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 LiesAmongFlowers rated 12 months ago - From the page: "The vast majority of non-Christians â€" 91% â€" said Christianity had an anti-gay image, followed by 87% who said it was judgmental and 85% who said it was hypocritical.
Such views were held by smaller percentages of the active churchgoers, but the faith still did n...
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2 Reviews
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- drdreus rated 12 months ago
- "Majorities of young people in America describe modern-day Christianity as judgmental, hypocritical and anti-gay. What's more, many Christians don't even want to call themselves "Christian" because of the baggage that accompanies the label.
A new book based on research by the California-based research firm The Barna Group found that church attitudes about people in general and gays in particular are driving a negative image of the Christian faith among people ages 16-29.
"The Christian community's ability to take the high road and help to deal with some of the challenges that this (anti-gay) perception represents may be the ... defining response of the Christian church in the next decade," said David Kinnaman, Barna Group president and author of the book, UnChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity.
"The anti-homosexual perception has now become sort of the Geiger counter of Christians' ability to love and work with people."
- LiesAmongFlowers rated 12 months ago
- From the page: "The vast majority of non-Christians â€" 91% â€" said Christianity had an anti-gay image, followed by 87% who said it was judgmental and 85% who said it was hypocritical.
Such views were held by smaller percentages of the active churchgoers, but the faith still did not fare well: 80% agreed with the anti-gay label, 52% said Christianity is judgmental, and 47% declared it hypocritical.
Kinnaman said one of the biggest surprises for researchers was the extent to which respondents â€" one in four non-Christians â€" said that modern-day Christianity was no longer like Jesus.
"It started to become more clear to us that what they're experiencing related to Christianity is some of the very things that Jesus warned religious people about," he said. "Which is, avoiding removing the log from your own eye before trying to take the speck out of someone else's."
Kinnaman said some Christians â€" including those in the entertainment industry â€" preferred to call themselves "followers of Jesus" or "apprentices of Christ" because the word "Christian" could limit their ability to relate to people. Even Kinnaman, 33, described himself as "a committed Christ follower," though he has called himself a Christian in the past.[...]
Andy Stanley, senior pastor of North Point Ministries in Atlanta, suggested that churches should not focus solely on converting people, as has been the emphasis for generations.
"If we were able to rewrite the script for the reputation of Christianity, I think we would put the emphasis on developing relationships with non-believers, serving them, loving them, and making them feel accepted," he wrote.
"Only then would we earn the right to share the gospel.""
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