Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience, The: Why Are Christians Living Just Like the Rest of the Worl
By Ronald J. Sider
Rating: 8
February 8, 2009
Sider’s dead on with his critique about American Christianity. And the statistics back him up:
– In a 1999 Barna study, 22% of non-Christians were divorced. “Born-again” Christians? 26%. With a stricter definition for evangelical, that number drops to 25%.
– In 1968, the average church member gave 3.1%. In 1990, it was 2.66%. Evangelical giving dropped from 6.15% in 1968 to 4.27% in 2001.
– In 2002, Barna found that only 6% of born-again Christians tithed. 12% did just two years earlier. Of his evangelicals, only 9% tithed.
– 26% of traditional evangelicals don’t think premarital sex is wrong, and 46% of nontraditional evangelicals feel the same way.
– In 1989, 20% of Southern Baptists objected to having black neighbors.
– One study showed that husbands who attended conservative Protestant churches had no statistical difference in the rate they abused their spouses than those around them.
So now what? He provides great vision and biblical support for the way forward: he calls us to teaching a more biblical worldview that has a fuller picture of the gospel, and to higher accountability between people and organizations. But more practical steps than what’s been shared in this book are needed to make this a reality.
Lord, have mercy.
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