That’s how modern day Christians are viewed by America’s youth according to a survey by The Barna Group posted on September 24th. The survey included 440 non-Christians who overwhelmingly described Christians as anti-gay (91%) judgmental (87%) and hypocritical (85%).

The message of Jesus was one of acceptance, love, and forgiveness. A message that can be respected even by non-believers. The numbers above clearly show modern Christians are not following in his footsteps. This may explain why 84% of young non-Christians have an unfavorable view of Christianity. It appears that in the modern liberal world where more and more people are pushing for equal rights, peace, and tolerance the Christian message of intolerance and bigotry is becoming less and less appealing. I can’t help but think that this is a good thing.

Kinnaman is quoted in the story as saying “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, Which is, avoiding removing the log from your own eye before trying to take the speck out of someone else’s.”

We have all experienced these things when dealing with the radical religious right so the survey results are not surprising. What is surprising to me is that 75% of the non-Christians polled still believe for some reason that modern Christianity is following the teaching of Jesus. They must have some really bad ideas about the kind of man Jesus was.

This is running long so please comment and let me know what kind of experiences you have had that either refute or reinforce the poll results. If you want, Classically Liberal has an excellent piece written up on this same subject. I strongly suggest giving it a read.

~ William ~

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