If you grew up in an evangelical church you may have heard assertions that disdain from “the world” is actually evidence that God is really with evangelicals. You know, “People hate God, so if people hate us then we are doing things right”. This is the language of religious despots and controlling narcissists through the ages.
Sometimes scripture is marshalled (and misused) to buttress such arguments.
You may have seen this kind of thing play out in other areas, at work, in your family or in friendships. Do you know someone who is forever engaged in conflict and yet never sees themselves as bearing any culpability or blame? Maybe you have said something like the following:
“They constantly have problems with everyone else. In their mind the other person is the problem in every conflict or challenge that they have.”
If you find yourself in conflict over and over again with person after person, maybe, perhaps, the problem (or a big part of it) might be you and not the others all of the time.
What if there was a study surveying all of the people with whom that person had a problem? Turns out that, in one such case, there is.
You may have heard that there was a study released this week on religion in Canada. The survey, conducted by the Angus Reid and Cardus institutes was interesting, to say the least. The item that most stood out to me pertains to how Canadians view faiths and worldviews (including their own) as either beneficial or damaging to Canadian society. Take a look, spend some time mulling through the information and then consider how you might explain the outcome that only one religious group is seen as damaging by all groups other than itself. I also note that this number of self-congratulation is higher than that of all but one other religious group. And you’ll see that Jewish people reported Muslim faith as having a beneficial impact in Canada and evangelical Christianity as having a damaging impact (by a large margin).
Now, what are the ways that you can anticipate evangelicals might explain the outcome? I can already hear the following:
“See how much the world is against us! We are a persecuted minority and this proves it!”
“The media depicts evangelicals in such a bad light that people have a distorted perception.”
“The Bible says that the gospel is a stench to those who are perishing. This just shows how true that is.” (The “proud of how bad we smell” argument).
It is also true that some evangelical Christians, leaders and pastors among them, might have a more nuanced view and might actually be able to self-reflect. After all, 32% of evangelicals did not think that their religious group had a more beneficial than damaging impact on society.
The name of this newsletter is “Evangelically Departed”. The newsletter was started in January 2021 and well before then it was evident that I was not the only one who saw evangelical Christianity (my own background) as potentially more damaging than beneficial. I maintain that a large part of the problem is theological. Evangelical Christianity has taught and propagated a theological view that is not actually evangelical (as evangelical means “good news”). We can now see that almost all segments of society see evangelical Christianity as bad news.
Much of what I write in this newsletter seeks to articulate how evangelicalism has leaned towards a dark theological (and eschatological) view. I often ask evangelicals, in sermons and in conversation, to tell me how the view that most everyone and everything burns (some say perpetually) in the end, with a small percentage being “saved” can ever be considered good news. How is that possibly, good news? In fact, can you tell me anything that might be considered worse news than that? I suppose if everyone burned that might be thought of as worse news, but I argue that at least in that scenario we are all in it together.
There may be some truth in the accusations that popular culture can present a caricature of evangelical Christian faith. However, I think that self-reflection is more helpful than the accusation that everyone else is wrong. I also think that theological reflection is required. If evangelical Christianity has presented a theology that sees the world as bad, other faiths as dangerous, eternity as mostly terrifying for mostly everyone, is it a wonder that the result will be ways of seeing and acting that are divisive, fearful and damaging?
You may have heard the common reflection that in the majority people are attracted to who Jesus is and repelled by evangelical Christianity. This is most interesting. I think that it’s telling.
I think that Christian faith, faith that can be called truly evangelical (good news), is so much better and different, so much more hopeful than much of what is being heard and taught in many evangelical churches.
As I have said in this newsletter on multiple occasions:
“If it isn’t good news for everyone, then it is not good news for me.”
We can blame. Or we can believe better.
My work and prayer is that we might see that Christian faith is actually good news for everyone. In that light, the survey results can be seen as something of a positive. People are seeing bad news for what it is and rejecting views that they see as divisive and hopeless.
The call is to real and actual hope.
“Good news of great joy for all people.”
Some further notes from the study that I think you might find interesting:
4 out of 5 Canadians express openness to God and/or spirituality.
The majority of Canadians in all groups surveyed (including non-religious) say that they were raised in a religious tradition.
Only 34% of the general population wishes to have a religious funeral (for me this shows that many people see religion as less than hopeful).