perceptions of present-day christianity...

A couple of years ago, David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons conducted research among North American non-churchgoers ages 16-29 to see what their perceptions were of Christianity.  They were asked this question: "Here are some words or phrases that people could use to describe a religious faith.  Please indicate if you think each of these phrases describes present-day Christianity."  Here are the words and percentages of those who agreed that these words describe today's Christianity:

antihomosexual....................... 91%

judgmental............................. 87%

hypocritical............................. 85%

old-fashioned.......................... 78%

too involved in politics............. 75%

out of touch with reality........... 72%

insensitive to others................ 70%

boring.................................... 68%

not accepting of other faiths..... 64%

confusing............................... 61%

Surprised?  I hope so!  Here is my question:  Is this what we should be known for?  Are you satisfied with these perceptions?  Now, here are the answers given by churchgoing North Americans ages 16-29:

antihomosexual....................... 80%

judgmental............................. 52%

hypocritical............................. 47%

old-fashioned.......................... 36%

too involved in politics............. 50%

out of touch with reality........... 32%

insensitive to others................ 29%

boring.................................... 27%

not accepting of other faiths..... 39%

confusing............................... 44%

The numbers are lower, but still indicate that there is a problem.  One more set of stats.  These are what would be considered "favorable image words."  Again, the survey was of North American non-churchgoers ages 16-29:

teaches same basic idea as other religions..... 28%

has good values and principles...................... 26%

a faith you respect...................................... 16%

consistently shows love for other people........ 16%

offers hope for the future............................. 19%

people you trust.......................................... 9%

seems genuine and real............................... 11%

something that makes sense......................... 9%

relevant to your life..................................... 10%

Are you disturbed by these numbers?  I know I am. Two numbers in particular trouble me greatly: "consistently shows love for others" (16%) and "offers hope for the future" (19%).  Those numbers trouble me because they are precisely what Christians are to be known for!  Yet, we are far more known for being insensitive, unaccepting, judgemental, hyper-political, anti-lots of things, irrelevant and boring.  Clearly, we are losing our ability to connect with young adults in this country... and it should break our hearts!

Yet, Jesus said that his followers will be known by what? Love.  It's Christmas time.  As Christians, we believe that Jesus came to bring God's love and hope to a broken world.  We need to show that.  Let's drop the unimportant stuff, stop being offended so much by what (and who) we don't like, and get back to the basics.  "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son-..."  That truth will change the world... if we let it!