A couple of weeks ago, the Pew Forum published the results of a substantial Global Survey of Evangelical Protestant Leaders.
It makes interesting reading for two reasons: first, because I think that many of its questions are quite insightful and go to the heart of quite a few matters. Second, because the answers are enlightening, and often scary.
Take, for example, these snippets:
More than half say that consuming alcohol is enough to stop you being a good evangelical. Ooops; that's 'Good Evangelical'. Oh dear. Then again, if 97% see it as essential to follow the teachings of Christ, but 27% don't see that as extending to helping the poor and needy, which bible did they read, actually?
It's interesting in the light of my blog from a couple of months ago that 76% have experienced or witnessed divine healing. I'm also a little blown away by the fact that 61% confidently assert that "the rapture of the Church will take place before the Great Tribulation". Perhaps it's more positive to learn that 13% think that homosexuality should be accepted by society (51% of those in Latin America; 23% of those in Europe), even if 55% think a wife must always obey her husband, and 33% think women should stay home and raise children.
I think the thing that struck me most was this question:
Firstly, missing is any kind of self-doubt. Perhaps that's the survey's fault, but if you fear a decline in Evangelicalism (and a small majority in the global North anticipate one), surely you have to ask yourself whether that decline is due to an inherent flaw - a mistaken theology, philosophy, or pattern of thinking or behaviour. But, more generally, what can "influence of secularism" possibly mean here? That there's a battle of ideas - and you're losing? Likewise, "influence of Islam": if you believe that the gospel of Christ is the truth, and that the teaching of the Koran is not, well, why fear the latter? And so on. Many of the other things are fears about the gospel or the work of the Holy Spirit being insufficiently strong to protect the faithful: that seems at odds with the rhetoric about the power of the gospel.
Over all, the survey gives me the sense of evangelicalism - at least, northern hemisphere evangelical protestantism - being a spent force, far more concerned with the maintenance of its own way of being than with an essential spark of a movement of the Holy Spirit of God. But perhaps I'm unduly cynical.
1 comment:
Having had a very brief look at the survey (amazing what having no TV in the house will lead you to do!); it confirms for me, like most surveys, that most of us really do not know what we think. As you point out 97% say we must follow the teachings of Christ but this somehow does not include helping the poor and needy. As for a wife having to obey her husband; men just say that because they know that behind closed doors they're the ones being told what to do!!
On a more serious note, I also found the responses concerning Israel and the rapture very interesting. I know I'd have to answer I don't know to those questions but most of the leaders asked chose to answer yes or no. Do you think they actually have a coherent understanding of these issues and are very confident in their answers?
Just two of the problems with surveys is that there are a lot of options not included and in my experience most people just want to finish the survey so that they can get on and do something else. So I'm never sure how useful they are.
Maybe if the survey designers had directly asked about the role of the Holy Spirit in evangelism then you would not need to feel so cynical. But then again actions speak louder than answers in a survey . . .
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