The Pew Research Center recently conducted a survey of global evangelical leaders which yielded some interesting results.
For one thing, 92 percent of those surveyed believe taking a yoga class is incompatible with being a good evangelical. Seriously? We're against yoga? Only 3 percent of participating evangelical leaders said they believe in evolution through natural selection. However, the number increases to 41 percent if you posit God, as opposed to natural selection, as the source of any actual evolution. (There was no indication of whether those surveyed have ever used the Darwin Awards as a sermon illustration.)
There were a few surprises in the poll. The "prosperity gospel," which teaches that God will give you health and wealth if only you have enough faith, has been rejected by 90 percent of evangelicals. Only 39 percent of those surveyed say they sympathize with both Israel and the Palestinians equally -- a number which should be much higher, but which could easily have been lower. Seventy-five percent say women should be allowed to be pastors, and 73 percent said that working to help the poor and needy is essential to being a good evangelical.
The result that has gotten a lot of press, however, concerns the consensus that evangelical influence over culture is in decline. When asked, "Do you think evangelical Christians are having an increasing or decreasing influence on life in your country?" the responses were overwhelmingly dubious. Eighty-two percent of U.S. evangelical leaders surveyed said evangelical influence over culture was decreasing. Fifty-three percent from the U.S. said the state of evangelicalism is worse off than it was five years ago, while nearly half expect that trend to continue.
Douglas Birdsall, who cooperated with Pew on behalf of the evangelical group whose members were surveyed, seemed to blame the discouraging response on the rising tide of secularism. Birdsall referred to the banning of school prayer and the retreat of Billy Graham from public life as important factors.
"There was a time," Birdsall said, "when there was a Ten Commandments in every classroom, there were prayers in public places ... the sense is that it's slipping from our hands."
The survey seems to indicate that Birdsall's belief is fairly widespread among American evangelicals, as 92 percent of those surveyed from the U.S. said that secularism is the major threat to evangelical Christianity.
That evangelical influence is waning is probably an accurate self-observation. Yet the blame for this can hardly be placed at the feet of secularism. If evangelical influence is nose-diving we have no one to blame but ourselves. Evangelicals have lost influence not because the culture has become secularized, but because evangelicals have failed to embody the life and teachings of Jesus. Ronald Sider all but predicted this new reality in his 2005 book "The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience." His argument, based largely on polling data, was that in nearly every appreciable category evangelical Christian reflect the culture at large. The great American theologian Stanley Hauerwas often says the church's first job is simply to be the church -- a teaching that, when ignored, will come back to bite you.
The evangelical church will have its impact on American culture not through political maneuvering, lawsuits, electing evangelical candidates, controlling the arts, or boycotting movies and products, but when evangelicals begin to embody the virtues derived from our faith. Kindness, generosity, peacefulness, hospitality, patience, self-control -- these are radical virtues that should define the people called evangelicals. Instead we are largely defined by what we are against (like yoga and evolution).
Popular evangelical leader Rick Warren once noted the church was meant to be the body of Christ, but it seems "The hands and feet have been amputated and we're just a big mouth." He's right. The evangelical church will enjoy great influence on American culture when it once again becomes the hands and feet of Christ, when it begins to act like the church. How this works out is always different in every context, but Jesus taught it always involves two simple things: love God, love your neighbor.
Ninety-eight percent of those who participated in the survey agreed that the Bible is the word of God. Central to the teachings of Jesus in the Bible is the idea that humans can only find their lives by losing their lives on behalf of others. Not that we must all die a martyrs death, but we must be willing to lay down our lives everyday -- in ways big and small -- for those in our community. We simply serve a neighbor, feed the hungry, visit the sick, comfort the dying and clothe the naked. When the church embraces the call to lay down her life unselfishly, she moves in harmony with ultimate reality. When the church refuses this essential vocation, it is as though the universe conspires against her. If evangelicals are losing credibility, power and influence in our culture, it is because we have sought credibility, power and influence instead of losing our lives on behalf of others. When the self-emptying mode of being the church becomes our defining characteristic, my guess is we'll enjoy all the influence we could ever want.
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This becomes an issue when anyone makes any claim to others and expects them to follow or believe that claim. Evangelicals of the fundamentalist bend make many claims such as “being homosexual is bad” and “abortion is ruining our moral values”. They then want politicians to instill legal precedents in our country to hamper these “bad” activities. But the simple matter is there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever to back such claims! They are faith based claims! I think the majority of people intuitively recognize this type of reasoning as weak and although many may not have the critical thinking skills or knowledge to properly access such ideas for what they are, the cognitive dissonance between what we actually see going on and what we are being told by evangelicals is intuitive. This over a period of time is naturally going to weaken the evangelical’s influence in the population as a whole.
The evolution issue is another very big problem for them. The evidence for evolution and the methods by which it works (Natural Selection) have been so well documented and evidenced that many scientists feel evolution is the strongest scientific theory ever(minus maybe Quantum Mechanics), more so than relativity or particle physics which never seem to be disputed by the church leaders. While no evidence for creation or intelligent design have ever been found or displayed! They are claims of faith!
Trying to convince others to adhere to your claims based on evidence is noble and a standard to be looked up to. Trying to convince others to adhere to your claims based on faith alone can be noble BUT, in the light of contradictory evidence it is just misleading and no one likes to be misled. No evidence is contradictory evidence when it comes to claiming something IS happening. As my first two examples allude to.
Trying to convince a country that hate, segregation and potentially harming others are warranted under faith is never going to work long term. We should and will always demand the evidence to back up such claims. Trying to convince a country to help those in need is warranted under faith I bet you will never ever be questioned! Try it!
And bless all the Christians that actually feel the important work of faith is helping those in need for free just like I think Jesus intended his message to be, at least that’s what it seemed like to me when I read the Bible. No evidence needed for that one! And hopefully they will be the evangelicals that actually gain influence over the country, as such a noble world view should warrant!
I still won't drink orange juice to this day.
The Church has one primary purpose: to bear witness to Jesus Christ, and not necessarily through spoken words, but through action. These actions include feeding the hungry, providing shelter to the homeless, and other good works. Simply put, the good works of the Church are to comfort the afflicted -- and to afflict the comfortable.
Today, Christians are at the forefront of serving the needy. For instance, World Vision is one of the largest relief organization in the world and "strives to follow Christ’s example to love one another, especially children and the poor". World Vision offers humanitarian relief without any reference to the religious faith of those it serves and has a strict policy against proselytizing.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/northwestvoices/2012721811_courtruledthatworldvisioncanhireandfirebasedonfaith.html
Regular Americans are holding their noses at the stench of the evangs. It is so easy to create distain for ALL Christians thanks to the evangs. non-Christian behaviors.
As a life-long Christian I was/and am stunned at the lack of Christian values by so many evangelicals. They are more about money, greed, control, and lack of freedom (well not theirs just ours and yours!)
Some of the emails that I got from so-called Christian friends were stunning in their hate and lies. I finally asked them to no longer send these disturbing emails to me.
Make no mistake the heart of many of these organizations is racism misogyny, homophobia and control of everyone else.
And yet Jesus' greatest commandment is love
When fear determines how you act in your faith it is natural to adopt beliefs that are completely at odds with the truth of the faith. Thus, you get a determination to fetishize belief - worshipping the Bible, a particular lifestyle, and believing that what makes us comfortable must be good.
Evangelicalism is no longer Christian, it is simply another of the false faces of Capitalism. People can feel the lie, just as Evangelicals themselves have to tie themselves in knots trying to justify and explain something that no longer makes any sense, if it ever did.
thanks
Ted Haggard started his church in his basement and grew it to respectable sized corporation before he was final exposed for the hypocrite he is. He spent part of his time gathering political power and hawking wares in the foyer of the church. He was not a pastor of a congregation, he was out to grow a business. Consumerism at its most cynical. Sell religion (man made social institutions) by using Jesus as your spokes deity even though what their selling is 95% about man not God and don't forget merchandising.
How do you figure that any of those are radical?
This is a Western and especially an American phenomena. In countries present and past where the government had a direct attack against Christianity it seemed to flourish.
The Church for the most part seems to have ceased being SALT and LIGHT to the world. Christ was pretty explicit about what the Gospel consisted of LG+LN=the Gospel. That is the formula that I teach my kids: Love God- Love your neighbor. Not make America a Christian nation or stand and point at the "worldly society," My grandfather an old minister used to say "Shallow water makes the most noise. Search for the depth of the still waters."
Most people who are polled have very little contact outside the Christian bubble. There was a time that didn't have any personal relationships with any non Christians. I was taught the world hated the Church. The fact is that many could just care less because it is not affecting their lives in any positive way.
That being said there are many Christians who have risen above the cultural idolatry that is so prevalent today.