1101 Theological Ignorance
In 2010, two research groups decided to check up on American religiosity, both knowledge and practice. For those who are observers of cultural trends, the results were less than impressive, if not disheartening.
First the details. Barna’s research was based on 5,000 interviews given over eleven months in a series of studies. They summarized the findings in six megathemes: theological literacy, faith outreach, solutions versus principles, community outreach, tolerance and cultural influence.
American church-goers are, it appears, becoming progressively theologically illiterate. The most basic truths of Christianity are becoming unknowns. As a result, trends are toward seeking solutions for life in the now with little regard for eternal principles of truth. Because of doctrinal ignorance, churches are increasingly sacrificing truth for tolerance.
Self-identified Christians are also becoming spiritually “ingrown” as Barna’s summary puts it. Even though community participation is growing, especially among younger people, Christianity’s influence on the culture is becoming nil at best. There is little long term value in doing good for goodness sake without demonstrating a knowledge and motivation of biblical truth and love.
The Pew Research Center conducted their study into religious knowledge rather than behavioral trends. For the discussion here, there were nine relevant questions; five about the Old Testament, two on the New Testament and two for theology.
Only 57 percent of Protestants and Catholics knew that the Golden Rule was not one of the Ten Commandments. 78 percent of Protestants and 65 percent of Catholics knew the birthplace of Jesus; a pretty sad statistic given the fact that He is the one on whom Christianity’s existence rests and on who’s birth the entire western world divides its history. Finally, almost beyond belief, only 19 percent of Protestants knew that their faith group teaches salvation through faith alone.
In some quarters, it is assumed that these dismal results are either good for our nation or possibly do not matter. But they do matter. They matter because they parallel the degradation of America’s spiritual fabric and testify to the effects of liberalized Christianity.
Many people know both sides of the Christ divide — to be, as Jesus said Himself, either for Him or against Him. Some of us, after having crossed the divide to be for Him as adults, have also been faced with a second unexpected divide. The challenge is which Christianity to live within, not denominationally but in response to the Bible itself.
The practical results of the liberal response to the Bible versus the evangelical response (including the various shades of each) are very different. When Scripture is bathed in the judgments of modern culture as liberalism does rather than culture being bathed in the judgments of Scripture, truth loses. Political freedom and civil responsibility become government dependence. Environmental stewardship becomes environmental adoration. Sexual propriety becomes promiscuity. Marriage becomes “marr-I-age”. Abortion becomes “l-I-fe”. Worst of all, Jesus the Christ, Emmanuel, God with us, becomes simply Jesus the Great.
The movements of American society and law seem to be drinking at the poisoned well of theological ignorance. Liberalized Christianity has become all about a social gospel based on a Bible where myth and history cohabitate at the expense of God-given truth. Evangelical Christianity has ceased to theologically educate their own members effectively and does not seem to know how to communicate the most basic principles of faith in the public square.
The Barna and Pew studies should alarm conscientious evangelicals. We cannot allow ignorance to lead the masses staggering down the path of humanistic “wisdom” while they assume the throne over biblical truth and sicken the nation to death.