It’s been said, “Most people don’t reject Christ, but a caricature.” From my perspective, the same can be said about Christians. There are a lot of caricatures of Christianity that have gained traction in the media and culture. What do you think are some of the most prominent and misguided caricatures of Christians? Choose two of the selections below.
Apparently Evangelicals feel Christians have had a greater negative effect than Americans in general. Interesting.
48% Evangelicals who listed violence, hatred, bigotry, intolerance, and lack of love for others as negative contributions of the Christian population to American society.
25% Americans in general who listed such failings of the Christian population. Evangelicals were also the group least likely to say they couldn’t think of negative contributions.
Source: Barna Research
Dave, a couple responses to your stats:
(1) The term “Evangelical” is becoming more squishy. The post-Evangelical (post-modern / emergent / liberal) wing of Christendom holds the above criticisms (“violence, hatred, bigotry, intolerance, and lack of love for others”) as near tenets of their “faith”. Which is why they are POST-Evangelical and strive to build a Big Tent Christianity, rather than the “small one” founded by Billy Graham, Campus Crusade for Christ, and the Moral Majority (see: snarkasm). So I would question what part of those polled were actually disgruntled, liberal Christians.
(2) The fact that 25% of Americans still characterize Christians as “violent, hateful, bigoted and intolerant” is HUGE.
Appreciate your comments. Have a great weekend!
I think it’s trendy to think Christians are to blame for “everything”. I developed that attitude by high school, but then I read a book that offered an alternative way of thinking. (Christianity on Trial) It’s an interesting book…
http://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Trial-Arguments-Against-Anti-Religious/dp/1893554155
I can’t decide if it the charicature that Christianity has done more harm than good in history is unfair or not, but I voted for it.
See, I guess it depends on what you think of as good. Most human beings are spiritual brethren of the Misfit from A Good Man is Hard to Find – they reject Jesus because he woos them from their fleeting pleasures. Christianity has done much to benefit society (this empirically, demonstrably true) yet calls men from their disintegrating treasures.
They’d be less conflicted had God not made the option so clear-cut, and they’d be relieved of a sizable portion of stress on their merry way to damnation.
Christianity gives history and society a suitable lens by which to recognize the darkness of men’s hearts – a necessary lesson for us to receive the light of Christ, of course, but an overwhelming one.
“Christianity has done more harm than good in history is unfair or not,”
Usually this assertion is accompanied by bad/exaggerated history (witch burnings, the Inquisition, oppressing scientific advancement, etc.) — most of which has been mitigated or discredited.
Right. It is demonstrably obvious that Christianity has done incalculably good in history – basic economics would indicate that it “wins” in the marketplace clearly over over, say the rape-homicide rituals of devout pagans, based on it practice. It obviously wins on moral grounds, as well.
If the characature is something about a non-atrocity like the Inquisition or witch trials, which nevertheless was ended by Christian intervention, then yes, that’s silly, and unfair (which is why I voted for it as “most unfair” as it isn’t remotely rooted in truth.)
However, I’m certain that Christian history does seem quite the horrorshow to the determined damned, and my heart goes out to them even as they recoil against the concept of my pity. In that regard, the characature is not “unfair” but fitting, if in an oblique way.
It gives them almost perfect fulfillment of Romans 1:18-32. In that sense, the characature, from their self-destructive point of view, is, in fact, an accurate model of their foolish motive to reject God.
I wanted to vote for “all of the above” really.