economic growth for the benefit of everyone.
The fact that an estimated 30% of federal income tax filers are undocumenting proves that our income tax system is broken. The income tax system is needlessly complicated and expensive to comply with. Often, one needs to hire a specialist to navigate the system’s complexities. Sometimes even a lawyer! What we need is comprehensive tax reform to streamline the system and reduce amounts owned by everyone.
I’m surprised 50% still view sodomy as a sin. That’s doesn’t compute with other polls. Better than expected.
“Who on earth is BY?”
Brigham Young? It was the only relevant association I could think of.
Curious results, since my own opinion is the American pop culture worships sex, not God. However, adultery is personal, whereas the two guys in the apartment on the third floor “aren’t hurting anybody”.
Brigham Young married all the women with whom he had sex. No I am not Mormon. BTW social acceptance of Polygamy is far greater historically than same sex ‘marriage’
‘Tax Evasion is a crime. Tax avoidance is being clever.’
Neither in morally wrong when the government has confiscatory taxes and selective enforcement and punishment as we see today!
“Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s”
Jesus disagrees with your assessment.
Do they think it’s wrong before or after they were caught?
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