Gabe Lyons is the founder of the Fermi Project (fermiproject.com) and the Q Conference (see the July/August issue of YouthWorker Journal). Lyons commissioned The Barna Group to conduct a national study of teens and young adults on the attitudes and perceptions of Christians in our culture.

“My experience indicated that the Christian faith had a major image problem, but I didn’t know why,” said Lyons. “I wanted to get to the root cause of what seemed to be a rapid deterioration of our identity. I sensed that if we didn’t do something now, the reputation of Christianity would be at stake in future generations.”

The study found that for millions of Americans, Christianity “has come to represent hypocrisy, judgmentalism, anti-intellectualism, insensitivity and bigotry. It’s easy to see why the next generation wants nothing to do with it.”

Still, Lyons isn’t depressed.

“I was overwhelmed with a sense of hope. Instead of a burden of depression, I was captivated by the opportunity that lay in front of a new generation of Christians. It seemed the only direction these perceptions could go was a more positive one.”

You may feel differently about the results, found in the following article by David Kinnaman, Barna Group CEO. But either way, we all need to wrestle with their implications.

“Christianity has an image problem, and that problem is partly fueled by the unique characteristics of two younger generations of Americans-—Mosaics and Busters—who don’t like what older Boomers have done to the church. (Mosaics were born between 1984 and 2002, Busters between 1965 and 1983, and Boomers between 1946 and 1964.)

“Young adults enjoy challenging the rules. They are extremely—you might say innately—skeptical. Today’s young people are the target of more advertising, media and marketing than any generation before. And their mindset is both incredibly savvy and unusually jaded.

“Young people engage in a nearly constant search for fresh experiences and new sources of motivation. They want to try things out themselves, disdaining self-proclaimed experts and “talking-head” presentations. If something doesn’t work for them, or if they are not permitted to participate in the process, they quickly move on to something that grabs them. They prefer casual and comfortable to
stuffy and stilted. They view life in a nonlinear, chaotic way, which means they don’t mind contradiction and ambiguity.

“Fewer than one out of 10 young adults mentions faith as his or her top priority, despite the fact the vast majority of Busters and Mosaics attended a Christian church during their high school years. Most young people who were involved in a church as a teenager disengage from church life and often from Christianity at some point during early adulthood, creating
a deficit of young talent, energy and leadership in many congregations. While this is not a uniquely Buster or Mosaic phenomenon—many Boomers did this, too—our tracking research suggests today’s young people are less likely to return to church later, even when they become parents.

HOSTILE TAKEOVER
“One of the generational differences is a growing tide of hostility and resentment toward Christianity. In 1996, our firm released the report titled “Christianity Has a Strong Positive Image Despite Fewer Active Participants.” The study showed Americans, even those on the outside looking in, possessed widespread respect for Christians. Among outsiders—atheists, agnostics, those of a faith other than Christianity and unchurched individuals with no firm
religious convictions—we discovered 85 percent were favorable toward Christianity’s role in society. The perceptions of the youngest generations mirrored this finding.

“That was then.

“Now, a decade later, the image of the Christian faith has suffered a major setback. Our most recent data show that young outsiders have lost much of their respect for the Christian faith. These days, nearly two out of every five young outsiders (38 percent) claim to have a “bad impression of present-day Christianity.” Beyond this, one third of young outsiders said Christianity represents a negative image with which theywould not want to be associated.
Furthermore, one out of every six young outsiders (17 percent) indicates that he or she maintains “very bad” perceptions of the Christian faith. Though these hardcore critics represent a minority of young outsiders, this group is at least three times larger than it was just a decade ago.

“We discovered that outsiders express the most opposition toward evangelicals. Among those aware of the term “evangelical,” the views are extraordinarily negative (49 percent to 3 percent). Disdain for evangelicals among the younger set is overwhelming and definitive.

“Think of it this way: There are roughly 24 million outsiders in America who are ages 16-29. Of these, nearly 7 million have a negative impression of evangelicals; another 7 million said they have no opinion, and 10 million have never heard the term “evangelical.” Thatleaves less than a half-million young outsiders—out of the 24 million—who see evangelicals in a positive light.

“Evangelicals were often thought to be Christians who are political activists. But beyond misunderstanding the terms, most young outsiders pay little attention to the specific theological perspectives that comprise the evangelical or born-again groups. Most outsiders are familiar with the story of Christianity—that Jesus was God’s Son, who came to die to take away our sins if we believe in Him. … The primary reason outsiders feel hostile toward Christians, and especially conservative
Christians, is not because of any specific theological perspective.

“What they react negatively to is our “swagger”—how we go about things and the sense of self-importance we project. Christians may not normally operate in attack mode, but it happens frequently enough that others have learned to watch their steps around us. Outsiders feel they can’t let Christians walk over them.

“One of the surprising insights from our research is that the growing hostility toward Christians is very much a reflection of what outsiders feel they receive from believers. They say their aggression simply matches the oversized opinions and egos of Christians. One outsider put it this way: “Most people I meet assume that Christian means very conservative, entrenched in their thinking, anti-gay, anti-choice, angry, violent, illogical, empire builders; they want to convert everyone, and they generally cannot live
peacefully with anyone who doesn’t believe what they believe.”

WHY SO NEGATIVE?
“One crucial insight kept popping up in our exploration. In studying thousands of outsiders’ impressions, it is clear Christians are primarily perceived for what they stand against. We have become famous for what we oppose, rather than who we are for.

“Think back to the outsider’s comment. What is her image of Christians? Entrenched-thinking, anti-gay, anti-choice, angry, violent, illogical, empire-building, convert-focused people who cannot live peacefully with others. We are known for having an us-versus-them mentality. Outsiders feel minimized—or worse, demonized—by those who love Jesus.

“How common are these perceptions? In our national surveys with young people, we found the three most common perceptions of present-day Christianity are: anti-homosexual (an image held by 91 percent of young outsiders), judgmental (87 percent) and hypocritical (85 percent). These “big three” are followed by the following negative perceptions, embraced by a majority of young adults: old-fashioned, too involved in politics, out of touch with reality, insensitive to others, boring, not accepting of other faiths and confusing.

“When they think of the Christian faith, these are the images that come to mind. This is what a new generation really thinks about Christianity. The following six broad themes are the most common points of skepticism and objections raised by outsiders.

     1. Hypocritical. Outsiders consider us hypocritical—saying one thing and doing another—and they are skeptical of our morally superior attitudes. They say Christians pretend to be something unreal, conveying a polished image that is not accurate. Christians think the church is only a place for virtuous and morally pure people.

     2. Too focused on getting converts. Outsiders wonder if we genuinely care about them. They feel like targets rather than people. They question our motives when we try to help them “get saved,” despite the fact many of them have already “tried” Jesus and experienced church before.

     3. Anti-homosexual. Outsiders say Christians are bigoted and show disdain for gays and lesbians. They say Christians are fixated on curing homosexuals and on leveraging political solutions against them.

     4. Sheltered. Christians are thought of as old-fashioned, boring and out of touch with reality. Outsiders say we do not respond to reality in appropriately complex ways, preferring simplistic solutions and answers. We are not willing to deal with the grit and grime of people’s lives.

     5. Too political. Another common perception of Christians is that we are overly motivated by a political agenda, that we promote and represent politically conservative interests and issues. Conservative Christians are often thought of as right-wingers.

     6. Judgmental. Outsiders think of Christians as being quick to judge others. They say we are not honest about our attitudes and perspectives about other people. They doubt we really love people as we say we do.

HOPE IN THE MIDST OF CHALLENGES
“Despite the challenges facing Christianity, there is good news. This research project led Gabe and me to discover thousands of young people who want nothing more than to elevate the relevance of Jesus to our culture. These young believers are very concerned about how Christianity looks to outsiders. They see holes in present-day Christianity; but they do not want Jesus to be hijacked, either by reinventing Him or by those whose lives and words do not adequately represent a holy, just, compassionate and loving God. These young adults worry that the unChristian
message has become one of self-preservation rather than one of world restoration.

“Jesus was called a friend of sinners, relentlessly pursuing the downtrodden. What an irony that today His followers are seen in the opposite light! How can people love God, whom they can’t see, if those of us who claim to represent Him don’t respond to outsiders with love?

“Young Christians are asking questions like this because their desire to connect with outsiders conflicts with the us-versus-them mentality.”

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David Kinnaman is President of The Barna Group, a Christian research firm (barna.org). He and his wife, Jill, have three children and live in California.  Adapted from unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity … and Why It Matters  (2007), with the permission of Baker Books (bakerbooks.com).