Do Christians Contribute to Society? 2

Here is the second part of the Barna Report, this one concerning perceived negative contributions:

When asked to identify what they thought were the negative contributions of Christians to American society in recent years, the most frequent response was violence or hatred incited in the name of Jesus Christ. One out of five Americans mentioned such vitriolic attitudes. This was most likely to be mentioned by people associated with non-Christian faiths (35%) and by evangelicals (31%).

Three other responses generated similar levels of support. Thirteen percent said the opposition of Christians to gay marriage was the largest negative contribution. People 25 or younger were twice as likely as other Americans to mention this. Blacks (20%) and Skeptics (20%) also registered above-average levels of concern about that position.

Twelve percent cited churches being too involved in politics as a major negative. Another 12% named the sexual abuse scandals involving Catholic priests as the biggest black-eye for the Christian faith. Those revelations were particularly disturbing to young adults and Hispanics.

Relatively small numbers of respondents mentioned negative contributions such as the perceived intolerance or bigotry of the Christian body (2%), the failure of Christians to be assertive enough (2%) and the failure of believers to reflect genuine Christian values in their lifestyle (2%). Intolerance was a particularly common reply among Skeptics (12%).

Overall, one out of every eight adults (12%) said they could not think of any negative contributions of the Christian population to American society. Surprisingly, evangelicals were among the subgroups that were least likely to say they were unable to identify any negative contributions by Christians; just 6% of evangelicals fit that category, positioning them as the single, most critical subgroup of all (statistically tied with the 7% of liberals who gave that reply). Evangelicals were especially hard on Christians with regard to their failure to reflect the values and lifestyles taught by Jesus. For instance, while 25% of the nation listed failings such as violence, hatred, bigotry, intolerance, and lack of love for others, nearly twice as many evangelicals (48%) listed those same items.

Another one out of five adults (19%) said they did not know what the negative contributions of Christians had been.