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Last week Audrey Barrick, a reporter for Christian Post, released the first summary of the Barna Group Report, that was released about a week ago. This in-depth survey found that young Americans, the critical demographic for the Church, are more skeptical and resistant to Christianity than the same group were ten years ago. Their negative perception of Christianity is accompanied by a growing attractions to non-Christian faiths.
Black Americans have long been converting to Islam, typified by the high-profile conversion of the black nationalist leader Malcolm X from the Nation of Islam to Islam proper, after he had made the pilgrimage to Mecca and received instruction in the faith from imams in Saudi Arabia.
The Buddhist and Hindu faiths attracted young whites in the Sixties due to high-profile attention from the Beatles and others, particularly George Harrison. Ten years ago the majority of all Americans felt favorably towards Christianity; today, however, only 16 percent of non-Christians between the ages of 16 and 29 said they have a good impression of Christianity.
Negative attitudes towards evangelicals are gaining as well. Non-Christian youth view evangelical Christianity as positive at an all-time low of 3 percent. A generation ago, the positive view towards evangelical Christianity was 25 percent.
Common negative perceptions among non-Christians are that present-day Christianity is judgmental (87 percent), hypocritical (85 percent), old-fashioned (78 percent), and too involved in politics (75 percent).
Half of senior evangelical pastors were found to believe that ministry is more difficult than ever before because people are increasingly negative toward Christianity.
Favorable perceptions toward Christianity included beliefs that Christianity teaches the same basic ideas as other religions (82 percent), has good values and principles (76 percent), is friendly (71 percent), and is a faith they respect (55 percent).
Criticism was not limited to young people outside the Church. Half of young churchgoers said they consider Christianity to be judgmental, hypocritical and too political; one-third said it was old-fashioned and out of touch with reality. Of the group surveyed, 91 percent of young non-Christians and 80 percent of young churchgoers say that present-day Christianity is "anti-homosexual."
"As the research probed this perception, non-Christians and Christians explained that beyond their recognition that Christians oppose homosexuality, they believe that Christians show excessive contempt and unloving attitudes towards gays and lesbians," the Barna report stated.
Young Christians who took a critical attitude towards the Church said that it has made homosexuality a "bigger sin" than anything else. They believed that their churches had not given them any real help with their LGBT friends and relatives.
One conclusion of the Barna Group Report was that 23 percent of young non-Christians thought that "Christianity is changed from what it used to be" and "Christianity in today's society no longer looks like Jesus." Young born-again Christians were just as likely as young non-Christians to believe the same (22 percent).
"That’s where the term 'unChristian' came from," said David Kinnaman, president of The Barna Group who presents the findings in his new book unChristian. "Young people are very candid. In our interviews, we kept encountering young people – both those inside the church and outside of it - who said that something was broken in the present-day expression of Christianity. Their perceptions about Christianity were not always accurate, but what surprised me was not only the severity of their frustration with Christians, but also how frequently young born again Christians expressed some of the very same comments as young non-Christians."
"Older generations more easily dismiss the criticism of those who are outsiders," Kinnaman said. "But we discovered that young leaders and young Christians are more aware of and concerned about the views of outsiders, because they are more likely to interact closely with such people. Their life is more deeply affected by the negative image of Christianity. For them, what Christianity looks like from an outsider’s perspective has greater relevance, because outsiders are more likely to be schoolmates, colleagues, and friends."
The report also found that the continuing negative perception of Christianity is leading to "shifting faith allegiances," which I believe is a polite way of saying that young Americans are leaving one faith and joining, or at least experimenting with, another.
"This is not a passing fad wherein young people will become 'more Christian' as they grow up," according to the report. "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."
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