12: Reaching the Skeptics
REACHING THE SKEPTICS
Atheists and Agnostics Are a Different Brand of Unchurched People
As we noted in chapter 1, there are dozens of ways we might categorize those who do not attend church, depending on what demographic variables we prioritize or downplay (just as there are dozens of ways we could categorize church attenders). When we categorize people based purely on their set of beliefs, the skeptics emerge as a unique group among the churchless.
Skeptics are either atheists (they do not believe God exists) or agnostics (they are not sure God exists, but are open to the possibility). They have many different names in sociological and theological circles, but to those in the ministry trenches the skeptics are, crassly put, the top outreach prize. Effective ministry to skeptics results not only in church attendance but, more important, in their acceptance and embrace of Christ as Savior and Lord.
Skeptics represent a quarter of all unchurched adults (25 percent). Nearly one-third (31 percent) have never attended a Christian church service in their lives. That’s almost double the proportion of the “virgin unchurched” among the churchless who are not skeptics (17 percent). Let’s explore the ways skeptics differ from other unchurched adults.
Demographic Shifts among the Skeptics
The profile of a typical skeptic is different today from a decade or two ago. Today’s skeptic, like her counterpart from two decades ago, is defined by her denial of or doubts about God’s existence. But that is about the only thing she has in common with the unchurched atheist or agnostic of yesteryear.
Skeptics today are, on average, younger than in the past. Twenty years ago 18 percent of skeptics were under thirty. Today that proportion has nearly doubled to 34 percent. By the same token, the proportion of skeptics who are sixty-five or older has been cut in half, down to just 7 percent of the segment.
It is increasingly common among young adults to dismiss religion, God, churches, authority, and tradition. Many of them embrace the idea of being “spiritual but not religious.” To some this means being in tune with their inner self without any kind of supernatural guidance or strength. Their spirituality is self-contained, and their life perspective is, in general, self-centered. They are less interested in rules and regulations than other churchless people. They determine their own sense of right and wrong, values, meaning, and purpose. Their hope is in themselves, and most have little doubt that such hope is well placed. To Christians who acknowledge the essential fallenness of all humans (including themselves), this self-assurance may seem inappropriate or even absurd.
Today’s skeptics tend to be better educated than in the past. Two decades ago, one-third of skeptics were college graduates, but today half of the group has a college degree. For years some observers have claimed that colleges and universities are a breeding ground for anti-God sentiment. While some on the secular Left have dismissed these claims as the paranoia of conservatives, the data afford some support for the notion that college campuses are comfortable places for young people to abandon God and assume total control of their own lives.
Perhaps the biggest transition of all is the entry of millions of women into the skeptic ranks. In 1993 only 16 percent of atheists and agnostics were women. By 2013 that figure had nearly tripled to 43 percent. This enormous increase is not because the number of skeptic men has declined; their numbers have steadily increased over the last two decades —but not nearly as rapidly as among women. It is interesting to note that, given the educational attainment of skeptics, the proportion of women who earned college degrees also rose substantially during roughly the same time frame.[15]
Religious skepticism has become more racially and ethnically inclusive. While whites represented 80 percent of all skeptics twenty years ago, that figure dropped to 74 percent by 2013. This is largely a reflection of the increased Hispanic and Asian populations among the skeptics. Asian Americans, the least-Christian ethnic demographic in the United States, tend especially to embrace skepticism. However, the recent sex scandals in the Catholic church have prompted a growing number of Hispanic people to surrender their faith in God along with their trust in religious leaders and institutions —though Hispanics, along with blacks, still remain less likely than other groups to accept the idea of a world without God. Whites, who constitute two-thirds of the total population, are well above average in their embrace of atheism and agnosticism; they comprise three-quarters of the skeptics.
In decades past, the Northeast and West were seen as isolated hotbeds of atheism and agnosticism. But that, too, has changed. While many leaders of the atheist movement are located in those areas, the skeptic population is now broadly dispersed across all regions. In fact, the Northeast has gone from being the second-most prolific region for skeptics to the least likely home of skeptics —even less than the Midwest and South. The West, which was home to 43 percent of skeptics in the early 1990s, is now home to just 30 percent of them. In our view, the reasons for this shift include population mobility, the standardizing impact of the media, the declining influence of churches and strong families in the Midwest and South, and the spread of skepticism among young, educated adults.
In many ways, skeptics now resemble the rest of America more than they once did. And their numbers are growing more quickly than anyone could have expected twenty years ago.
A Skeptic’s Life
When asked about their primary goals, skeptics are much more likely to identify issues related to money (earning more, saving more, reducing expenses, budgeting better) and their physical condition (losing weight, eating better, getting healthier) compared to unchurched people who believe in God. They mention money goals five times more often and physical goals twice as often as other churchless people.
Skeptics are more likely to lean liberal: four out of ten (39 percent) describe themselves as liberal on social and political matters, double the proportion among the God-believing unchurched (21 percent) and more than triple the proportion among those who regularly attend a Christian church (11 percent). Relatively few skeptics describe themselves as conservative (9 percent) compared to other unchurched (26 percent) and regularly churched (52 percent) adults.
Skeptics rank much lower than any other group we studied not only on love of God but also on concern for the well-being of others. Yet they ranked highest on the various measures that relate to personal advancement and achievement. It is plausible that many consider a moral code that is others-centered as potentially blocking their quest for personal success.
Just as believers arrive at their belief in God by amassing a variety of information and experiences, skeptics piece together different inputs to draw their conclusion. It seems, however, that the three primary components that lead to disbelief in God’s existence are (1) rejection of the Bible, (2) a lack of trust in the local church, and (3) the cultural reinforcement of a secular worldview.
Skeptics dismiss the idea that the Bible is holy or supernatural in any way. Two-thirds contend that it is simply a book of well-known stories and advice, written by humans and containing the same degree of authority and wisdom as any other self-help book. The remaining one-third are divided between those who believe the Bible is a historical document that contains the unique but not God-inspired accounts of events that happened in the past, and those who do not know what to make of the Bible but have decided it deserves no special treatment or consideration.
Even with those beliefs about the Bible, six out of ten skeptics still own at least one copy. Most have read from it in the past, and a handful (almost exclusively agnostics) still read it at least once a month. This is all to say that most skeptics have some firsthand experience with the Bible, and most had some regular exposure to it during their youth. For Christians who trust the notion that God’s Word will not fail to produce fruit (see Isaiah 55:11), that early exposure encourages the hope that skeptics will someday reconsider their rejection of God. Until then, however, skeptics see the Bible as a book that may contain some good advice and even historical insights, but not a holy, powerful, and life-changing message from an omnipotent universal Being.
US churches have done little to convince skeptics they are wrong. In fact, because more than two-thirds of skeptics have attended Christian churches in the past —most for an extended period of time —their dismissal of God, the Bible, and churches is not theoretical in nature. Most skeptics think of Christian churches as:
Many of these ideas are initiated, promoted, and reinforced by celebrity personalities and media exposure. Sean Penn, the award-winning actor and film director, is a politically active citizen whose views about churches are often mixed into his comments on social problems. In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine that profiled his work helping victims of the devastating earthquake in Haiti, he remarked, “What it comes down to are the churches are not operating like instruments of love. They’re hate machines. They’re ignorance factories.”[16]
Illusionist Penn Jillette is also an outspoken critic of religion in general and Christianity specifically. He expresses his feelings about matters of faith in his books, stage act, YouTube videos, and interviews. For example:
I believe that there is no God. I’m beyond atheism. Atheism is not believing in God. Not believing in God is easy —you can’t prove a negative, so there’s no work to do.[17] . . . Religion cannot and should not be replaced by atheism. Religion needs to go away and not be replaced by anything. Atheism is not a religion. It’s the absence of religion, and that’s a wonderful thing.[18]
Another high-profile spokesman for atheism is Bill Maher, host of various programs and specials carried by HBO, the nation’s leading pay channel. On his program Real Time with Bill Maher, he explained how he regards religion:
We are a nation that is unenlightened because of religion. I do believe that. I think that religion stops people from thinking. I think it justifies crazies. I think flying planes into a building was a faith-based initiative. I think religion is a neurological disorder. If you look at it logically, it’s something that was drilled into your head when you were a small child. It certainly was drilled into mine at that age. And you really can’t be responsible when you are a kid for what adults put into your head.[19]
These are just three examples of a new stratum of antireligion celebrity apologist that also includes Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Stephen Hawking, Peter Singer, Woody Allen, Philip Roth, Julia Sweeney, and the late Christopher Hitchens. It’s a chicken-or-egg conundrum to identify which came first: the atheist celebrity or the massive uptick in the number of atheists. Whatever the case, atheism has shifted in the past fifty years from cultural anathema to what all the cool kids are doing.
A Path to the Skeptic’s Heart?
Is it foolish to believe Christians can help motivate skeptics to reconsider the truth about Jesus Christ? Absolutely not. The list of skeptics who have abandoned the godless worldview in favor of a life with Christ is long and inspiring —from academics C. S. Lewis and Alister McGrath to scientists Francis Collins and Rosalind Picard, to name a few. But it is imperative for Christians to remember that facilitating someone’s transition from atheism to a God-centered, grace-filled life does not depend on our cleverness or persuasiveness. People come to Christ in many ways —and attendance at church events is certainly one of those —but it is God’s Spirit who transforms a person’s heart, mind, and soul. We may be used in that process, partnering with God in his holy work, but spiritual restoration is never accomplished through our abilities or talents.
With that limitation in mind, we can proceed with purposeful, intelligent, and realistic efforts to connect with skeptics. Our research offers some clues regarding the dos and don’ts of effectively impacting skeptics. For instance, by studying more than a dozen common outreach approaches, we identified what methods have the best chance of capturing their attention long enough for them to consider visiting a local church.
One of the unexpected results we uncovered is the limited influence of personal relationships on skeptics. Our long-term research shows that these individuals are considerably less relational and less engaged in social activities than the norm. Even the events they attend are less about meeting like-minded people than about having a desired experience or gaining helpful information. This raises some red flags for the many churches whose battle cry is “ministry is about relationships.” The skeptics are not as enamored of relational bonds as are those who invest themselves in church life.
Outreach Efforts Likely to Cause Skeptics to Be “Much More Likely” to Attend a Church
Outreach activity
Skeptics
Non-skeptic unchurched
Learned that the church has older adults who provide life lessons and advice to younger adults
14%
21%
The church undertakes a lot of activity to help the poor and needy in the community
12
25
Interesting events, such as concerts or seminars, that are open to the public sponsored/hosted by the church
10
23
Invited by a friend to attend their church, they would accompany you to the service
7
25
Heard a sermon by the pastor online, via CD, or through a podcast, and liked what you heard
6
13
The church taught people how to avoid the negative effects of media and technology
6
15
The people met in each others’ homes, instead of a church building, for prayer, worship, teaching, and conversation
5
16
The church had a significant and appealing presence online/through social networks
5
8
The church had multiple locations nearby
3
11
Someone you did not know called you on the telephone to describe the church and invite you to attend it
2
13
The church’s pastor visited your home to tell you about the ministry and to invite you to attend a service
0
21
Someone who attends the church visited your home, conducted a survey about faith and spirituality, then invited you to attend their church
0
13
You saw billboards advertising the church
0
10
You saw advertisements for the church on television, radio, or in newspapers
0
10
You received information about the church in an advertisement received in the mail
0
7
Source: Barna Group, OmniPoll, conducted February 2010
Reflections on Connecting with Skeptics
The pastor of the Vineyard in Ventura, California, is Bob Harper. He suggests that skeptics, in particular, do not reject the gospel because of Christians’ hypocrisy or lifestyle choices:
A lot of Christians think that if only the unchurched could see “Jesus’ love in action” (feeding the hungry, etc.) they would want the message. In my experience, however, unchurched people think the Bible and the gospel are cultural artifacts that are no longer relevant. The unchurched audience is rejecting the church for worldview issues. . . . The bottom line is, we evangelicals are answering questions no one is asking.
To help his faith community answer questions the unchurched are actually asking, Bob and the other leaders have begun to focus their outreach efforts on introducing the Vineyard folks to the “skeptic’s perspective.” He says, “The ‘evangelical perspective’ does not address the concerns of anyone other than evangelicals. [Sociologist and author] James Davison Hunter says that Christians need to stop talking for a while. This is probably true.” Listening, instead of talking, may be the best way to connect with those who don’t share Christian worldview assumptions. If we don’t take time to hear where skeptics —or any churchless people, for that matter —are coming from and what they’re saying, we’re not really in a conversation . . . we’re just waiting for our chance to preach.
Treating skeptics as if they have a spiritual void is likely to be perceived as offensive. Let’s remember that rejecting belief in our God is not the same as being without faith. Most skeptics have an abundance of faith —in themselves. We must respect their self-reliance, rather than try to convince them of its ultimate folly. Remember, it is not our job to change hearts and minds; that duty falls exclusively under the Holy Spirit’s job description. Rather, it is our job to be the presence of Christ to those around us. And as a close reading of the Gospels reveals, Jesus was as likely to ask questions as he was to offer answers. In our relationships with skeptics, let’s do the same.
• What outreach methods is your church using in an effort to connect with skeptics? Given the research into the effectiveness of various methods, what could you do differently to have a greater impact?
• Have you and your faith community thought much about worldviews? How could you better understand the “skeptic’s perspective”?
• In your conversations with skeptics, are you more likely to ask questions or offer answers? What could you do to be the presence of Christ in those relationships?