It’s obvious that elements of our society are becoming resistant or even hostile to Christianity, but what may not be obvious is the depth of such resistance nor what the future portends as a result. A new study by Barna Research gives fact-based insight into this topic and is discussed in a new book by David Kinnaman entitled “unChristian.”
The study determined that in the age group of 16 to 29 year-olds (the primary focus of the study), 40% do not consider themselves to be Christian (that’s roughly 24 million people). By comparison, the 42 to 60 year-old group has 27% who do not consider themselves Christian. So how do the 16 to 29 year-olds outside of Christianity perceive Christianity and two important sub-groups, evangelical Christians and born-again Christians?
First of all, 43% of the group were not aware of evangelical Christianity, while 14% were not aware of (and therefore had no opinions on) born-again Christians. Of those who had awareness of the terms, 49% had a bad impression of evangelical Christians, while 35% had a bad impression of born-again Christians. Conversely, only 3% had a good impression of evangelical Christians and 10% had a good impression of born-again Christians.
How is it that evangelical Christians, whose professed goal is to spread the “good news” of Jesus Christ, and who (at least claim to) reflect His love to others, are thought of so negatively? The study summarized the various impressions as follows: “Christians have become famous for what they oppose, rather than who they are for.” The common themes were that Christians are hypocritical, too focused on getting converts, anti-homosexual, too political, and judgmental.
If you are a Christian, and you love God and you love people (and you should because Jesus said these were the greatest commandments), then you will not dismiss these perceptions. Losing a generation is a terrible price to pay for our failure.
You can read more about this study in this Barna Update.
One of the underlying problems with these responses is that they are framed, for the most part, as political statements. Being known for what we are against makes me think of hot button moral/ethical/political issues (i.e. homosexuality, abortion, etc.) What would we look like if we were known as graceful, loving, convicting, challenging?
We would look like Jesus…
Some years ago when I was a student at UC Berkeley I had a conversation with a guy in Sproul Plaza about Christianity. At one point in the conversation he said the reason he rejected Christianity was that all Christians are hypocrites. I said “Oh, that’s interesting. Do you always keep your promises and do everything you say you are going to do?” He said, “Well, no I don’t.” I told him that to be human is to be a hypocrite. He told me to “shut up and leave.” I took his response as an indication that his accusation of Christians being hypocrites was mostly a smoke screen to detract from the real issue which is the daily claim that Christ makes on his life.
In “The God delusion” Richard Dawkins writes on page 352 “Even if we make a huge concession; even if it were conclusively demonstrated that belief in God’s existence is completely essential to human psychological and emotional well-being; even if all atheists were despairing neurotics driven to suicide by relentless cosmic angst – none of this would contribute the tiniest jot or tittle of evidence that religious belief is true.” I think Dawkins makes a good point. He could have said “Even if all the Christians lived pure and blameless lives compared to everyone else this wouldn’t contribute the tiniest jot or tittle of evidence that Christian belief is true.” There is a huge difference between the truth of Christianity and Christian behavior / image. The truth of Christianity must be considered only on the basis of propositional truths set out in scripture. It is independent of any particular person’s view of it or their behavior. And it must be. Christian behavior / image is irrelevant to the question of whether Christianity is true.
The world is always looking for excuses to avoid a confrontation with the authoritative claims of lordship that Christ makes on everyone. An easy excuse is to criticize the bad behavior of Christians. This is easy because none of us lives up to the standard of holiness set out by Christ. The world hates the standard of Jesus and so they attack Christian behavior.
Imagine what would really happen if Christians were perfect. I think the world would still reject Christianity. They would see it as irrelevant and unattainable to the rest of humanity. It couldn’t speak or help people stuck in the brokenness and pain of real living. The world does not need to see perfect people (or nearly perfect people) living perfect lives. Rather, the world needs to see people like the sinner who came to the temple and prayed “God, have mercy on me for I am a sinner.” They need to see that God’s grace is big enough to cover our sins and allow us to get up and go on in life being transformed little by little. They need to see how Christ comes to his children in the midst of trouble and tribulation and suffering and confusion and failure and sin and provides comfort and strength and wisdom and forgiveness and hope.
I’m not so sure Christians should beat themselves up because they have an image problem with the world. At the same time, we shouldn’t become antinomians and freely sin. Christians are called to individually and collectively turn away from sin and seek the holiness of God because we can delight in him and his goodness more as we obey him. Not because it will fix our image problem.
…Just a few comments off the top.
–John M
@John m.
“I’m not so sure Christians should beat themselves up because they have an image problem with the world. At the same time, we shouldn’t become antinomians and freely sin. Christians are called to individually and collectively turn away from sin and seek the holiness of God because we can delight in him and his goodness more as we obey him. Not because it will fix our image problem.”
The point of the post, and the book “unChristian,” is not that Christians have an image problem, but that the church is failing to reach a new generation. Understanding why this is true, and doing something about it, must be an imperative for the church.
The perception of Christians being hypocritical is not just a smokescreen. Christians are perceived as adamant that society conform to certain moral standards, and yet Christians break those moral standards with more or less the same frequency as non-Christians. I think the younger unchristians are turning off before they ever hear “Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.”