Study: Youth see Christians as judgmental, anti-gay
By Adelle M. Banks, Religion News Service
Majorities of young people in America describe modern-day Christianity as judgmental, hypocritical and anti-gay. What's more, many Christians don't even want to call themselves "Christian" because of the baggage that accompanies the label.
A new book based on research by the California-based research firm The Barna Group found that church attitudes about people in general and gays in particular are driving a negative image of the Christian faith among people ages 16-29.
"The Christian community's ability to take the high road and help to deal with some of the challenges that this (anti-gay) perception represents may be the ... defining response of the Christian church in the next decade," said David Kinnaman, Barna Group president and author of the book, UnChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity.
"The anti-homosexual perception has now become sort of the Geiger counter of Christians' ability to love and work with people."
The findings were based on surveys of a sample of 867 young people. From that total, researchers reported responses from 440 non-Christians and 305 active churchgoers.
The vast majority of non-Christians — 91% — said Christianity had an anti-gay image, followed by 87% who said it was judgmental and 85% who said it was hypocritical.
Such views were held by smaller percentages of the active churchgoers, but the faith still did not fare well: 80% agreed with the anti-gay label, 52% said Christianity is judgmental, and 47% declared it hypocritical.
Kinnaman said one of the biggest surprises for researchers was the extent to which respondents — one in four non-Christians — said that modern-day Christianity was no longer like Jesus.
"It started to become more clear to us that what they're experiencing related to Christianity is some of the very things that Jesus warned religious people about," he said. "Which is, avoiding removing the log from your own eye before trying to take the speck out of someone else's."
Kinnaman said some Christians — including those in the entertainment industry — preferred to call themselves "followers of Jesus" or "apprentices of Christ" because the word "Christian" could limit their ability to relate to people. Even Kinnaman, 33, described himself as "a committed Christ follower," though he has called himself a Christian in the past.
In addition to reporting on the negative statistics, Kinnaman used the book to also give advice — from himself and more than two dozen Christian leaders — on new approaches.
"Our goal wasn't simply to say here's all the problems, but to hopefully point a way forward," Kinnaman said.
"When Jesus pursued people, he was much more critical of pride and much more critical of spiritual arrogance than he was of people who were sinful. And today's Christians, if you spend enough time looking at their attitudes and actions, really are not like Jesus when it comes to that."
Megachurch pastor and best-selling author Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., used the book to say he hopes the church will become "known more by what it is for than what it is against.
"For some time now, the hands and feet of the body of Christ have been amputated, and we've been pretty much reduced to a big mouth," Warren wrote. "We talk more than we do. It's time to reattach the limbs and let the church be the church in the 21st century."
Andy Stanley, senior pastor of North Point Ministries in Atlanta, suggested that churches should not focus solely on converting people, as has been the emphasis for generations.
"If we were able to rewrite the script for the reputation of Christianity, I think we would put the emphasis on developing relationships with non-believers, serving them, loving them, and making them feel accepted," he wrote.
"Only then would we earn the right to share the gospel."
The research reported in UnChristian reflected larger Barna Group studies with about 1,000 respondents as well as the specific study of young people. The sample of 440 non-Christians had a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points and the sample of 305 active churchgoers had a margin of error of plus or minus 6 percentage points.
--Nate-- If any of you actually read the whole article, I'd love your responses before I give mine.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
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3 comments:
I think this article brings no surprise.
I guarantee in the next 10 years the church at every level needs to know how to love, accept, bless, and minister to the gay population.
We cannot get all awkward when we are dealing with Adam and Steve. We need to learn how to live in tension. We need to learn how to communicate to the gay population. Rejecting them and belittling them is not working and only fueling the fires.
I have worked with a number of gay students. These students are extremely bitter and hostile towards the Church. They want nothing to do with "religion". They all consider themselves "saved", but want nothing to do with church.
It will be very interesting how the church handles this gay issue.
Nate I want to hear your thought and comments on this issue.
You cannot post a chuck of controversial material and not comment. That is against Blogging code.
If I were to respond simply to how the church need to act towards and treat the population of people who struggle with, or deal with same-sex attraction, i'd have nothing to add to what Jeremy posted. It is time to destygmatize that particular issue in our churches.
On a far broader topic (that this article addresses), I believe the church needs to be highly aware of the negative perception they have in society. It would be one thing to be viewed as anti-gay by people who won't listen to or watch you (i'm not arguing either group in the findings did that) but should be highly discouraging and telling of the state of the church if those who identified themselves as Christians also showed such high percentages of views I can only describe as unbiblical. We (as Christians) are called to be anything but anti-gay and judgmental.
The fact that the message is still being sent to the young of the church today is a scary thought, and not one that the church needs to deal with by reputation management. Though a large part of the solution will have to come through up front speakers at churches and media presence at events, the most important part of changing the perception of the church will be to offer a perception that is more accurate to what Christ has called us to be.
The church has done a poor job at being the representation of Christ's Kingdom and Love on this Earth, and the experience of those surveyed acknowledges that.
It isn't time to throw the baby out with the bath water, and try to do church completely different, avoiding the things we can learn from our histories, it isn't even time to assume that each individual church has changes that need to be made, both of those reactions would be to simplistic.
It is time for churches to start caring more about what the Jesus wants us to care about, than to focus on our perception to the world, or to our own bodies. It won't be easy to convince the "everyone else" that the church is a healthy, vibrant, exciting, organization if we can't convince the people that are coming consistently of the same thing.
Likely, the most important characteristics that will be needed (read are vastly unfound) are those of humility, faith and genuine love.
The most important virtues and characteristics we need to demonstrate are faith, hope and love.
I can't picture the practical application on an American Wide basis, but hope to see each church come to work in the fruits and gifts of the spirit to accomplish its job given by Christ.
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