It’s not often that two separate research institutions independently publish reports on the same subject, at the same time. Seeing such an undulation of information and carefully recorded polling excites the part of me that loves to see relationships and interactions, make theories and ask questions.
You see, words carry a lot of meaning. The best part of all this is the meaning isn’t the tiresome “two plus two equals four” type of meaning or “the sky is blue” form of discourse. It’s the more messy kind, the subjective.
A recent poll released by the Marist College and the Knights of Columbus on the views and attitudes of millennials, and Catholic millennials in particular, paints a stark scene for objectivity’s stock in morals. When asked whether morals were “relative” or “fixed” and “unchanging,” only 18 percent of 18-to 29-year old Catholics sided with the traditional, objective view of morality. Nevertheless, when asked in a poll conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life whether they agree that there are absolute standards of right and wrong, 77 percent of the same age group of Catholics agreed.
It’s time for a recap. When asked whether they think morals are fixed and unchanging, less than a fifth of Catholic millennials agree. When asked, however, if there are absolute standards of right and wrong, nearly four fifths agree.
In addition to revealing some perhaps subconscious aversion to terms like “morality” as opposed to “standards of right and wrong,” slight discrepancies in polling questions often reveal overlooked relationships. The Knights of Columbus/Marist poll also asked, “Regardless of legality, do you think that abortion is morally acceptable, morally wrong or not a moral issue.” Catholic millennials, for once, did something right. Sixty-six percent of Catholic millennials consider abortion morally wrong, while only 21 percent find it morally acceptable.
The Pew poll took a different approach and asked whether abortion should be legal or illegal in most cases. Here the 18-to 29-year old Catholics still responded significantly in opposition to abortion’s legality, though with less of a celebratory margin (45 percent to 51 percent).
Ironically, “moral” in this case seems to have an opposite effect, and legal becomes the semantic boogeyman.
It would be easy to say that it’s just semantics: moral, standard, objective, absolute, legal. And although it may be “just semantics,” that’s no reason to ignore the reality from which it comes.
