Survey: 'Unchurched' Americans say church is 'full of hypocrites'
Almost three-quarters of Americans who haven't darkened the door of a church in the past six months think it is ''full of hypocrites,'' and even more of them consider Christianity to be more about organized religion than about loving God and people, according to a new survey. Almost half those surveyed - 44 percent - agreed that ''Christians get on my nerves.''
But the survey of ''unchurched'' Americans by LifeWay Research also found that some 78 percent said they would be willing to listen to someone who wanted to tell them about his or her Christian beliefs. Researchers, affiliated with the Southern Baptists' LifeWay Christian Resources, defined ''unchurched'' as Christians who haven't attended church in six months as well as non-Christians such as Jews, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists.
The findings echoed a previous study by The Barna Group that found the vast majority of young non-Christians view Christianity as anti-gay, judgmental and hypocritical.
The study was based on an overall sample of 1,402 adults who were interviewed by phone in 2007, including 900 ages 18-29 and 502 age 30 and older. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points. - Religion News Service
Christians that get defensive over an article like this would point to scriptures that would demonstrate that this is a normal response from "the world". If anything, this would buttress the view of their correctness.
Jesus, in contrast, was always the favorite of the unchurched. It was around him that they felt most accepted and comfortable. At least, that's the way I read it.
In some sense, I think the reason for the inconsistency is that the title of Christian is so broad. Jerry Falwell, Mother Teresa, Rob Bell, Ann Coulter, Kenneth Copeland, George Bush, Desmond Tutu, Marcus Borg, the guy working the soup kitchen, and the dude yellin at people on the street corner all lay claim to the title Christian. Depending on your personal experience with Christians, it may be Mother Teresa who springs to mind when the topic of Christendom is brought up or it may be Ann Coulter.
Unfortunately, as the sour view of the survey shows, it is our most negative voices who have the floor.
But the survey of ''unchurched'' Americans by LifeWay Research also found that some 78 percent said they would be willing to listen to someone who wanted to tell them about his or her Christian beliefs. Researchers, affiliated with the Southern Baptists' LifeWay Christian Resources, defined ''unchurched'' as Christians who haven't attended church in six months as well as non-Christians such as Jews, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists.
The findings echoed a previous study by The Barna Group that found the vast majority of young non-Christians view Christianity as anti-gay, judgmental and hypocritical.
The study was based on an overall sample of 1,402 adults who were interviewed by phone in 2007, including 900 ages 18-29 and 502 age 30 and older. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points. - Religion News Service
Christians that get defensive over an article like this would point to scriptures that would demonstrate that this is a normal response from "the world". If anything, this would buttress the view of their correctness.
Jesus, in contrast, was always the favorite of the unchurched. It was around him that they felt most accepted and comfortable. At least, that's the way I read it.
In some sense, I think the reason for the inconsistency is that the title of Christian is so broad. Jerry Falwell, Mother Teresa, Rob Bell, Ann Coulter, Kenneth Copeland, George Bush, Desmond Tutu, Marcus Borg, the guy working the soup kitchen, and the dude yellin at people on the street corner all lay claim to the title Christian. Depending on your personal experience with Christians, it may be Mother Teresa who springs to mind when the topic of Christendom is brought up or it may be Ann Coulter.
Unfortunately, as the sour view of the survey shows, it is our most negative voices who have the floor.
6 comments:
You called me on the carpet for this one so you know my knee jerk reaction to 'Christian', however....
Isn't it true that all of the big three, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam suffer from the same image problem? Is the first image that comes to mind when someone says Muslim a positive image? How do most people picture Jews?
How often do we see just average religious Jews, Muslims, and Christians portrayed in the media as the decent people they are?
How often do we see programs like "God's Warriors" instead? (I didn't watch it. The title repulsed me. More 'wars' being fought in the name of God is just what the world doesn't need.) I suppose the rantings of the right-wing provide better sound bites for the media than the boring everyday world of the moderate or liberal religious person.
Unfortunately those extreme images are the ones the 'unchurched' seem to grab onto, perhaps as an excuse, perhaps not. I guess we all just have to try to make a difference one person at a time. It's a tough one though; those ingrained images are tough to overcome, as you have reminded me.
I have been blogging with Shane Vander Hart on the book this survey likely comes from 'UnChristian'...it's been interesting so far.
I think the survey is quite accurate and a lot of people don't like church (even despise it) for some of the callous actions it has done to people in the name of God (but really was in the name of institution).
The church is full of hypocrites - but like has been said - there is room for one more. We are all flawed to some extent and that's what we work on so as to not destroy our relationships with others - but we aren't perfect. Still I shudder to defend the church in this day in age - some of it's antics are 'so over the edge'.
But I am going to have to go and find out again - I am going back to Sunday Services (gulp).
Have you found a church you are interested in attending Jason? Or just deciding to go back in general and hoping to find a good one?
That's a great poster!!!
"Have you found a church you are interested in attending Jason? Or just deciding to go back in general and hoping to find a good one?" (Andrew)
I am going to go back to the church I attended for 6 years in the neighborhood I grew up in - they call themselves non-denominational - which means they are practially all conservative denominations. I think I owe it to myself to go back to where I started and effect change when and how I can while there - maybe even move the church in a wiser direction over a long period of time. Call it repsonsibility.
It is interesting that non-denoms tend to be pretty conservative. I will be curious to see if that trend holds in the next 20 years. There seem to be a LOT of independent churches developing that are fairly progressive .
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