6: The Creed of the Creedless
THE CREED OF THE CREEDLESS
The Religious Beliefs that Define Unchurched People’s Faith
As we’ve seen, a huge majority of America’s unchurched adults have considerable experience with Christianity and Christian churches. Only about one in ten of the unchurched was raised without a significant period of church attendance, and most had a period of church engagement during their adult years as well. Most of their experiences have been in what many consider to be “mainstream Christian churches” —not necessarily the historic mainline denominations, but the “major brands” of modern Christianity. Two-thirds come from Assemblies of God, Baptist, Catholic, Methodist, Lutheran, or Presbyterian backgrounds.
Given that experience, what did they learn and adopt from their exposure to church-based Christianity? Many of their foundational religious beliefs were birthed, developed, or reinforced by the churches they have been involved with over their lifetime. What mix of beliefs have they taken away from those experiences?
Beliefs about God
God has a mediocre reputation with millions of Americans. When asked to choose from a series of possible descriptions of God, four out of five churched people select the “all-knowing, all-powerful, perfect creator of the universe who still rules the world today.” However, less than half of the unchurched choose that description. Other views of God’s nature —none of which is more popular on its own than the orthodox description —are together more widely accepted by the unchurched than the biblical view. One-fifth of unchurched people contend that “god” refers to “a state of higher consciousness that a person may reach”; one in seven says there is no God; one in ten claims that God “refers to the total realization of personal, human potential”; 4 percent argue that “there are many gods, each with different power and authority”; another 7 percent claim that “everyone is god”; and the remaining 3 percent say they do not know if God exists or how to characterize who or what God is.
How the Unchurched Perceive the Nature of God
Percentage of unchurched US adults
Source: Barna Group, OmniPoll 1-14, conducted January-February 2014; N = 945 unchurched adults
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The churchless segments least likely to hold a biblical understanding of God’s nature are the youngest, the most educated, the most liberal, and Asian.
Certainty about the existence of God is not very widespread, either. Fewer than four out of ten unchurched adults are 100-percent certain God exists. On a scale of one to one hundred, representing their level of certainty about the existence of God as described in the Scriptures, the average “certainty score” was 68. Half placed themselves at 90 or higher on the scale. For the sake of context, three-quarters of the churched said they are 100-percent certain about the existence of the God of Israel. On average, churched people scored themselves at 92 on the scale and 84 percent placed themselves at 90 percent or higher.[8]
Jesus Christ is another source of confusion among the churchless. Just half of them have a strong opinion about him one way or the other. Three out of ten strongly agree that “when he lived on earth, Jesus Christ was human and committed sins, like other people do.” A slightly smaller number (23 percent) strongly disagree with that characterization of Christ. The rest, roughly half of the group, are undecided about what to make of the alleged holiness of the Son of God. The unchurched adults most likely to contend that he lived a sinless life are blacks, born agains, and those residing in the red states. However, only a minority in each of those groups strongly denied that Jesus Christ was a sinner.
Given their views of God and Jesus, it’s not surprising that the third person of the Trinity fares poorly as well. While about half of the unchurched either had no opinion or a weak opinion about the nature of the Holy Spirit, the prevailing view was that “the Holy Spirit is just a symbol of God’s power or presence, but is not a living entity.” More than one-third of the unchurched strongly embraced that description, while just 14 percent strongly rejected it.
Unchurched Views of the Trinity
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Beliefs about Evil
A central theme of Christian theology depicts the war between good and evil as led by God against Satan. It’s nigh impossible to fight and win a battle when you don’t know your enemy, or don’t even believe there is an enemy —yet that is precisely the challenge facing American Christianity today. Not many unchurched adults accept the idea of a living spiritual being known as Satan. Our research consistently shows that two-thirds (65 percent) of unchurched people believe Satan is not a living being but only a symbol of evil.
In fact, the whole concept of negative spiritual influence does not resonate too deeply with the churchless. For instance, less than one out of four strongly believes that a human being can be under the influence of spiritual forces, such as demons or evil spirits. This idea of intermediary influence does not fit well within the worldview of a self-sufficient person, and it undermines the sense of power and control that most Americans strive to maintain.
Black-and-white depictions of a holy God at war with a banished, evil Satan for the souls of people fall mostly on deaf ears among the unchurched. Only one-third believe that people must choose one side or the other —God or Satan —because there is no in-between position. Americans are generally comfortable with shades of gray in most dimensions of life, and the spiritual dimension is no exception.
Closely related to the idea of a battle between good and evil is the concept of how God interacts with our suffering. Consistent with their general dismissal of most things supernatural, the unchurched do not buy into the notion that God is aware of, feels, and shares their pain. Only one-third believe that God has such empathy. One-fifth believe that God may be aware of their pain but do not accept the idea that he feels or shares it with them. Another one-fifth say God is totally oblivious to any pain we feel. About 15 percent dismiss the whole discussion by saying they don’t believe God exists, and 11 percent say they have no idea.
Beliefs about the Afterlife
One of the dominant emphases of Protestant churches is addressing what happens after a person dies. Evangelical churches, in particular, stress the importance of accepting Jesus Christ as personal Savior, which provides assurance about one’s eternal destination. Most Americans, however, and especially most unchurched adults, do not share the evangelical preoccupation with eternal salvation. Given their theological views on God and Jesus Christ, and their dismissal of the notion that a supernatural war is taking place for the allegiance of their souls, it is not surprising that unchurched adults are indifferent to the importance and means of salvation.
As the table on the following page shows, a bit more than one-third of the unchurched say they have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in their life today. (That is half as many as churched adults.) The commitment is likeliest among those who are more than fifty years of age, who lack a college diploma, are married, are black, describe themselves as socio-political conservatives, and reside in the red states. Noteworthy for their lack of such a commitment are unchurched adults who are Asian (17 percent).
Fifteen percent of the churchless believe that after they die they will go to heaven because they have confessed their sins to Jesus and accepted him as their Savior. We label this group “born-again Christians.” A majority of those who have made a personal commitment to Christ, however, have other views about their ultimate destiny. Seven percent of the unchurched who are committed to Christ admit they do not have any idea where they will wind up after their time on earth is done. Five percent believe that, regardless of their commitment to Christ, they will go to heaven because they are “a good person.” Smaller groups contend that they will go to heaven after death because “God loves all people and will not let them perish” (3 percent) or that they have earned their salvation by doing their best to obey the Ten Commandments (1 percent).
The Unchurched and Salvation: What They Believe Will Happen After They Die
Have not made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ
61%
Have made a commitment to Christ AND believe they’ll go to heaven because they confessed their sins and accepted Jesus as their Savior
15
Have made a commitment to Christ AND believe they’ll go to heaven because they are basically a good person
5
Have made a commitment to Christ AND believe they’ll go to heaven because they tried their best to obey the Ten Commandments
1
Have made a commitment to Christ AND believe they’ll go to heaven because God loves all people and will not let them perish
3
Have made a commitment to Christ AND do not know what will happen to them after they die
7
Have made a commitment to Christ AND possess some other belief
2
Source: Barna Group, OmniPoll 1-14, January-February 2014; N = 945 unchurched adults
In fact, only one out of five churchless adults strongly agrees that a person cannot earn his or her way into heaven. Most contend that heaven is available to anyone who “is generally good, or does enough good things for other people.” This is a classic works mentality of salvation and fits comfortably with the American can-do, self-sufficient spirit; it also perhaps reflects a desire for inclusiveness. Women are more likely than men to embrace this thinking, along with those who were raised in Catholic and mainline Protestant churches.
Only 15 percent of the unchurched agree they have a personal responsibility to introduce other people to their religious beliefs —a process churches call evangelism. Twice as many agree that it is important to have “active, healthy relationships with people who belong to religious faiths that do not accept the central beliefs of your faith.” Given that their faith is so flexible and open to change, their objective for these associations may be less evangelistic and more relational than is the case among most evangelicals.
Personal Spiritual Commitments
Based on their religious beliefs, people can be grouped together in various ways. Barna Group has pioneered a number of classification approaches to determine where people stand on a particular religious continuum.
One such strategy is to divide people into one of five groups: evangelicals, non-evangelical born-again Christians, notional Christians, adherents of non-Christian faiths, and skeptics.
To be included in the born-again category, people must say they have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in their life today, and believe that when they die they will go to heaven because they have confessed their sins and have accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior.
Who Meets the “Born Again” Criteria?
Percent of all US adults
Source: Barna Group, OmniPoll 1-14, January-February 2014; N = 945 unchurched adults
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Evangelicals are those who not only satisfy the born-again criteria but also meet seven other standards that conform to the belief statement of the National Association of Evangelicals.[9] Under Barna Group’s rubric, all evangelicals are born again, but not all born-again people are evangelicals (in fact, only about one out of five qualifies). Of course, only God knows who is genuinely born again, so this is not an effort to judge but simply to classify so that ministry leaders can make informed outreach decisions. Similarly, classifying someone as an evangelical is simply a sociological construct; the Bible doesn’t use the term. We do not classify people as born-again or evangelical Christians because they assign that label to themselves. Our testing of self-classifications has revealed only a weak correlation between self-identification and the theological underpinnings that justify such a label. Overall, only 2 percent of the churchless meet the evangelical criteria, and an additional 14 percent are born again but not evangelical —making a total of 16 percent who are unchurched but born again. We’ll look more closely at these folks in the next chapter.
The largest Christian-oriented segment is the “notional” category. These are individuals who identify themselves as Christians, but do not meet the born-again criteria. They represent almost half of the unchurched: 47 percent.
The remaining segments include people who are aligned with a faith group that is not Christian. These make up 12 percent of the churchless community, comprised of Jews (4 percent), people affiliated with Eastern religions (including Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, etc.; 4 percent), Muslims (2 percent), and another percent from other faiths. It is not surprising that the vast majority of people with non-Christian religious allegiances do not attend a church, but it is interesting to note that many also do not attend services or events associated with their faith group. For instance, 61 percent of Jews have not attended a religious event at a synagogue in more than six months. The numbers are even higher for other non-Christian groups: 66 percent of Muslims and 68 percent of adults associated with Eastern religions have not attended services or events in their religious community.
The final segment is the skeptics, a group comprised of atheists and agnostics. Their number has increased rapidly in the past few years, especially among adults under thirty. Skeptics represent 25 percent of all unchurched adults in America. Not surprisingly, more than four out of five skeptics qualify as unchurched.
Spiritual Segmentation of the Unchurched
Source: Barna Group, OmniPoll 1-14, January-February 2014; N = 945 unchurched adults
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Beliefs about the Bible
Daniel Hahn, pastor of Bible Fellowship Church in Ventura, California, recounted this story:
I’m preaching through Colossians right now. Recently an unchurched 20-something guy who was visiting really took me to task on the Scriptural exclusivity of Christ. He said, “Well, if Colossians teaches that, then that just proves the Bible is false.” I thought, Wow . . . that’s an interesting line of logic. Proves the Bible is false? Amazing how far off the cliff we’ve fallen.
The Bible is the bestselling book of all time; it sells so many copies year after year that bestseller lists don’t bother to include it. Yet it is more than a book. It is the words, stories, and principles of God preserved for and presented to humans for their best interests and for God’s personal glory. The Bible states that God inspired the words written down by the human authors.[10] More documentation supports the veracity of the Bible than exists in support of any other ancient document. Its content has proven to be true over the course of centuries. It is the most studied piece of literature in human history and one of the most widely respected books on the planet.
The unchurched, however, are not overly impressed by the pedigree, history, or importance of the Bible. Yes, as we saw earlier, three-quarters have at least one Bible in their household. Yes, two-thirds consider it to be “sacred literature.” But they generally do not consider it unique or trustworthy, and relatively few seek to live in concert with its principles. Less than one out of four unchurched adults firmly believes that the Bible “is totally accurate in all of the principles it teaches.” Subgroups most likely to doubt the accuracy of the Bible are younger adults, those with college degrees, those raised in the Catholic church, Asians, and individuals who hold mostly liberal views on social and political matters.
The inerrancy debate does not hold much interest for the unchurched. Only one-eighth believe the Bible contains the actual words of God and should be taken literally, word for word. Another one out of seven views it as the inspired Word of God, containing no errors, but including some passages that are symbolic, not literal. One out of six says the Bible is the inspired Word of God but contains factual and historical errors. One out of ten believes it is not the inspired Word of God, but represents how those who wrote the text understood the ways and principles of God. The most common perspective among the unchurched (27 percent) is that the Bible is “just another book of teachings written by men that contains stories and advice.” Nearly one in ten of the churchless (8 percent) just aren’t sure what to make of the Bible.
The churched, not surprisingly, have different views on the Bible. As you can see from the first two responses in the following table, churched adults are much more likely to consider the Bible to be inerrant (72 percent) and therefore trustworthy. As much as anything else, this gap between the two groups may be most responsible for the inability of the churched and unchurched to grasp each other’s perspectives.
What Is the Bible?
View of the Bible
Churched
Unchurched
The actual Word of God; it should be taken literally, word for word
33%
12%
The inspired Word of God; it has no errors, although some verses are meant to be symbolic rather than literal
39
17
The inspired Word of God; it has some factual or historical errors
14
17
Not inspired by God but tells how the writers of the Bible understood the ways and principles of God
5
13
Just another book of teachings written by men that contains stories and advice
4
32
Some other view of the Bible
1
2
Not sure
3
8
Source: American Bible Society “State of the Bible,” conducted by Barna Group, January 2013 and January 2014; combined sample sizes of 1,897 unchurched and 2,151 churched
The general confusion about how to view the Bible is evident in churchless people’s understanding of how it stacks up against the sacred literature of other faiths. When asked if they believe that “the Bible, Koran, and Book of Mormon are all different expressions of the same spiritual truths,” 15 percent strongly agreed and 20 percent strongly disagreed. That leaves the bulk of the unchurched —nearly two-thirds —hedging their bets in the middle ground or admitting they do not know.
Beliefs about Faith Priorities
It is perhaps not surprising that the unchurched and the churched have dramatically different ideas about the purpose of life and what should be the central focus of Christian faith.
The churched and churchless differ radically in their responses to a statement about priorities. The statement we posed suggested “the single, most important purpose in life is to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.” That, of course, is taken from Jesus’ words recorded in Mark 12:30. Three-quarters of churched people strongly agreed with that statement, while only 39 percent of the unchurched agreed. Men, young adults, college graduates, Asians, liberals, and residents of the blue states were all less likely than the norm to agree.
Unchurched adults had an easier time strongly agreeing with a different statement that gauged their view of Christianity rather than necessarily their personal perspective: “The most important priority of the Christian life is to try hard to be a good and moral person.” This time 62 percent of the unchurched bought in, only a few percentage points lower than churched people.
The distance between the unchurched’s answers to these statements points us to two possible conclusions. First, the unchurched are not sure what to think about God or how to act toward him. Assenting that loving him is the highest purpose of life would force them to admit that he exists and he reigns —and a majority of the unchurched are not yet ready to embrace that position. Second, the unchurched are prone to thinking of religion in general, and Christianity in particular, as a set of rules to be followed. Although authentic Christianity is just the opposite —it is about being rather than doing, and freedom more than rules —the perceptions, observations, and experience of the unchurched do not align with this understanding of the faith.
Moreover, the fact that more than three out of every five churchgoing Christians equate Christianity with a list of moral rules to be followed is troubling —especially the fact that they agreed this is “the most important” priority of following Jesus. This flies in the face of Christian teaching that says our ability to follow rules is not what makes us righteous before God (see Romans 4:5 or Ephesians 2:8-9). It is fascinating that there is so little distinction between the churched and churchless on this question. As we will see in chapter 14, millions of Christians embrace self-righteous attitudes and embody legalistic actions. This reminds us that even as we worry about the unrighteousness in society, we have to concern ourselves with self-righteousness inside the church.
Reflections on Foundational Beliefs
To many unchurched people, attending a church looks like becoming an active participant in a club or organization whose central purpose is to celebrate and promote a leader who has never visited the group and is not alive; that is based on a life philosophy that was written thousands of years ago in a very different culture; and whose core values are often misunderstood or even ignored by other members. How difficult, with these assumptions, to see how belonging to a local church is desirable or even reasonable.
Christians base their faith and related behaviors on the Bible. Many unchurched people view the Bible like any other book of stories or self-help they can order from Amazon. Because they lack trust in the reliability and authenticity of Scripture, there is not much chance they will adopt its words as absolute truth. They may appreciate some of its best-known content —the Golden Rule or some of the Ten Commandments, for instance —but most are far from convinced that, taken together, it is a life-guiding and transformational word from God.
Churchless adults tend to struggle with the reality of the supernatural. They are not prepared to worship a God they are not sure exists, commit to a Savior they are not convinced they need, or seek guidance from a Spirit they believe is a literary symbol. Churchgoers may argue that attending a church would personally introduce the churchless to the persons of the Trinity, but most unchurched people have “been there, done that” and walked away unconvinced. They generally do not believe that God is in the trenches with us, feeling our pain and sharing our suffering. Most call the shots for their own life, and they alone deal with the consequences. They are generally not thankful for what Christ accomplished on the cross because most do not view themselves as sinners in need of a Savior. They may accept God as the Creator of the universe, but many do not give him credit for much since then, and most do not reflect on what his presence means for their lives. If they believe that God exists, the unchurched are more likely to embrace a deistic vision of a god who no longer interacts with his creation.
Most unchurched adults are not troubled by the battle between good and evil, ignoring the possibility that they may be actors in an ongoing struggle for which the chief prize is their soul. They are not worried about the destructive ways of the devil because they don’t believe he exists. Those who do believe there is a devil do not worry about what he is up to, confident in their abilities to resist and in some undefined but benevolent force that is certainly on their side.
The foundational beliefs espoused by most born-again Christians seem nonsensical or outlandish to many unchurched people. As a result, Sunday morning seems like a pretty good time to sleep in rather than participate in the rituals of a group that believes in all these spiritual theories. The idea that spiritual forces are seeking their engagement in a battle just doesn’t seem believable. They have had lots of exposure to the teachings, traditions, rituals, and people connected to church-based Christianity, but what they have experienced has not connected spiritual realities to their everyday existence.
Forward Thinking
• Among the unchurched people you know, what is the foundational Christian belief that seems hardest to accept? Why do you think that is?
• Why do you think so many unchurched people understand Christianity as a works-based religious system? Why do you think so many churchgoers think of Christianity this way?
• Many unchurched people are unmoved when churched people appeal to the Bible as the final word on matters of faith. How can you find common ground for conversations with unchurched people?