David Barton - U-Turn: Restoring America to the Strength of its Roots

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U-TURN by George Barna and David Barton
Published by FrontLine
Charisma Media/Charisma House Book Group
600 Rinehart Road
Lake Mary, Florida 32746
www.charismahouse.com

This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in a retrievalsystem, or transmitted in any form by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy,recording, or otherwisewithout prior written permission of the publisher, exceptas provided by United States of America copyright law.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New LivingTranslation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers,Inc., Wheaton, IL 60189. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked GW are taken from GODS WORD, 1995 Gods Word to theNations. Used by permission of Baker Publishing Group.

Scripture quotations marked HCSB are taken from the Holman Christian Standard Bible,Copyright 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission.Holman Christian Standard Bible, Holman CSB, and HCSB are federally registeredtrademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture quotations marked THE MESSAGE are from The Message: The Bible in ContemporaryEnglish, copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permissionof NavPress Publishing Group.

Scripture quotations marked NAS are from the New American Standard Bible, copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation.Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New InternationalVersion, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permissionof Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and NewInternational Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent andTrademark Office by Biblica, Inc.

Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The word church is capitalized when referring to the larger body of believers, theChurch universal, as opposed to local congregations.

Many early American historical quotes have been used in this bookquotes made ata time when grammatical usage and spelling were quite different from what is practicedtoday. In an effort to improve readability, we have modernized some spellings, capitalizations,and punctuations, leaving the historical content unimpaired.

Copyright 2014 by George Barna and David Barton
All rights reserved

Cover design by Justin Evans

Visit the authors websites at www.georgebarna.org,
www.wallbuilders.com.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014947918
International Standard Book Number: 978-1-62998-024-9
E-book ISBN: 978-1-62998-025-6

CONTENTS

T HE WISEST MAN who ever lived earned that reputation. He wrote some blunt and wonderfullyinsightful observations that we ought to heed. For instance:

History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sunis truly new. Sometimes people say, Here is something new! But actually it is old;nothing is ever truly new.

ECCLESIASTES 1:910

Technology changes across the ages, but human issues and human behavior do not. Thereis nothing new in the problems we face right now as individuals or as a nation. Theproblems are new only to this generation. And the solutions do not really changeeither. The answers to human problems and behavioral challenges are the same todayas they were in the past.

The United States is now entering its own version of the Dark Ages. Other once-greatnations walked the same path we are traversing today, only to discover it led totheir demise. Of course, we have convinced ourselves that we are differentthat weare enlightened and sophisticated and will blaze a trail to new heights of humanexperience.

Alas, such self-deception is also nothing new. History reveals that it is what thepeople in every declining society do before they crash.

Maybe the saddest realization is that we knew this day of reckoning was coming.We have been receiving vivid warnings of its imminence for several decades. A popularexpression reminds us that data dont lieand for more than a quarter century ithasnt been lying. But we have ignored or denied the unpleasant realities and havedelayed making the tough choices. We persuaded one another that if we stayed thecourse and maintained a positive attitude, things would turn around.

Except they didnt. And on our present path they wont.

So today America is mired in an undesirable position, and it is getting worse. Andwe know it.

We understand that our lifestyles and our standards of living are on the downslide:

Seventy-four percent are dissatisfied with the way things are going in America.

Seventy-five percent are trying to find ways to lead a more meaningful life.

Sixty-three percent believe America is in a state of decline.

Sixty-three percent argue that things in the nation are generally headed in thewrong direction.

Fifty-four percent no longer believe the United States is a country where anyonecan get ahead and have a better standard of living.

We likewise realize that the moral and spiritual conditions of America are in decline:

Seventy-seven percent say religion is losing its influence on American life.

Seventy-four percent argue that the state of moral values in the nation is gettingworse.

Fifty-seven percent recognize that religious freedoms are being more restrictedbecause activist groups are trying to move society away from traditional Christianvalues.

Fifty-six percent believe that the Bible does not have enough influence on Americansociety these days.

We are keenly aware that government and politics are deteriorating before our veryeyes:

Eighty-five percent say Congress is more interested in serving special interestgroups than the people they were elected to represent.

Eighty-one percent acknowledge that most voters are not sufficiently informed aboutthe issues to vote wisely.

Seventy-four percent are dissatisfied with the way the nation is being governed.

Seventy-two percent perceive that America is more divided now than at any othertime during their lifetime.

Seventy-one percent say the signers of the Declaration of Independence would bedisappointed in how the United States turned out.

Sixty-seven percent say that our government will never change for the better.

Sixty-three percent indicate that they usually wind up being disappointed by thepeople they vote for.

Sixty-one percent agree that Hollywood has too much influence on American politicsand social values.

Sixty percent admit that the media coverage of our presidential elections in unbalancedand biased.

Fourteen percent strongly believe that they can make a difference if they get politicallyactive.

Six percent are very certain that the government has their best interests at heart.

All of this has led most Americans to worry about the futuretheirs and their childrens:

Seventy-seven percent of Americans are concerned about the future.

Only 17 percent say it is very likely that todays youth will have a better lifethan their parents did.