Why are Christians losing ground?

The just released results from the American Religious Identification Survey by Trinity College show that the percentage of self-proclaimed Christians in America has fallen from 86.2% in 1990 to 76% in 2008.

In this article, Dr. Tony Beam comments on the survey, and offers some reasons why this is happening.

1. Agressive athesists.
2. The abandonment by the local church of apologetics as a major part of Christian discipline.
3. The combination of traditional religious teaching with the new age concept of spirituality.
4. The negative portrayal of Christianity in the culture by the media and the proliferation of scandals within the Church.
5. A lack of emphasis in the Church on evangelism as defined by personal conversion and a reluctance by the Church to embrace new methods of communication for the purpose of evangelism.

In other words, he blames others (atheists and the media) and the local church leadership. This may be part of the reason, but I think he misses an important point. The broad population doesn’t find Christianity attractive because it’s self-proclaimed adherents aren’t attractive.

In surveys conducted by The Barna Group and reported in David Kinnamon’s book “unChristian” Christians are perceived as antihomosexual, judgmental, hypocritical, and too involved in politics, especially by the young 16 to 29 year-old generation. The perception is, in fact, true. Christians have become known for what they oppose, rather than who they are for.

Quoting a non-Christian, Kinnamon writes, “Most people I meet assume that Christian means very conservative, entrenched in their thinking, antigay, antichoice, angry, violent, illogical, empire builders; they want to convert everyone, and they generally cannot live peacefully with anyone who doesn’t believe what they believe.”

The teaching of Romans 12:9–21 has been ignored (vs 17-18 “…Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.”

Those who ignore the principles of love, modeled by Christ, may find themselves Christian in name only and would do well to contemplate 1 John 2:3–6: “We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.”