Ethical Living Survey
December 2024 - This November, in an effort to see what informs and influences Wheaton students’ ethical choices, CACE sent out a survey polling members of the student community on how they approach living ethically as Christians. Many of the questions were more general, focusing on the methodological paradigms through which students evaluated ethical difficulties. Questions in this category included, “Other than Scripture, what sources do you think contribute to how you assess ethical topics?”, and, “How would you define ethics?” Other sections of the survey asked students to weigh in more specifically on what they thought were the most pressing issues of their time, as well as to offer feedback on what topics are discussed too much or not enough on Wheaton’s campus. The survey results will be released near the beginning of 2024.
January 2024 - This November, CACE sent out a survey polling Wheaton students about their approach to living ethically as a Christian. Many of the questions were more general, focusing on the methodological paradigms through which students evaluated ethical difficulties. Questions in this category included, “Other than Scripture, what sources do you think contribute to how you assess ethical topics?” and “How would you define ethics?” Other sections of the survey asked students to weigh in more specifically on what they thought were the most pressing issues of their time. Answers that focused on modern sexual ethics, abortion, and climate change dominated the responses, but a substantial proportion of respondents proffered issues surrounding AI, military ethics, or race relations as possible answers. One or two others focused on the ethics of genetic modification, living ethical lives in a consumerist society, and animal ethics.
Among the findings most relevant to our campus community, the survey found that the influence of parents, one’s church tradition, and the opinions of peers ranked the highest among possible sources of influence on one’s ethics. Only one participant answered that their education would contribute to their ethical decision-making (even though a combined 84% of participants agreed with the statement “I am or will be more capable of navigating the world of contemporary ethics in a Christian way once I leave Wheaton than I was when I arrived”), and only two listed mentors as a significant source of the same. When asked to rate their agreement with the statement, “I wish professors at Wheaton would speak more candidly to contemporary ethical issues,” 88 of 157 respondents (56%) answered either “agree” or “strongly agree.” Only 4% of respondents registered disagreement with the statement, with the remaining 39% answering “neutral.”
Steven Preston
CACE Student Fellow