Evangelicals Are the Most Beloved US Faith Group Among Evangelicals: And Among the Worst-Rated By Everybody Else

I had the opportunity to talk to Christianity Today about the new research out by the Pew Research Center. Their survey shows perceptions of evangelicals are really high among a particular demographic: evangelicals. The rest of the population see us far less favorably. One exception is atheists, whose opinion of evangelical Christians has increased slightly. The rest of the report is far less encouraging.

As someone who cares a lot about apologetics, it can be easy to shrug this off as merely the price of doing evangelism in a secularizing context. These statistics should grieve us. While we cannot water down our beliefs to make people like us, we need to listen to how the world perceives us.

Polls like this should give us pause. Since having a good reputation with outsiders is a requirement for leadership in the church, the church in America could well be facing a leadership crisis in the area of our public witness. But that’s old news. The Pew study is yet another reminder: We can’t ignore the problem any longer if we care about our commitment to the Bible, the Great Commission, or our neighbor.

You can read the whole article here.