Young Americans today are more skeptical and resistant to Christianity than were people of the same age just a decade ago, says a new study. Negative perceptions toward the Christian faith have outweighed the positive as a growing percentage of younger Americans associate with a faith outside Christianity.
Only 16 percent of non-Christians aged 16 to 29 years old said they have a “good impression” of Christianity, according to a report released Monday by The Barna Group. A decade ago, the vast majority of Americans outside the Christian faith, including young people, felt favorably toward Christianity’s role in society. Young people have an even lesser positive impression of evangelicals. Only 3 percent of 16- to 29-year-olds who are not of the Christian faith express favorable views of evangelicals. In the previous generation, 25 percent of young people had positive associations toward evangelicals.
Among other common impressions, 23 percent of young non-Christians said “Christianity is changed from what it used to be” and “Christianity in today’s society no longer looks like Jesus.” Young born-again Christians were just as likely to say the same (22 percent).
Read about it here.
[From me]
This really grieves me. I’m reading Bill Hybels book Holy Discontent and I believe this is my Holy Discontent that God has place on my heart. I am so concerned about the next generation. We are so busy alienating everyone that they won’t be open to listen because we have done a poor job being the hands and feet of Jesus. Too many Christians want to be “right” and become judgmental and arrogant. When did Christianity become being right over loving and ministering?
“Christianity is changed from what it used to be”
“Christianity in today’s society no longer looks like Jesus.”
Ouch!
Judges 2:10
After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel.
What do you think?
I have been talking about this for some time. Once people discover I am a Christian (which generally doesn’t take long), they immediately put me in the right-wing conservative camp and react very unpleasantly to me.
Now, imagine how annoying that is for a Liberal like myself
.
However the REAL issue is that identification with conservative politics has muddied the waters and people see the Church and Christians in general as just another hackneyed political scam, and not caring for the souls Christ bled and died for.
They see Dr. Dobson, and political action committees, they see boycotts and “God hates fags” protests. I have been stunned about people throwing up the confused issue of when some conservative Christian group did not want to distribute water canned by a brewery in one of the Hurricanes. Tragic, all of it.
My prayer is that we see Christ in the faces we meet every day and more importantly those people don’t see right-wing activists, they see Christ in us when they meet us.
Gee I wonder … how much did THIS gem cost them?
Maybe they can tackle what color the sky is, next.
23 percent of young non-Christians said “Christianity is changed from what it used to be”
I think that is probably a good thing, depending on where one considers the “baseline” to be. There were some pretty dark periods for Christianity in history to be sure (Inquisition, Crusades, witch-burning, etc.).
Christianity has recently changed significantly in the U.S., for the better in my opinion. I’m reading “Selling the Old Time Religion: American Fundamentalists and Mass Culture, 1920 – 1940″ by Douglas Carl Adams (NOT the author of “The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy”
). Adams tracks the changing attitudes among the Fundamentalist leadership toward industry, movies, music, advertising, etc. It’s easy to see Christianity itself changing (at least Fundamentalist Christianity) as the attitudes change during these 2 decades.
Francoise,
What is Fundamentalism like in Australia? Same as here?
Kevin,
I recommend this book based on it’s content to both Christians and non-Christians (there is absolutely no attempt to either credit or discredit the faith – this book is purely historical in nature). I recommend it to you specifically because I think it will give you some insight into the interaction of Christianity with American society that you are asking about. But be warned if you’re considering it: it’s not written very well so reading is a bit slow-going.
MIT,
I think your comment is dead-on. Most people I talk to make no distinction between Evangelical Fundamentalists and Christianity in general. I’m betting that as a monk, you even took heat for the Catholic Church’s sex scandals? It’s even more of a surprise to people that many Evangelicals are actually left-wingers, and that not all Evangelicals are Fundamentalists. I think you’re right that people judge Christianity by its followers which is most often to the detriment of Christianity.
George Bernard Shaw said “What a man believes may be ascertained, not from his creed, but from the assumptions on which he habitually acts.” It’s hard for people to believe that someone has real faith in the Kingdom when most of their time is spent on earthly endeavors.
to the “what do you think” question
I think the most prominent factor is the internet. Just like the changes brought about by the printing press, radio, and television, the internet is causing a huge social change. We may not understand the extent of this impact because we perceive it as a gradual change. But if you consider it in historical time, the change is swift and profound.
Christianity is changing, science is changing, and social norms are changing. I think those are factors in how Christianity interacts with society but I don’t think those factors are as key as the internet. Thanks to the internet, people can do research on any topic in minutes – literally. The same research without the internet would take hours, or days. In many cases, the data would just not be available at all without the internet. It has become common for people to investigate faiths other than their own – including atheism.
Before the internet, you had to be published to have your voice heard. If your topic didn’t have enough mass appeal, you would have to pay for your own publishing – which few could afford. I don’t think atheism had enough mass appeal before the internet so it was underrepresented. As such, it was never really much of a consideration for most people.
With the popularization of the internet, anyone like you and me can publish – for virtually no coast at all. For the first time, underrepresented groups can easily have a voice. I think that’s what we’re seeing now. I think that even the recent flood of atheist authors owe a debt to the internet; they wouldn’t enjoy near the popularity without the internet’s synergy. As a result, atheism is, for the first time in US history. becoming a viable alternative for the general population.
Oops! Forgot to close the italic tag on that first item…
Kevin-
This has been the case for a while; Christianity in the west simply does not, in many cases, look like Jesus.
Or, it could be argued, it’s the public face of Christianity does not look like Christ–the people who are on Larry King, Fox News, etc.
I read just yesterday that Southern Baptists put more people on the ground in post-Katrina ministry than any other group. As some know, our Disaster Relief was on the ground in post 9/11 New York as fast as almost anyone. There are many from all parts of the Kingdom that are involved in helping drug addicts, situations of unwanted pregnancy, money for the unemployed, family counseling, yet go unnoticed because these aren’t the big political agendas.
We need to be careful that we do not measure the effectiveness of Christians by “the official line.”
3A-
I would argue that atheism has always been a viable alternative. There have always been a prominent string of atheist writers who were well publicized and whose philosophical arguments have been in the public square. From Sartre, to Bertrand Russell, to Marx, to Albert Camus to Voltaire as authors, to Penn and Teller, to Gene Roddenberry, to George Carlin, to Janeane Garofalo in entertainment, to Stalin, Pol Pot, Lenin, Idi Amin, to O’hair and Sanger in the realms of politics and activism, atheism has never been short its share of spokespersons.
What the internet has allowed, IMHO, is for interaction such as this between believers in Jesus and those who do not believe in God (however defined). This is a good thing.
Perhaps this study suggests that the evangelical movement is coming to its end?
It also seems to indicate that the trappings of the evangelical movement have blown up in our faces. The quest for political power, legislating an evangelical worldview, publishing empires, the rise of evangelical entertainment and other trappings of the culture wars have worked to turn people off.
We also see the current evangelical mania for starting new churches in which the pastor exerts some sort of autocratic “leadership”. Oddly enough, at a time where more voices are able to be heard than ever before, our hottest church models function to squelch the voices of our people in order to ensure conformity or “right” thinking. The folly of pastoral control may even be retarding the gospel.
Perhaps inside and outside the doors of our meeting halls, we have vandalized the image of Jesus that we are presenting to the culture? Maybe we don’t even recognize him anymore? I wonder if Judges 2:10 more properly refers to evangelicals than the people mentioned in this study?
In light of all that, it should be little surprise that evangelicals lack credibility.
Marty,
I would argue that atheism has always been a viable alternative. There have always been a prominent string of atheist writers…
I think you’re right in that there were always authors. But they were generally unavailable because people were by and large unaware of them. Those that were aware had to comment to purchasing the book to know anything about the author’s view. That has all changed with the internet.
What the internet has allowed, IMHO, is for interaction…
Agreed!
OLM,
Perhaps this study suggests that the evangelical movement is coming to its end?
I don’t think it is. I think that the movement will survive by changing as it has in the past. However, the change will be such that today’s evangelicals will not recognize the changed movement as evangelical (just as evangelicals of the past would not recognize today’s movement as evangelical).
To paraphrase your quote in the last paragraph of this post, Kevin –
“I believe this is *their* Holy Discontent that God has placed on *their* heart.”
While I won’t jump on the religious right-bashing bandwagon, I concur with the Monk and the Athiest – our religious programs and institutions and politics aren’t making us look like Jesus.
My suggestions -
1. Prayer offered in a redemptive, loving manner
CBB
2. More of the Holy Spirit fruit and gifts manifested according to wisdom outside church
3. Trusting in God’s mercy and leadership more than the latest Barna study
Retro,
I don’t disagree with you that we shouldn’t “trust” any survey. But we can’t put our head in the sand either. I think studies help me know how to minister more effectively. It helps me be a better friend.
I make no bones about it that I want everyone to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus. However, I respect Francoise, AAA, Geekwad and other unbelievers who read and contribute to this site. I want to be their friend no matter what they believe. But I do pray one day they experience what I have with Jesus.
Marty,
Great points
OLM,
Thanks for your insight too!
Guilty!
We are religious. We claim that we are in a personal relationship with Jesus and that others need it, too, but we don’t evidence anything of a relationship in our lives. We live as though there is no God and as if Jesus’ life, death and life again don’t matter – as if His words and teachings are not as important as our own. It’s no wonder people doubt.
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I’ve been reading Dan Kimball’s new book, The Like Jesus But Not The Church, and he explores this same idea by interviewing those outside of the church. It’s an interesting read. I agree with what you’re saying. My wife and I almost always leave church asking ourselves, “What about this resembled what Jesus meant for us?”
I guess my question is, then what should a gathering of followers of Jesus look, think, and act like?
Chris,
Thanks for stopping by. I like Kimball’s stuff, I’ll have to get the book.
Maybe the better question would be:
“What does JESUS look like?”
Did anyone bother asking the “16-29 year olds” what JESUS should look like?
I think this is dead-on, both in its assessment of what non-believing members of my generation think, and what most young Christians who take the Bible seriously think as well. Evangelical churches made a huge mistake in selling part of their souls to the Republican party, and that’s incredibly off-putting to those of us who think that Jesus was pretty clear that the Kingdom of God wouldn’t come about through political means.
The only way to talk about Christ with my friends and colleagues is to distance myself from politicized Christianity, which isn’t difficult for me since I never bought into it in the first place. But the church has a long way to go in rebuilding trust with my generation.
One more point: most of my non-Christian friends may have a very negative view of evangelical churches, but they do appreciate activities that churches do to serve the poor and work towards social justice. I think this is the best way for churches to reach out to young adults – give them a place to serve, and demonstrate a commitment to social justice that is grounded in God’s call.
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But what does JESUS really look like?
Are we going to let “fallible” mortals tell us what the INFALLIBLE, SINLESS Son of God looks like?
Phil,
That is a great question! But what does JESUS really look like?
What a great point to engage a person who does not know the Jesus of the Gospels! His Grace, Bishop N.T. Wright uses just such a question when people tell him that they do not believe in God at all.
Our mission in such a situation is to explain and model that Jesus we know from the Scriptures so that we can introduce someone to Him.
It seems that a lot of people have noticed the Church not being very Jesus like, and a lot of those people are WITHIN the Church. This is exactly the sort of behavior Christ encouraged us to do when He taught us the parable of the speck in others eye and the log in our own (so beautifully portrayed by our Reverend host here on this blog).
The path of politics seems to be about telling others what to do, yet Jesus teaches us to do and be the servant of others, the least of all, humble and to focus on our own sin, and give the sins of others to God.
I have belonged to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for just over 10 years now. I grew up in a home that was mainly influenced by ‘born-again’ Christian beliefs.
Now, still a born again Christian and Latter-day Saint (some people think those are two different things, but I know what born again means and what a follower of Christ is so we fit into both categories nicely) I have found that the teachings of our Church are still perfectly in line with those of the Saviour and His prophets as found in the holy scriptures. Even the organisation of the Church is the same with prophets and apostles as the foundation and Christ as the corner stone or head as Paul said it should be.
As Christ Himself taught, eternal life is to know God and Jesus Christ. Those who know them most (by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel as found in the scriptures again) will be most like them.
But what does JESUS “look” like?
I’m still discovering that myself….and I’ve been a Christian for almost 40 years now.