"At the start of 2000, almost four out of ten adults (38%) said that there are absolute moral truths that do not change according to the circumstances. When the same question was asked in the just-completed survey, the result was that just two out of ten adults (22%) claimed to believe in the existence of absolute moral truth."

(Source: George Barna, "How America's Faith Has Changed Since 9-11," November 26, 2001, Barna Research Group [Ventura, California], www.barna.org.)

"In true postmodern form, popular music tells your child that truth can only be found inside oneself. To look elsewhere, even to God (unless it's some personally defined god and not the one true God of the Scriptures), is to be untrue to yourself. There is no universal right and wrong. Rather, you must find what is true for you while I discover what is true for me. You must ultimately appeal to self to decide on matters of sexuality, obedience, lifestyle, etc."

(Source: Walt Mueller, Understanding Today's Youth Culture, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1999, p. 101; see also www.cypu.org.)

Family disintegration helps to create neighborhoods so permeated with fear that living in them compromises the health of their residents.  In a new study of neighborhood life, sociologists Catherine E. Ross and John Mirowsky of Ohio State University adduce fresh evidence that "neighborhood disadvantage may negatively affect residents' health."  Their analysis of data collected from a probability sample of 2842 Illinois adults demonstrates conclusively that "neighborhood disorder has a significant negative association with health."  Sophisticated multi-variable statistical tests highlight the negative health effects of living in "disadvantaged neighborhood," effects which persist "over and above the impact of personal socioeconomic characteristics," such as low income, limited education, or advanced age.   Not only do the residents of disadvantaged neighborhoods "tend to feel less healthy," but they also suffer from "more physical impairments and chronic health problems such as high blood pressure, asthma, and arthritis."

"Health is damaged by residence in a disadvantaged neighborhood," the Ohio State scholars explain, "because disadvantaged neighborhoods have high levels of disorder."   Because "social control has broken down" in these areas, residents confront an environment in which "streets are dirty and dangerous; buildings are run-down and abandoned; graffiti and vandalism are common; and people hang out on the streets, drinking, using drugs, and creating a sense of danger."  Such environments naturally induce fear, and it is chronic fear that the researchers blame for wreaking havoc upon the health of residents of bad neighborhoods.  "The impact of living in a disadvantaged neighborhood," they write, "is mediated entirely by disorder in the neighborhood, which influences health both directly and indirectly, by way of fear."

The authors of the new study provide a technical explanation of "fear's damaging effect on health," noting that when fear triggers first the release of epinephrine and norepinephrine and then the release of cortisone and cortisol, the body begins to suffer from high blood pressure, high serum cholesterol, and high serum glucose, so heightening "the risk of diabetes, stroke, heart disease, and so on."

Perhaps not everyone can understand the biochemistry, but the sociology of fear-inducing, health-damaging neighborhoods is much more straightforward.  "High rates of poverty and mother-only families and low rates of college education and home ownership," remark Ross and Mirowsky, "compromise the ability of residents to create and maintain public order.  The breakdown of social control and order in disadvantaged neighborhoods appears to form the major link to individual health."  The researchers focus particularly on "the prevalence of mother-only households," for this prevalence not only "captures social disadvantage which is correlated with economic disadvantage" but also because it "potentially makes an independent contribution to disorder because single parents may be less able to control their children and single-parent neighbors may be less able to watch each other's children."

So when family life in an area breaks down, residents have good reason to fear-and to fear that fear.

(Source: Catherine E. Ross and John Mirowsky, "Neighborhood Disadvantage, Disorder, and Health," Journal of Health and Social Behavior 42[2001]: 258-276.)