Good Tidings of Great Joy

Julian Simon is right: things are getting better.

by Rod D. Martin
December 24, 2004

As Christmas approaches, media pundits still can't get over the results of the Newsweek poll about faith in America.

A vast majority of Americans not only call themselves Christians, but embrace what C.S. Lewis called "Mere Christianity": the key doctrines of the faith.

Now this is hardly news of the "stop-the-presses" kind. For years polls have shown over 90% of Americans both believe in God and that Christ really lived. Indeed, these beliefs have routinely been discounted as nominal, reflecting little either meaningful or deep.

But the Newsweek poll paints a very different picture.

82% of Americans believe that Jesus was and is both God and the Son of God, a very specific Trinitarian point. More significant still, 79% believe that Christ was born of a virgin, without a human father.

This is a very specific confession, one implying acceptance of virtually the full range of Christian orthodoxy, including God's existence, omnipotence and providential provisi…