Thursday, October 11, 2007

Reaping what you sow

A new study by The Barna Group conducted among 16- to 29-year-old Americans found that a new generation of Americans is more skeptical of and resistant to Christianity than those just a decade ago.

Some of the highlights:

Common negative perceptions include that present-day Christianity is judgmental (87%), hypocritical (85%), old-fashioned (78%), and too involved in politics (75%) - representing large proportions of young outsiders who attach these negative labels to Christians.

And more interestingly
The new study shows that only 3% of 16 - to 29-year-old non-Christians express favorable views of evangelicals. This means that today’s young non-Christians are eight times less likely to experience positive associations toward evangelicals than were non-Christians of the Boomer generation (25%).

This isn't really that surprising. And the icing on the cake.
As pointed out in the Barna Update related to atheists and agnostics, this is not a passing fad wherein young people will become "more Christian" as they grow up. 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.

Now thats good news! The shift in attitude is not only occurring among those outside of Christianity but those within and even among young born agains.

Now back to evangelicals because they really irk me.

Seriously.

How long did they think they were going to be tolerated being so self-righteous and judgmental, blaming homosexuals and feminists for everything from 9/11 to the price of gas, ignoring the interests of the less fortunate in favour of those of big business, and passing off any kind of environmental stewardship as just a waste of time until the rapture comes. They didn't see anything at all wrong with elevating the most spiteful and amoral among them as their national spokespersons, and rewarding them richly. We have Pastor Ted Haggert, and Larry Craig, two mouthy evangelicals caught with their pants down so to speak with other men. Two of the biggest anti-homosexual bigots out there. Lets not forget about Regent University. I didn't really care to find out what the Oral in Oral Roberts meant.

What bloody hypocrites. Make no wonder people are turning against them and Christianity in general. If this is what it has to offer who wants anything to do with that?

And the Zeitgeist moves forward just a little more. Recommend this Post