I agree with your point of view as well and yes I acknowledge that what I’m saying is not THE reason, but I’ve seen it too often so it may have made an impression on me.
Also as the article says, teens think that Christians don’t do a good job representing Christ and are very judgmental.
This is not THE reason, but a reason so I agree with you.
Hi Eli,
Thank you for your polite and intelligent response.
I DO believe Christians are CAPABLE of being unkind, or unloving, or simply saying incorrect things.
Christians are certainly capable of having moral failures, or making mistakes in judgement; it would be silly to pretend otherwise.
I think it is a given, a baseline, that we aren't perfect.
But admission of imperfection does not also obligate us to interpret survey data in one particular way.
Remember the old saying, data can be tortured till it says anything.
: )
So let's take a look at the survey data, from the link you posted.
https://www.brnow.org/news/christians-do-poor-job-of-representing-jesus-teens-say-in-global-study/
THE SURVEY - CHRISTIANS DO POOR JOB OF REPRESENTING JESUS:
https://www.brnow.org/news/christians-do-poor-job-of-representing-jesus-teens-say-in-global-study/
THE SURVEY DATA:
https://www.brnow.org/news/christians-do-poor-job-of-representing-jesus-teens-say-in-global-study/
1.) In this survey, 25,000 teens were surveyed, across 26 countries.
2.) Of these 25,000 teens, only 22% were Christians.
(47% were non-Christian, and 30% were nominal Christians who'd not made a faith committment... nominal means "in name only"... meaning these people were NOT CHRISTIAN.)
3.) In this survey, 49% describe Jesus as loving, but only 31% describe Christians as loving.
4.) But despite this disparity about the term "loving", the teens had a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT view of the term "friendly", with them believing Christ and Christians are just about equally friendly. So apparently they think Christians are just as friendly as Christ himself... and yet somehow unloving... which is a good indicator of the teens' general state of confused perceptions.
5.) Odd bits of miscellaneous data:
- 3% of the teens think Jesus is a hypocrite.
- 4% of the teens think Jesus is Judgmental.
- 51% of the teens don't even think Jesus is loving.
- More on this below.
MY ASSESSMENT OF THE DATA:
1.) Since the survey was across 26 countries, the survey does not particularly address either American Christians, nor Western Christians. So this has nothing specific to do with America or American Christians.... just clearing that up.
2.) Since 78% of the respondents were NOT CHRISTIANS, the survey primarily reflects the views of people with NO SIGNIFICANT UNDERSTANDING OF THE TOPIC.... and thus no ability to have meaningful opinions of the topic.
a.) Non-Christian teens likely have no understanding of the real historical Christ, his character, or his ministry. All they know is how they "hear him represented in pop culture"... and this has little to do with the real Jesus.
b. Likewise, non-Christian teens would have no understanding of how Christians SHOULD behave, or how they SHOULD answer questions, or even how the Bible defines "love", and therefore what the Biblical quality of "love" should even look like.
c. In a nutshell:
Non-Christian teens have absolutely no idea what the Bible says about Christ, or what it says about being "loving" - so they couldn't possibly have any idea if Christians are being Christ-like, or if Christians are being loving. If you have no proper definition of a thing, then you have no ability to speak about that thing, or even recognize it when you see it. They were literally giving opinions about things they couldn't even define.
3.) 51% of the teens DID NOT THINK JESUS WAS LOVING., and many thought he was judgmental and hypocritical. These teens, who don't even think the savior is loving... well... they are FAR FROM BEING GOOD JUDGES OF MORAL VIRTUE.
4.) Let's also clarify the difference between Personal Feelings and Objective Reality: This survey was not determining the Objective Reality of whether or not Christians are loving, it was only determining the FEELINGS, the PSYCHOLOGICAL STATE, of the teens.
a.) These teens were asked how they "FELT. " This ONLY INDICATES THEIR OWN PSYCHOLOGICAL STATE, it says NOTHING VERIFIABLE about OBJECTIVE REALITY.
b.) These teens, 78% of them Non-Christians, did not "FEEL" Christians were very loving. This tells us ABSOLUTELY NOTHING OBJECTIVE about the Christians - it only tells us about the psychology of the teens.
c.) In case there is any misunderstanding, this survey, asking teens their feelings, DID NOT give objective data about Christendom because it COULD NOT give any objective data about Christendom. Your "feelings" only give verifiable data about your own psychological state, they cannot do more than this.
Conclusion:
I see no reason to give ANY credence to this survey, regarding the state of the church.
1.) The majority of the teens are not Christians, and have no "biblical" understanding of how a Christian SHOULD behave, so it's virtually meaningless if they don't understand our behavior.
2.) If they don't understand the real Biblical Christ, or the real Biblical definition of love, then they HAVE NO IDEA IF WE ARE BEING CHRIST-LIKE, or LOVING. They literally have no idea.
3.) As the majority of these teens are Non-Christians, the Bible indicates it's likely they would actually HATE biblical virtue, and HATE light, and HATE truth... that's what the Bible says of the lost. The non-believers hated Daniel BECAUSE OF HIS VIRTUE. So it's entirely possible the Christians these teens are railing against, NEVER DID ANYTHING WRONG!
4.) As 51% of these teens DON'T EVEN THINK JESUS WAS LOVING, they clearly have NO ABILITY TO JUDGE MORAL VIRTUE. They simply aren't capable of judging character or virtue, if they don't think much of Jesus.
5.) A survey about their "feelings" verifies nothing but their feelings... their own psychological state. It tells us nothing about reality, or how the Christians they dislike actually behaved.
6.) This survey does nothing but give us the "feelings" of 25,000 teens who are predominantly "lost." These are 25,000 teens, at their most confused and belligerent stage of life, who are too young to know much of anything, in the midst of a crooked and depraved world, who have no idea what the Bible says about love or being Christ-like, and who are so confused and morally damaged, that most of them think Jesus was unloving.
Their feelings tell us about their feelings... but their feelings tell us nothing about the church.
I want to thank Eli again for his thoughtful and gracious responses... he's been nothing but a pleasure to talk with.
I hope you all have a great week.
God Bless.
.
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