I have always enjoyed the written word much more than those that are spoken. I’m much better with the former and have no problem admitting that. (Not sure how much that says for my speaking ability since I am so often misunderstood in my writing.)
When I was young, I lost my first “girlfriend” because of this preference. (One of her letters had gotten lost in the mail. She called to tell me what it said. I asked if she could send the letter again instead. I’m still not really sure why that relationship never worked out.)
Despite my love for reading the words of others, as well as reading my own, very few things I have ever read have radically changed me and the way I view things. Don’t get me wrong. I have read a lot of good books, quite a few great books, but rarely do the books ever cause me to view life differently. Outside of the Bible, only three or four books have ever been that meaningful to me. But a book I bought almost accidentally over Christmas has now been added to that select list – unChristian.
In the near future, I will be posting a lot of my thoughts (and thoughts from the books and the contributors), but I just wanted to give a general overview of the book and why it has so impacted me – and hopefully changed the way I interact with people in my daily life and the way I blog and respond to our regular commenters here.
According to research by Barna and published in the book, Christianity has an image problem – especially among the younger generations, the under-30 crowd. While I knew much of the information to be true anecdotally, it is still somewhat jolting to see the thoughts put in the forms of statistics and disheartening to read interview in which 20-something’s (my age group) expressed so much emptiness and hurt that steemed from their treatment by those who claim to represent Jesus.
The statistical backbone of the story is that there are five big negative views that Americans aged 16-29 hold in regard to present day Christianity: antihomosexual (91%), judgmental (87%), hypocritical (85%), too involved with politics (75%) and out of touch with reality (or sheltered) (72%). Going along with those are other negatives that can be grouped within those five: old-fashioned (78%), insensitive to others (70%), boring (68%) and confusing (61%). I can hear the nodding of many of our regulars through my screen.
There wasn’t much positive to go along with it. The top rated positive is in some senses not really positives. Teaches same basic ideas as other religions was agreed to by 82% of respondents. The things that we should be known for were way down the list: consistently shows love for other people (55%), offers hope for the future (54%), people you trust (52%), seems genuine and real (41%), something that makes sense (41%) and relevant to your life (30%).
Unfortunately, I have probably contributed more to the negatives than I have toward the positives. As much as I grieve over our current state and others perception of us, I could not helped but be encouraged by the book as well. Many Christian leaders gave their thoughts on how we can correct the problem and I began to think about working those things in to my own life. That’s a start. I can’t change the behavior of millions of professed Christians who live out an unChristian faith, but I can allow Christ to change my behavior. I can’t change the perceptions of millions of those outside my faith, but I can work to lessen the negatives and increase the positives in the minds of those I come in contact with. I’m going to do everything I can to change those numbers in the future.
Hopefully, you will see a change in the things I post about. I’m trying to shift my attention away from things of temporal importance (politics mainly) to things that can have a real impact on the future (relationship building, service to others, sacrifice). I will not be perfect at it, especially as we are entering an election year, but I am workiing at it. I don’t think Christians should eschew politics. It is part of life that we should be involved in and work to better, but we must remember that Jesus saved us not through becoming the Governor of Judea or by overthrowing the Roman Empire. He did it through His love, sacrifice and obedience to God’s call on His life.
The book is a must-read for the next generation of Christian leaders. We owe it to our generation, to Christ and to his bride, the Church, to digest the information and seek to change the way the world views us. For those who are on the outside looking into our faith, you may also benefit from the book. You will find many of your thoughts about modern day Christianity affirmed, but you may also be challenged to look at the faith in a different light after reading the heart of Christians who are just as sickened if not more so about what Christians are doing and saying in the name of Christ.
I'm puzzled: Why are you surprised by this reaction? And why is it just indicative of the younger set? This is the face of xianity today.
I'm shocked – Shocked! – that the vast majority view xianity and xians as anti-homosexual, judgmental, and hypocritical, as well as out of touch with reality. Gee, I wonder why?
I look forward to watch you twisting yourself into a pretzel trying to live this down.
I've got UnChristian sitting next to my bed, near the top of my reading list. Glad you liked it.
A friend of mine also recommended Righteous: Dispatches from the Evangelical Youth Movement – basically, an NPR reporter spent time inside evangelicalism and wrote an insightful book. It's on bargain price at amazon too.
I'm not necessarily "surprised" by the reaction, but by the overwhelming majority of those who view my faith in such a way. And it is not just indicative of just the younger generations, but the perceptions are more prevalent in that set.
As I said, I knew you (and Cineaste and Sam, if he ever stops by) would be nodding your heads with the assessments. But all those negatives do not fit the Jesus I know, the Jesus of the Bible. It does not fit who His followers should be. Unfortunately, it has fit many of His modern day followers.
See, you're not surprised by the statistics because they affirm your own perception of what Christian is. However, to me they illustrate how far we have drifted away from what and who we should be. They is nothing wrong with the faith. There is something drastically wrong with how we are living it.
I won't be twisting myself into a pretzel trying to do anything. I will simple be trying to allow Christ to be more of Himself in me in the way I view things and how I relate to people. It is part of the continuous faith journey we are all on. I hope you will see that I am further down the road today than I was yesterday. Hopefully that will cause you to at least rethink your perceptions of Christians as a whole and instead view us as individuals at different points of becoming like Christ – some are farther along than others. That's all I hope for.
As you know, I have a continuing interest in xianity (why else would I participate here?). I am repulsed by organized xianity and most xians, yet I do know that this isn't the whole of the faith (just the vast majority). I am currently reading a book which explores this alternate take on the religion know as "progressive" which makes more sense. I'll report as I read through it.
I also just finished a book<a/> which takes the completely opposite tack, and which I found very convincing. I guess what I'm looking for is something which transcends both.
Louis,
Those look like good books. I have read Borg before, he's compassionate, but his very liberal view of scripture (as part of The Jesus Seminar), though it asks some important questions about Christianity and Christ, ends up where all humanist approaches do – focusing on being nice as the sum of religion.
Things like moral truth, God's judgment, and sin go entirely out the window. I think it's an overreaction that throws out the baby w/ the bathwater.
Again, he is thoughtful and candid, and smart. But I think his conclusions are not really biblical or correct. To each his own.
If you like progressive xianity, there are plenty of web sites and left-leaning evangelicals out there who focus on poverty, work with AIDS victims, and rail against the "religious right." I'm not familiar with all of them, but there's always Jim Wallis (of Sojourners) and Tony Campolo (an formerly more conservative evangelical who now embraces homosexuality as valid – his book Who Switched the Price Tags is one of my favorites).
Aaron,
I like the direction you are going, but if you really want buy-in from your "unenlightened" fellow evangelicals and unpredictable charismatics, you'll have to present a balanced message, not just one about what we have done wrong.
You need to emphasize what we have done right and must continue doing.
For example, how do we show compassion to victims of AIDS while at the same time not endorsing homosexuality – I know that non-gays get it, but if you want evangelicals to work with GAY AIDS victims, you can't just expect them to never say anything about it, or drop out of political activism, or to pretend like the bible has nothing to say.
Same with poverty. Not only do you need to acknowledge that xian organizations are doing more than anyone worldwide (save, perhaps, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation ;) to alleviate poverty, but you need to discuss how we fight poverty with honest and well designed government, and how to approach these Christianly.
While the world would love xianity to be only about service to humanity, and some fundies would want it to be solely about evangelism, the truth is, it is always about both.
So if you want us to be more involved in service, you must also discuss how that integrates with evangelism, rather than only giving the 'missing' half of the picture.
Seeker – very much agreed. I'm working to find the balance in my life and for our faith in general. As I said, I want to focus less on politics, but I do not mean to imply that Christians should not be engaged in the political process in every manner – just that we cannot rely on political power to change lives or "bring revival." Only God can do those things.
I tried to strike the balanced tone with my most recent post, looking at both negative and positive stories of Christians in the culture. Areas where I think we are improving and areas where we still have work to do.
The balance is always there: "in the world, but not of it," "speak the truth in love," etc. The Gospel and the message of Christ is one that saves an individual, but then calls that individual to action to make the world around them better (though evangelism and service – the two things Jesus did).
The middle route is the less traveled and the hardest to find and to walk on. To the right, you have fundamentalism with little or no relevance to life and no compassion devoid of the love of God. To the left you have liberalism which abandons the truth of Scripture for a popularity driven message devoid of the holiness of God.
I don't have it figured out, by any stretch of the imagination, but it something that we all need to be reminded about and it is the very thing we should strive for – the nature of Christ.