unChristian

A book generating a lot of buzz these days is unChristian by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons. Kinnaman is president of The Barna Group and Gabe Lyons founded The Fermi Project after serving with leadership guru John Maxwell. This is the kind of "must-read" book I approach with skepticism. The front cover promises "groundbreaking research from The Barna Group" on "what a new generation really thinks about Christianity...and why it matters" and the back cover asserts "every Christian should read this." That's overstating it, nevertheless, this is a valuable book and should be widely read. One may not find the contents of this book groundbreaking, but it certainly puts hard numbers to what should already be obvious to any careful observer: the younger generations don't have a good opinion of the institutional church and evangelical Christianity. I've been working my way through the book and offer some observations.

Kinnaman and Lyons studied two age groups that they call Mosaics (born between 1984 and 2002) and Busters (born between 1965 and 1983) -- but they mostly focus on a demographic segment from ages 16-29 (24 million Americans fall into this category). The book is organized according to six major negative perceptions that emerged from their research. Christians are hypocritical, too focused on getting converts, antihomosexual, sheltered, too political and judgmental. This post will discuss only the first three. Incidentally, I found outsiders' positive perceptions of Christianity to be as disturbing as the negative perceptions just listed. One statistic shocked me and points to what I believe is the underlying problem that emerges again and again in this research. The American church desperately needs to recover the Christian gospel!

Here's the shocking statistic -- a whopping 82% of outsiders ages 16 to 29 believe that Christianity "teaches same basic idea as other religions." (p. 28) Yes, even the positive perceptions point to a massive failure. Don't dismiss this as simply the result of not having the opportunity to hear the distinctive message of Christianity. Kinnaman and Lyons write:

Another mistake Christians make is not realizing how much experience and background with the Christian faith most outsiders have. Most outsiders have "been there, done that."...in America, the vast majority of people (even outsiders) are exposed to the message of Christianity many times throughout their lives--in churches, via media, through their friendships, and so on. For instance, among nonChristians ages sixteen to twenty-nine--that is, atheists, agnostics, those undecided about their faith, and individuals affiliated with other faiths--more than four out of every five have gone to a Christian church at some time in their life (82 percent). Most of these attended for at least three months. And two-thirds of nonChristians (65 percent) said they have had conversations in the last year with a Christian friend about their faith views. More than half (53 percent) said they have been specifically approached in the past few years about becoming a Christian. (p. 74)

Perception #1: Christians are hypocritical

As the findings in this chapter make clear, instead of hearing the Christian gospel, outsiders have heard the gospel of good values, principals and morals. Not only that, they've been exposed to Christians and haven't liked what they've seen. Surprise! Christians often don't live up to the message of morality they preach.

So how did Christians acquire a hypocritical image in America today? Let's start with the most obvious reason: our lives don't match our beliefs. In many ways, our lifestyles and perspectives are no different from those of anyone around us.

In one study conducted by our firm, we explored more than one hundred variables related to values, behaviors, and lifestyles, including both religious and nonreligious areas of life. We compared born-again Christians to non-born-again adults. We discovered that born-agains were distinct on some religious variables, most notably owning more Bibles, going to church more often, and donating money to religious nonprofits (especially a church). However, when it came to nonreligious factors--the substance of people's daily choices, actions and attitudes--there were few meaningful gaps between born-again Christians and non-born-agains. Christians emerged as distinct in the areas people would expect--some religious activities and commitments--but not in other areas of life. (p. 46)

This is driven home by the following finding...another one of the most troubling statistics in the book:

Among young outsiders, 84 percent say they personally know at least one committed Christian. Yet just 15 percent thought the lifestyles of those Christ followers were significantly different from the norm. This gap speaks volumes. (p. 48)

There's a lot more here, but I think most of the problem can be fairly summed up by another study. Here Barna surveyed born-again churchgoers on what they thought Christianity was. Over 80% agreed that Christianity "is well described as trying hard to do what God commands." (p. 51) Combine that distortion of the Christian message with the lack of evidence that many professing Christians are, in fact, doing what God commands, and you have a perfect storm of mis-conception about what the gospel is and a pervasive belief among nonChristians that the church doesn't practice what it preaches. The authors remind us that:

Our passion for Jesus should result in God-honoring, moral lifestyles, not the other way around. (p. 51)

Too often the message is backwards. If moral lifestyles and trying hard is all we have to offer, then we might as well stop calling ourselves Christians.


Perception #2: Christians are too focused on getting converts

This perception rings true. If it said Christians were too focused on making disciples, I'd say that was good. But the key word here is converts. Outsiders rightly perceive that Christians are often only interested in them to the extent that they can be convinced/cajoled to pray a prayer or sign a card. Anecdotes are shared from outsiders who've felt used by Christians who befriended them, only to abandon the friendship when the nonChristian didn't respond to evangelization efforts. This is sad. Our desire to share the gospel with others should flow organically out of sincere, loving relationships. We shouldn't love a person only up to the point when we're able to "evangelize" them, then moving on to the next target. Decision-oriented evangelism may have worked well with previous generations, but I don't believe it's going to work well with today's teenagers and young adults.

Again, I see the research here pointing to a deeper problem: the church is too focused on getting converts, but not focused enough on the harder task of discipleship. I touched on this earlier, but the amazing thing is how many young outsiders have had exposure to the church -- even making a personal commitment to Christ at some time in their lives. Kinnaman and Lyons call them the de-churched.

Most teenagers in America enter adulthood considering themselves to be Christians and saying they have made a personal commitment to Christ. But within a decade, most of these young people will have left the church and will have placed emotional connection to Christianity on the shelf. For most of them, their faith was merely skin deep. This leads to the sobering finding that the vast majority of outsiders in this country, particularly among young generations, are actually de-churched individuals. (p. 74)

If you're like me, I bet you know at least several people that fit this category. Barna's research shows that despite two-thirds of young adults having made a "commitment to Jesus" at some point, only 3 percent have a Biblical worldview as measured by eight distinctive elements. It's pretty clear then that the American church needs to recover discipleship along with recovering the gospel.


Perception #3: Christians are antihomosexual

"Antihomosexual" is a term that's problematic. Many confuse tolerance with approval, and some that cry hate, in actuality have a problem with anyone (no matter how humble or compassionate) that articulates a view that says homosexuality is a sin against God and outside his creational order. It is possible to reject the "gay lifestyle" without rejecting gay people. I think the authors could have been more clear on this, but having said that, they provide lots of good evidence for this perception and show how Christianity's rejection of homosexuality is often perceived as disdain for homosexuals as individuals.

91 percent of young outsiders (16-29) perceive Christianity as antihomosexual. The authors bolster this finding with anecdotal evidence from those surveyed i.e. "Christians believe events like 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina are God's judgment on homosexuals", "Christians oppose gays in public office", "Christians use coarse jokes and offensive language to describe homosexuals", some cited the proliferation of "God-hates-gays websites". They then look at the views of Christians to see how they track with the perception. For instance: "more than four out of five evangelicals say that homosexual relations between two consenting adults should be illegal", "two out of every five churchgoers say that school boards ought to have the right to fire teachers who are known homosexuals". Those views may be defensible, but these aren't: "born-again Christians are more likely to disapprove of homosexuality than divorce", only 39% of "born-again believers embrace Jesus's teaching that divorce is a sin except in cases of adultery" but the vast majority (9 out of 10) oppose "same-sex marriage" as sinful, and two out of every five born-again Christians "admitted they have more sympathy for people who have cancer than they do for people with HIV/AIDS". (pp. 94-95)

One can't claim to be concerned about the sanctity of marriage and yet not be troubled by the divorce epidemic. To the outsider it looks like Christians see homosexuality as a super-sized sin and homosexuals as super-sized sinners. In reality, all sexual sin is serious, and according to Jesus, encompasses even our thoughts and attitudes. It's a problem of consistency and proportion. This isn't mentioned in the book, but I recall the controversy surrounding End of the Spear a few years ago, when several Christian groups refused to promote the film because Nate Saint was played by an openly gay actor. A classic case of an often-skewed perspective on homosexuality. The authors write:

The biblical response to homosexuals should be to deal with the fundamental needs that all men and women have. We must acknowledge that everyone has sexual baggage but also has the potential for sexual wholeness. There are major problems across the spectrum of sexuality that the church needs to address. For example, a majority of born-again Busters believe that cohabitation and sexual fantasies are morally acceptable...Being "against" gays and lesbians is not a flag to wave. (p. 104)

unChristian makes the point that evangelicals have too often perceived homosexuals as a threat. "Christians, and particularly evangelicals, have relied primarily on two methods of dealing with the threats they perceive from the homosexual community: preaching and politics." (p. 100) While these responses are sometimes called for, they're inadequate and incomplete. The authors write: "Simply put, Christians think there is a problem but have no idea what to do about it." (p. 101) What's interesting is that while older churchgoers see a threat or a problem, younger people (both inside and outside the church) do not. For instance, if you're a young adult and don't endorse "same-sex marriage", you're in a distinct minority. The authors see the terrain shifting:

The unconventional values of young adults will play an increasingly important role in shaping our society in the years to come, making it much more difficult for those with other views to achieve political traction in this arena. As these new generations begin to make up a larger share of the public, homosexuals will gain greater rights and protections--and widespread acceptance--in our culture. (p. 100)

How will the church respond? More will be called for than simply preaching and politics. We must be able to compassionately "speak the truth in love" to our homosexual friends and neighbors. No more us-versus-them. The authors quote from one of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's letters from prison: "Nothing that we despise in the other man is entirely absent from ourselves. We must learn to regard people less in the light of what they do or don't do, and more in light of what they suffer." They also helpfully suggest that broadening our response will include downgrading evangelical Christianity's current fixation with homosexuality:

Christians need to downgrade the importance of being antihomosexual as a "credential", proving that we are more faithful to God than anyone else is. For example, a young Christian friend we interviewed said she has to be discreet about her attempts to minister to some gay people she has met at work. "If my church friends hear me talk sympathetically about gays, they get bent out of shape about it. It's interesting that our antennae don't go up when people admit to gluttony, lying, using pornography, or getting a divorce, but we seem fixated on homosexuality."

If we don't work at developing meaningful relationships with our co-workers, whether gay or straight, how can we expect them to respect us and our beliefs? When we get to know and love homosexuals because they are people, perhaps they will grow to love and appreciate us and maybe even listen to what we believe. We need to be more concerned about reaching those who need Jesus than "proving" our faith to those who already claim to know Jesus. (pp. 105-106)

To be continued...