01 Mar '09 02:08>5 edits
Many a time I've had discussions with Christians where I've stated something to the effect of "It hasn't been my experience that Christians are any more moral than non-Christians." I've even stated that on this forum several times and my have even started at thread on it. I don't remember anyone having questioned this assertion. Rather they have discussed possible reasons for it. So on another thread I dropped the "It hasn't been my experience that" simply because it seemed superfluous. It seems that some have now taken exception. They've also thrown out accusations of me presenting "off the cuff pseudo statistics" or some such. Never mind that I never said that my assertion was statistically based, but I digress.
Anyway, I decided to see if I could find some statistics. In doing so I came across an interesting interview with evangelical George Barna who evidently has a marketing research firm that provides market research for Christian ministries. He says the following:
"...what we have to be doing is to be thinking over a three-to five-year period of time "How can I expose people to all the elements that Scripture gives us to us that would help us to understand what it means to truly be a Christian?"Not to just understand what it means to be a Christian, but to truly be a Christian, to act like a Christian. When we look at the values, lifestyles, the moral perspective and behaviors of Christians, we can see that there's virtually no difference between Christians and non-Christians."
In another article he states:
"...of more than 70 other moral behaviors we study, when we compare Christians to non-Christians we rarely find substantial differences..."
So it seems that Barna has the stats as well as a vision of Christians getting on with Christians truly being Christian and acting like Christians. Hopefully this would entail actually following the teachings of Jesus which I have been advocating. If so, I say "bravo" to Mr. Barna. Like I've said all along, "The world would be a much better place if people actually followed the teachings of Jesus." Seems like a good place to start would be with Christians.
The interview is here:
http://www.homileticsonline.com/subscriber/interviews/barna.asp
The other article is here:
http://www.adherents.com/largecom/baptist_divorce.html
Anyway, I decided to see if I could find some statistics. In doing so I came across an interesting interview with evangelical George Barna who evidently has a marketing research firm that provides market research for Christian ministries. He says the following:
"...what we have to be doing is to be thinking over a three-to five-year period of time "How can I expose people to all the elements that Scripture gives us to us that would help us to understand what it means to truly be a Christian?"Not to just understand what it means to be a Christian, but to truly be a Christian, to act like a Christian. When we look at the values, lifestyles, the moral perspective and behaviors of Christians, we can see that there's virtually no difference between Christians and non-Christians."
In another article he states:
"...of more than 70 other moral behaviors we study, when we compare Christians to non-Christians we rarely find substantial differences..."
So it seems that Barna has the stats as well as a vision of Christians getting on with Christians truly being Christian and acting like Christians. Hopefully this would entail actually following the teachings of Jesus which I have been advocating. If so, I say "bravo" to Mr. Barna. Like I've said all along, "The world would be a much better place if people actually followed the teachings of Jesus." Seems like a good place to start would be with Christians.
The interview is here:
http://www.homileticsonline.com/subscriber/interviews/barna.asp
The other article is here:
http://www.adherents.com/largecom/baptist_divorce.html