New Barna Poll: The Christian Church is Seriously Messed up.
A new poll last week released by George Barna’s Cultural Research Center shows that professing Christians are developing more and more decidedly unchristian beliefs, demonstrating that many of these professing Christians are in fact, un-professing pagans.
According to the American Worldview Inventory 2020, syncretism rules the day, with the majority of Christians having fundamental, troubling, primary belief problems.
56% of respondents who identify as Christian and who attend Evangelical churches, or 62% of Christians who say they attend Pentecostal churches, profess that having ‘some type’ of religious faith is more important than which faith a person aligns with. Unsurprisingly, Mainline Protestant churches were at 67% and Roman Catholic at 77%.
When asked if one could qualify for heaven by being good or doing good, compared to the belief that salvation comes ONLY from embracing Christ as Savior, 41% of professing evangelicals said that if a person is generally good, or does enough good things in their life they will earn a place in heaven, a view shared by 77% of Roman Catholics.
Dr. George Barna, CRC Director of Research and one of the authors of the survey, called the results of this latest survey discouraging.
If you step back and look at the big picture painted by all of the outcomes in this research project it seems to suggest that people are in an ‘anything goes’ mindset when it comes to faith, morals, values, and lifestyle,” Barna commented. “Americans appear to be creating unique, highly customized worldviews based on feelings, experiences and opportunities rather than working within the boundaries of a comprehensive, time-tested, consistent worldview.
If you look at some of the dominant elements in the American mind and heart today, as illuminated by the Inventory, we find that most people say that the objective of life is feeling good about yourself; that all faiths are of equal value; that entry into God’s eternal presence is determined by one’s personal means of choice; and that there are no absolutes to guide or grow us morally.
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