Are there people out there who are disconnecting with the church and Christianity? Sure there are. It happened in Jesus’ day and it happens now. At the same time there are those coming to faith in God every day. But I feel that there is a missing piece of information that must be dealt with for us to see the survey results better.
Assessing these survey results requires a need to settle on what “Christian” even means. Historically in our country, the word Christian almost has been synonymous with the word American. If you’re American, then you’re Christian. You were Christian because your parents were Christians and their parents were Christians whether you were active in a church or active even in your belief system or not. You were considered Christian by birthright. That is distinctly counter to the Bible’s claims of true Christianity.
According to Jesus Christ, upon whose word (and name) the Christian faith is based, a genuine Christian is someone who is born again (John 3). It is someone who has placed his or her trust in Christ for here and now and forever. The “born-again” part means the person is a new creation and has turned away from his or her old life. Are they perfect? No, not at all. But they strive to honor God and love people with their words and their lives. Family lineage, nationality, and good deeds have nothing to do with it. It’s an individual surrender to Christ as Lord of your life. “Little Christ.” That is the biblical context of the word Christian.
One interpretation of this survey is that it is not as popular to be called a Christian as it used to be. For example, in my last statement to this forum, just by mentioning that I am Christian I received responses linking me to the Crusaders who killed women and children, abortion clinic bombers, and the white supremacist movement. I deplore each of those examples! Yet I was linked with them because I claim to be a Christian. We can safely admit that it’s probably not as popular to claim to be a Christian as it used to be.
As a side note: It’s strange that we’re so careful not to attach the 9-11 bombings to Muslims, but when some nut blows up an abortion clinic, then all the churches and every Christian are castigated under an umbrella of accusation and ridicule. That isn’t a double-standard. It isn’t a standard at all. It’s just mindless rhetoric.
And a side to my side note: I also read several responses to my last post that were very insightful and caused me to think further about my position. There…I didn’t want to lump you all into a group as well. Ha!
So my interpretation of the poll results is that they reflect the natural fallout of years of cultural change, along with constant debate over what the word “Christian” really means or stands for. People who never really held to Christian beliefs to start with no longer see a need to identify themselves with Christianity.
Of course, this is not across the board and there are exceptions. As mentioned in one of the comments to my last post, political candidates often feel pressured to claim allegiance to the Christian faith to gain influence with Christian voters.
But for everyday people like you and me who answered this survey, that pressure isn’t there as in years past. People who in the past nominally claimed to be Christians are now less likely to associate themselves with so culturally divisive a figure as Jesus Christ. I suppose that makes those of us who do claim Christ stick out a little bit more for those who vehemently disagree with our faith. And that’s OK.
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