Do we have a PR problem?

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It is all well and good if people hate us for the Cross....but,


Amazon.com: Unchristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity ... and Why It Matters: David Kinnaman, Gabe Lyons: Books



According to Kinnaman's Barna study, here are the percentages of people outside the church who think that the following words describe present-day Christianity:

* antihomosexual 91%
* judgmental 87%
* hypocritical 85%
* old-fashioned 78%
* too political 75%
* out of touch with reality 72%
* insensitive to others 70%
* boring 68%


Should we worry about these perceptions? What should we do about them? Are they problems of Biblical theology that make us this way? How do we move forward and self-correct so that only the Cross makes people stumble and not us?

I think most people think of the typical American Evangelical today and I would generally agree with the above statistics. Ironically, I think that the statistics are pretty accurate when describing those who call themselves "committed Christians". Most who claim that name today are profoundly ignorant of the Gospel and, for many years, ignorance has been viewed as a badge of honor for many Christians. To be "spiritual" is prized over doctrine and, in the void of good doctrine, has crept legalism and a baptized form of patriotism that passes itself off as true Christianity.

That was some of the same thinking I had.

Do you think the Religious Right has done this damage?

I cannot click on Christian news any more because the news is not Christian, it is political news from a supposed "Christian slant" - sometimes full of revisionism and negativism."

I believe that we can separate the REAL offense of the Cross from lies and distortions about us. I also believe that we must separate the real offense of the cross from our own deficiencies and our own sinfulness that we often do not acknowledge because we are falsely led to believe that if we are offensive when sharing the Good News with others that we are being persecuted due to Christ rather than us being total boneheads.

We are quick to shout "I am being persecuted" rather than "I am being a blockhead!"




What are some ways to share grace graciously. How do we make the Good News sound like Good News to sinners? What are some ways to leave the only offense that people have with us as being the offense of the Cross and not the offensiveness of Christians?
 
It is all well and good if people hate us for the Cross....but,


Amazon.com: Unchristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity ... and Why It Matters: David Kinnaman, Gabe Lyons: Books



According to Kinnaman's Barna study, here are the percentages of people outside the church who think that the following words describe present-day Christianity:

* antihomosexual 91%
* judgmental 87%
* hypocritical 85%
* old-fashioned 78%
* too political 75%
* out of touch with reality 72%
* insensitive to others 70%
* boring 68%


Should we worry about these perceptions? What should we do about them? Are they problems of Biblical theology that make us this way? How do we move forward and self-correct so that only the Cross makes people stumble and not us?

I think most people think of the typical American Evangelical today and I would generally agree with the above statistics. Ironically, I think that the statistics are pretty accurate when describing those who call themselves "committed Christians". Most who claim that name today are profoundly ignorant of the Gospel and, for many years, ignorance has been viewed as a badge of honor for many Christians. To be "spiritual" is prized over doctrine and, in the void of good doctrine, has crept legalism and a baptized form of patriotism that passes itself off as true Christianity.

That was some of the same thinking I had.

Do you think the Religious Right has done this damage?
I think the "Religious Right" is more of an outgrowth of many different forces in the fundamentalist movement. The irony is that, for years, fundamentalists decidedly shunned political involvement because their dispensationalism viewed political improvement as re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. These movements sort of grew into a moral improvement society within where Christianity was marked by "holy living" in the form of abstinence from the world and all its evils. Their view of what the Gospel was already warped before they shifted gears and decided to level their moral improvement efforts on the society at large. The problem is that they are intellectually and cuturually illiterate in addtion to being ignorant of the Scriptures and that makes for pretty bad interaction in the world at large.

I cannot click on Christian news any more because the news is not Christian, it is political news from a supposed "Christian slant" - sometimes full of revisionism and negativism."

I believe that we can separate the REAL offense of the Cross from lies and distortions about us. I also believe that we must separate the real offense of the cross from our own deficiencies and our own sinfulness that we often do not acknowledge because we are falsely led to believe that if we are offensive when sharing the Good News with others that we are being persecuted due to Christ rather than us being total boneheads.

We are quick to shout "I am being persecuted" rather than "I am being a blockhead!"
I agree. If we're going to be persecuted it ought not to be because we're just proposing really stupid ideas. It's not that fundamentalists have been wrong to be disgusted with the direction of society but they go about it all wrong and don't even have a good understanding of the Law so they could prescribe wise methods of governing to account for the fact that the law can only restrain evil in men (and, in fact, that men are evil since their Arminian leanings question that assumption to begin with).

They also tend to despise the light of nature in their common man and so won't engage in areas where we really should. Art is out of bounds unless it's pictures that are "Christian". Music is wicked unless the lyrics are about Jesus. Evangelicals have created a ghetto that's a cheap imitation of culture and, instead of recognizing some of the gifts of their neighbors, actually call these gifts wicked. We ought to be more sophisticated to see the wisdom in the sciences and arts around us without feeling we have to co-opt everything, place a WWJD sticker on it, and then baptize it as Christian.

My "neighbors" at work (that is my fellow Marines) primarily need to see that I'm professional, competent, and trustworthy. In that I am glorifying God. I've had some Pastors actually preach that we should think of ourselves first as Evangelists and secondly as Marines or Soldiers. Wrong, but that idea is so common. Six Days shall you labor... - it's not simply the loss of the idea of the Christian Sabbath but Vocation in general that has been undermined in this degeneration of Christian understanding. If I'm a troublemaker at work because I keep interrupting the mission by wasting my Marine's time by witnessing Christ to them every hour then I'm stealing from my employer. I'm not honoring God. But all I hear on "Christian" talk radio when I used to listen to it is how persecuted a person is because they can't have their "I love Jesus" screensaver.

I'll tell you right now, I'll take a pagan Marine to 90% of Christian men that I've met to work for me. Why? Because the quality of their work is better and many Christians that I meet today are shiftless for the above reason that they think that living in the ghetto is where they do the Lord's work and, in the world, they view as a necessary evil. It's really a throwback to the medieval Roman Catholic Church where the holy people are the monks who live in monastaries. As for me, I want people who know me as a Marine to think: "That guy is fit, squared away, knows his stuff, and can be relied upon."

What are some ways to share grace graciously. How do we make the Good News sound like Good News to sinners? What are some ways to leave the only offense that people have with us as being the offense of the Cross and not the offensiveness of Christians?

Obviously if we're respected in the community for the work we do then that removes much of the offense. If we actually listened to the Scriptures that teach us to live quiet, respectable lives then all the person has left to hate us for is the objective proclamation of what Christ has done. If we live lives that are honoring to God, show love (not disdain) for neighbor, then we're bound to have people that are going to want to talk to and listen to us. I find ample opportunity to invite people to Church and, when interested, to share the Gospel. One thing I hope they're not thinking is: "Yeah right, so I can become a shiftless, ignorant jerk just like you are? No thanks!"
 
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