Christianity's image in the United States is declining, especially among young people, according to a new study.
A decade ago, an overwhelming majority of non-Christians, including people between the ages 16 and 29, were "favorably" disposed toward Christianity's role in society. But today, just 16% of non-Christians in that age group had a "good impression" of the religion, according to research by the Barna Group, a Ventura firm that has tracked trends related to values, beliefs and attitudes since 1984.
Evangelicals come under the severest attack, with just 3% of the 16- to 29-year-old non-Christians indicating favorable views toward this subgroup of believers. The study also found that many Christians were aware of their religion's image problem.
More than one in 10 evangelicals believe that "Americans are becoming more hostile and negative toward Christianity."
Among the most common perceptions held by young non-Christians about American Christianity were that it is judgmental (87%), hypocritical (85%), old-fashioned (78%) and too involved in politics (75%).
Even among Christians, half of young believers said they too view Christianity to be judgmental, hypocritical and too political. One-third said it was old-fashioned and out of touch with reality.
Another Barna study, released this week, found that the most common spiritual activity among teenagers and adults is prayer. In a typical week, 72% of teenagers pray, compared with 83% of adults, the study said. After prayer, teenagers' most prevalent spiritual activity was attending a worship service (48%), followed by attending Sunday school (35%), youth group (33%), small group (32%) and reading the Bible (31%).
What do young people seek through spiritual activity? The most common factors were "to worship or make a connection with God" (45% said this was very important) and "to better understand what I believe" (42%).
David Kinnaman, the lead researcher on the studies and president of the Barna Group, said that even though the world of young people is "inundated" with choices related to media, movies, television and technology, "most church-going teens tell us they rarely recall learning anything helpful on these topics in church."
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