Un-Christian Christians

Posted on Wednesday, November 28th, 2007 at 5:10 pm

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A new Barna study shows 16-to-29 year-olds are more critical toward Christianity than previous generations were at the same life stage. For instance, a decade ago the vast majority of non-Christian Americans, including young people, were favorable toward Christianity’s role in society vs. just 16% of 16-29’s today. Only 3% of 16-29 year-old non-Christians have favorable views of evangelicals. This means that today’s young non-Christians are 8 times less likely to experience positive associations with evangelicals than were non-Christians of the Boomer generation (25%). It’s understandable why 91% of U.S. evangelicals believe “Americans are becoming more hostile and negative toward Christianity.” Among young non-Christians, 9 of the top 12 perceptions measured were negative. Among them are: present-day Christianity is judgmental (87%), hypocritical (85%), old-fashioned (78%), and too involved in politics (75%). The most common favorable perceptions were that Christianity teaches the same basic ideas as other religions (82%), has good values and principles (76%), is friendly (71%), and is a faith they respect (55%). 91% of young non-Christians and 80% of young church goers say “anti-homosexual” describes present-day Christianity. Beyond this they believe Christians show excessive contempt and unloving attitudes towards gays and lesbians. Both young non-Christians (23%) and born-again Christians (22%) said “Christianity in today’s society no longer looks like Jesus.” While Christianity remains the typical experience and most common faith in America, a fundamental recalibration is occurring within the spiritual allegiance of America’s upcoming generations.
Barna.org 9/24/07