It is not what you would call an “enjoyable” read. Disturbing? Yes. Heartbreaking? You bet. Challenging? Absolutely. And that’s just the way David Kinnaman wanted it to be.
“It” is UnChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity, which Kinnaman co-wrote in his capacity as president of the Barna Group, the best-known Christian polling firm in the world. Rooted in reams of research data gathered over several years, the book takes an in-depth look at non-Christians 16 to 29 — and finds that the overwhelming majority of them have little regard for our faith or for us as practitioners of it.
“The negative perceptions are not just ‘images’ conjured up to debase Christianity,” Kinnaman writes with co-author Gabe Lyons, founder of the Fermi Project. “Yes, the issues are complex. No, it is not always ‘our’ fault. However, if we do not deal with our part of the problem, we will fail to connect with a new generation.”
Kinnaman offers some insights into how to establish that connection in this installment of Friday Five:
1. The main thesis of the book, the kernel of the findings, is that the younger generation believes Christianity no longer follows the example and teachings of Christ. That’s a difficult pill to swallow for believers — but isn’t there some hope in the fact that people, even those outside the church, still think that Jesus is a model to which we should aspire?
There’s great hope in that. And they often have some misguided ideas of who Jesus was, that He was just a great moral teacher. And still, they have the most positive images and associations of Jesus — they’ve got this high regard for Jesus and for the selfless life He lived.
And whatever we could say about whether they get it right, the truth is very few young people say they recognize joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, self-control in the efforts of, in the conversations they have had, with Christians.
2. So, I’m looking over the numbers: 91 percent think we’re anti-homosexual. Eighty-seven percent, judgmental. Eighty-five percent, hypocritical. Seventy-five percent, too involved in politics. It would appear that a lot of the negative perceptions come from evangelical involvement in public-policy advocacy. Does that line up with what you found?
My sense in doing the study over the last three years is that evangelical involvement in those areas has been a touchstone — it represents confirmation of many of the attitudes and perspectives young people have encountered with Christians in their workplaces and in their experiences within churches and certainly in their exposure to us in the media.
So, yes, there’s an undeniable link between what they understand evangelicals to do and what they understand conservative Christians to do politically. In fact, even the term “evangelical” is often completely misunderstood, seen to be someone who is just a political activist for a Republican-type cause.
3. Here’s the tension, the balance, the main question, especially for folks who read our e-mail. Obviously, there are issues we as Christians need to fight for: one-man, one-woman marriage; the sanctity of life, etc. etc. God’s design on these issues is clear, but can we do it without falling into these stereotypes? Because you’re not advocating in the least that we back off biblical stances on issues.
Even though the Gospel may not be popular to everyone, it does not give us the excuse to be offensive in that process. We don’t have to be a jerk in order to stand for righteousness.
We need to be willing to have very frank and open conversations with people who are not Christians. And while we want to hold fast to biblical truths, we need to learn from people about why they’ve come to the conclusions that they’ve come to. So that even if we disagree with them, we haven’t simply come to them trying to convince them of our views. We may have a time and a place for that, but my take from the data is that we’re far too often in the position of trying to convince everybody we’re right than trying to understand why people might disagree with us — particularly people who are not Christians.
We have to ask ourselves, How do I go about these conversations with my neighbors? Am I feisty? Am I polarizing? Am I an “expert”? Am I arrogant about it? Or do I have an attitude like Jesus did, which was not willing to compromise, but willing to have conversations with people and willing to learn, and willing in many ways to point to deep matters of the heart that reflect what people are really after.
Not that we are, again, submitting our biblical ideals to a popular vote, but we’re asking the Holy Spirit to give us insights into how to apply these crucial biblical truths to a very changing and dynamic culture. Jesus Himself said that He was here to do good to the world; He was here not to condemn the world but to save it. So when we’re known as all of these things in sort of a negative light, rather than being relational, compassionate, willing to learn, informed, oriented around solutions to complex problems, those are the postures, those are the activities, the behaviors, the attitudes that Jesus cultivated.
This generation is not after simplistic formulas, moral formulas. They’re after a deep, livable worldview that helps them make sense of the world, that helps them be a better person, that helps them do good to their neighbors. And the Gospel has every element of that. It is Good News to the prisoner. It is Good News to the blind. And that is key for us to capture in our hearts and minds.
4. You have said, “The greatest threat to our culture is not secular humanism, it’s shallow Christianity.” Can you unpack that a little bit?
We live in a culture where 83 percent of Americans describe themselves as Christians. We’ve done other polling to show that seven out of 10 Americans have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that’s still important for their lives. Seven out of 10. But when you look at how people are living, it’s obvious that we haven’t given them a sense of how being a Christ-follower should influence every aspect of their lives. If Jesus is not Lord of all, he’s not Lord at all.
5. When you present these findings, one of the most common push-backs you get is, “Of course, this is what people think of us. That’s what the media tell them to think.” But we’re missing something important if we just blame Keith Olbermann and go on with our lives, aren’t we?
The media have a significant role. They’re ill-informed often about the Christian community, but we don’t often do a very good job at helping them understand why all of these things connect. They are, in many ways, the primary shaper of our culture today. They’ve become the teacher of our youth; they’re a huge influence agent. However, my bottom-line contention is the Gospel is always more powerful than anything the world can create. And what was so surprising is that young people say that their perceptions of these issues were based on personal experiences and conversations within churches and with Christians.
We’ve got to be willing to look into the mirror and ask the Holy Spirit, with every expectation that He’ll answer us and show us some clarity about this, what is it about our lives that are not producing the kind of godly disciples around us?
FOR MORE INFORMATION
To learn more about UnChristian, visit the book’s Web site.
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