In part one, we sought to better understand the rise of the religiously unaffiliated with PRRI’s Research Director Dr. Dan Cox. This is a trend we cannot ignore as now fully one-fourth of the American population identify as religious nones. Find part one here.
Our aim is not just the acquisition of better facts, but better understanding to inform action. So, we also spoke with Jana Harmon, a teaching fellow with the CS Lewis Institute about what it looks like to reach out to those who are within the nones. Jana is currently researching the compelling topic of Religious Conversion of Atheists to Christianity.
From a Christian worldview perspective, what do we need to understand about the growth of “the nones” in America?
Jana: “A lot of atheism right now is informed by the culture. It is the water in which we swim. In many cases, many [atheists] said they lacked exposure to any real form of Christian belief.
“One person said it had been two generations removed from him, as far as any exposure to Christianity. When he thought of Christianity, he thought of Ned Flanders from The Simpsons. The goody two shoes that everyone loves to hate. The religious one who was backwards and intolerant and uneducated, unsophisticated. There is a real lack of attraction to the Christian worldview as well as just believing it is simply not true.”
Transformation
Jana shared the story of man who harbored anger against God after a tragic childhood. He spent years building logical arguments against God. Then, his wife became a Christian.
This man had to pick up his wife from the home of the couple who had led his wife to Christ. Jana shared how God used this relationship:
“He walked in ready to fight. But that’s not what he received. He received undaunting hospitality. He was invited just to talk. They didn’t talk about God, they let him talk. He had never felt so valued, that he came back again and again, for about six months.
Listen to the show …
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Re: “In many cases, many [atheists] said they lacked exposure to any real form of Christian belief.
“One person said it had been two generations removed from him, as far as any exposure to Christianity. ”
Sorry, but I’m not buying that. There’s this thing called the Internet. There’s also the fact that there are some 35,000 branches of the Christian Church in America alone.
At my summer place, I only get TV by antenna, and of the 17 channels that come through, 12 of them are religious/Christian broadcasts running 24/7. (And they have the strongest signals, too!)
At my winter place in Florida, we were in a restaurant and overheard a customer ordering a beer with his dinner. The waitress said, “Honey, this is a town with 47 churches and only 3 bars. You ain’t getting no beer here.”
During the Republican primaries, we had ‘Christian testimony’ from Ted Cruz, Bobby Jindal and Mike Huckabee – ALL of whom attended the speech where a ‘pastor’ called for the gays to “surely be put to death” – and not ONE of them repudiated the statement. We also had Ben Carson’s ‘witness’. Franklin Graham poisoned much of his fathers’s good works and reputation with his offensive – and extremely public – version of ‘Christianity’. Heck, even the Trumpster has Christians fooled into believing he is a pious Christian man.
Exit polls STILL count the “born agains” for pete’s sake!
Et cetera.
Sorry, but “lack of exposure to Christianity” in 21st Century America is just NOT a credible statement.
IMO, the “nones” are arising from seeing too many BAD examples of Christianity. How many pastors who preach against gays (including violence and even murder! – see above) have been caught having gay liaisons themselves? How many pastors who preach against infidelity get caught having extramarital affairs??? Lordy, but I’ve lost count. (Jimmy Swaggart got caught with prostitutes – TWICE!)
The article is on the right track, as it should be, if the writer is, in fact, aware of the writings of C S Lewis. But some large proportion of the clergy, whose job it is to attract people to the faith, is convinced that Christianity is a set of rules and that moral coercion is the way to interact with society at large. Nobody is buying that anymore. The churches really need to go back to Gospel-based Christianity. I have a discussion on-line that deals with this problem here: http://personal.inet.fi/private/walkabout/Walkabout-gg.html#persecution-is-necessary