We just received the latest copy of Sojourners this week and as usual it is full of great articles, links and connection opportunities related to peace, justice and following Jesus. One side-bar article really caught my attention and fired my commitment for a new expression of church in the Lake Country area. I’m not quite sure how God will bring that about, perhaps He already has a missional-emergent church planter on the way – I guess time will tell. Anyway, back to the article; the data shared in the article is not surprising, but simply confirmed what I already knew to be true, sad, but true. Here is the article - The New Evangelicals – The tide of political priorities among white evangelicals may be turning. Asked in an October CBS News poll what issues they would most like candidates to discuss, respondents revealed that gay marriage and abortion are not among the top priorities. Health care tops the list at 23 percent, followed by the Iraq war at 20 percent. When asked to identify the issues evangelicals should get more involved in, 33 percent said poverty and 17 percent cited genocide and violence. A recent Barna Group poll suggests that the views of young evangelicals may be driving the change. The poll of 16 to 29 year-old Christians suggests the younger generation exhibits a greater degree of criticism toward Christianity than did the previous generations when they were that age:50% perceive Christianity to be judgmental, hypocritical, and too political.33% say Christianity is old-fashioned and out of touch with reality.80% say “anti-homosexual” is a phrase that describes Christianity.22% agree that Christianity in today’s society no longer looks like Jesus (that is really very sad).The Barna Group’s David Kinnaman said that “the descriptions that young people offered of Christianity were more thoughtful, nuanced, and experiential than expected.”
