A new book is out from the president of the Barna Group - an evangelical polling, consulting, uber group. His name is David Kinnaman and along with Gabe Lyons he has written a book that is a sober read for every Christian about why people don't want to be Christian, about what they think of Christians and much more. One of the most fascinating findings for me is that 75% of non-Christians thought that Christians were too involved in politics. I'm not surprised because I've been seeing it and it was, obviously, what my book was about. But it is still a staggering finding. Here are some more facts for you:
Barna polls conducted between 2004 and this year, sampling 440 non-Christians (and a similar number of Christians) aged 16 to 29, found that 38% had a "bad impression" of present-day Christianity. "It's not a pretty picture" the authors write. Barna's clientele is made up primarily of evangelical groups.Kinnaman says non-Christians' biggest complaints about the faith are not immediately theological: Jesus and the Bible get relatively good marks. Rather, he sees resentment as focused on perceived Christian attitudes. Nine out of ten outsiders found Christians too "anti-homosexual," and nearly as many perceived it as "hypocritical" and "judgmental." Seventy-five percent found it "too involved in politics."
Not only has the decline in non-Christians' regard for Christianity been severe, but Barna results also show a rapid increase in the number of people describing themselves as non-Christian. One reason may be that the study used a stricter definition of "Christian" that applied to only 73% of Americans. Still, Kinnaman claims that however defined, the number of non-Christians is growing with each succeeding generation: His study found that 23% of Americans over 61 were non-Christians; 27% among people ages 42-60; and 40% among 16-29 year olds. Younger Christians, he concludes, are therefore likely to live in an environment where two out of every five of their peers is not a Christian.
Churchgoers of the same age share several of the non-Christians' complaints about Christianity. For instance, 80% of the Christians polled picked "anti-homosexual" as a negative adjective describing Christianity today. And the view of 85% of non-Christians aged 16-29 that present day Christianity is "hypocritical — saying one thing doing another," was, in fact, shared by 52% of Christians of the same age. Fifty percent found their own faith "too involved in politics." Forty-four percent found it "confusing."
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No Donny, that faithful remnant line does not necessarily refer to people like you or us. They were the people who returned to Judea and took over the religious establishment. As I recall they demonized those Samaritans and pretty much anyone who didn't have the pedigree needed at the time. A claim to such a pedigree of correctness - has been a destructive force. it continues to be destructive today. It aften results in religiosity.
Religiosity is always filled with itself and sure of it's righteousness. Only problem is that religiosity is always willing to despise others in language carefully formed by cherry picking Scripture or dogma. Its sense of self importance is always inflated. And religiosity has demons of its own creation.
Seems like the faithful remnant metaphor might be a bit ironic. Everyone who wants to claim God as their own and leave pretty much everyone else on the road to hell has claimed it over the years.
Of course, if you want to claim that metaphor just go right ahead and do so.
My preference would be to abandon such thinking - it is violent and egocentric - but feel free to claim it.
God is not violent or exclusive - we are. The synthesis of all that God teaches us in these thousands of years is "love one another". It is very hard to do. Bubbling rage covered over with a thin veneer of Jesus is still rage. I can hate for Jesus and feel pretty darn proud of myself. We've all been guilty of such attitudes - it is the human condition. The trick is to abandon our rage and quit pretending it is for God.
Wow thinker, that was thoughtful. Very nice.
>>>"So let's stop engaging with gays and others that "choose" non-Christian life." Donny
Yes, Donny, just as our Lord himself modelled in the pages of the gospels.
Correction:
I meant "developING world" in the second paragraph of my previous post.
Donny:
Are you perchance any relation to Ed Anger?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Anger
In my experience, most Christians are closed minded and hypocritical. I wanted to be a Christian when I was younger. But the more I saw of the Christian leaders like Dobson and that mean guy that runs all the anti-everything boycotts trying to bully companies into discriminating against homosexuals and any group that stands up against his power and money grubbing ways, and how NO Christians were standing up to this bigotry, even if only in the name of "loving your enemies," I realized that the Churches are just big businesses now, as corrupt as the many corporations that now drain the lifeblood out of this nation in the name of personal profit...well, I realized that I had to find my own way, and stop looking to established monied interests for guidance. I now practice humanism combined with buddhist precepts that teach me to PRACTICE being a good person, rather than just judging other people for failing to live up to someone else's hypocritical standards. If churches become predominantly good forces in the world, something which has yet to EVER occur in the history of Christianity, perhaps then non-Christians will be tempted to visit them again, in hopes of getting some much needed ethical guidance in this troubled world. Until then, I predict the Christian religion will continue to follow its current course of greed and hypocrisy, supporting war and demonizing all who dare to think for themselves.
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