Christian Moral Values Research Articles

That Year 2000

That Year 2000

Is there a distinct African sexuality? A critical response to Caldwell

The author challenges the hypothesis developed by Caldwell and others that sexuality in Africa is inherently permissive, and that prevailing attitudes and behavior are primary reasons for the relative failure of family planning programs to reduce fertility, and thereby will be major factors hindering efforts to control the spread of HIV infections and AIDS. The article is in three parts. "The first is a summary of the thesis as presented by Caldwell et al., including their location of African sexuality and their conceptualisation of change. The second offers a critical response, focusing mainly on the problems of research into sexual behaviour and the christianisation process, with special reference to the case of the Kikuyu people, among whom, recent studies suggest, even where sexual activity may have appeared largely free of moral restraint, there was indeed a moral order.... Part three offers a new way forward." (SUMMARY IN FRE)

Measuring Christian Moral Values among Catholic and Protestant Adolescents in Northern Ireland

Abstract One thousand and seventy‐nine pupils aged between 13 and 16 years, from years three through five of Protestant and Catholic secondary schools in Northern Ireland, completed a survey of moral issues, together with a scale of attitude towards Christianity and a range of indices of religious behaviour. These data are employed to develop and to establish criteria of reliability and validity for a scale of traditional Christain moral values. Tentative scale norms indicate that pupils in Catholic schools hold more strongly to traditional moral values than pupils in Protestant schools, that girls hold more strongly to traditional moral values than boys, and that the acceptance of traditional moral values declines between the third and fifth years of the secondary school.

The Religious Profile of Pupils in Northern Ireland

AbstractNorthern Ireland is one of the most deeply divided countries in the world. These divisions are reflected in a separate system of Protestant and Catholic schools. This paper examines the distinctive religious cultures of 1,177 fourth, fifth and sixth year secondary pupils educated in the two types of schools, by means of a survey which included three major psychometric instruments, namely a scale of attitude towards Christianity, a scale of rejection of Christianity and a scale of Christian moral values, together with questions on religious practices and beliefs. The findings indicated significant and consistent differences in the religious profiles of the two denominational groups, but not complete contrast. The implications of these findings are discussed for the educational system in Northern Ireland.