About this title: It's a difficult fact to face: the perception that most nonbelievers have of Christianity is overwhelmingly negative. Through groundbreaking research conducted on 16- to 29-year-old non-Christians, released solely through this book, Christians will see how their friends, colleagues, and neighbors really perceive them. "Unchristian" uncovers why these perceptions exist and what can be done to reverse them. David Kinnaman, a Generation X thought leader himself, does a masterful job of providing readers hope and motivation to live the kind of life that reflects a winsome and compassionate ...
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Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Baker Books
Date Published: 2007-10-01
ISBN-13:9780801013003ISBN:0801013003
Description: Like New. Brand new and unread, may have remainder mark (a black mark generally put on the bottom edge of the book by the publisher). read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Baker Pub Group
Date Published: 2007-10-01
ISBN-13:9780801013003ISBN:0801013003
Description: NEW. Hardcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9780801013003. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Baker Books
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780801013003ISBN:0801013003
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: BAKER PUBLISHING GROUP Country = UNITED STATES
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780801070662ISBN:080107066X
Description: BRAND NEW PAPERBACK. 256 pages. Research into the perceptions of 16 to 29-year-olds reveals that christians have taken several giant steps backward in one of their most important assignments. this book presents the details of the study. it helps you find out why these negative perceptions exist. it also includes forward-looking insights from respected christian leaders. illustrations (Paperback) read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Baker Books
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780801013003ISBN:0801013003
Description: New. No dust jacket as issued. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 256 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Baker Books
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780801070662ISBN:080107066X
Description: Fine in fine dust jacket. Fantastic shape and condition, like new brand. Textbook only. We send best copy available. QQbookswarehouse, one thousand happy customers. Textbooks are sold as is, may or may not include supplementary material. We strive to... Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 256 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Baker Book House USA
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780801070662ISBN:080107066X
Description: New. Research into the perceptions of 16 to 29-year-olds reveals that Christians have taken several giant steps backward in one of their most important assignments. This book presents the details of the study. It helps you find out why these negative perce... read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Baker Book House USA
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780801070662ISBN:080107066X
Description: New. Research into the perceptions of 16 to 29-year-olds reveals that Christians have taken several giant steps backward in one of their most important assignments. This book presents the details of the study. It helps you find out why these negative perce... read more
Binding: Hardback
Publisher: BAKER BOOK HOUSE
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780801013003ISBN:0801013003
Description: New. Christianity has an image problem. Christians are supposed to represent Christ to the world. But according to the latest report card, something has gone terribly wrong. Using descriptions like? ? ? hypocritical, ? ? ? ? ? ? insensitive, ? ? ? and? ? ? judgmenta... read more
"This is certainly not the first book to criticize the church - but it might be the first to back it up. This goes right to the heart of how Christianity and Christians are viewed by outsiders and insiders.
Every church leader should read this book. Especially those that intend to work closely with outsiders such as college ministries, parachurch, and missionaries.
What I appreciate is that this book goes beyond criticism to practical suggestions. It is not afraid to describe the brevity of the situation.
In their survey of both insiders and outsiders, their study found that the primary words to describe present-day Christians were: antihomosexual, judgmental, hypocritical, old-fashioned, too involved in politics, out of touch with reality, insensitive to others, boring, not accepting to other faiths, and confusing.
A favorite quote (p. 81):
"Just because a person believes the right things about Jesus - that is he or she has a highly developed biblical worldview - does not automatically make the person loving.""
"This is a book about Christianity in America today. The authors opinions have been formed by research, not vague feelings or hunches. I would recommend this book to Christians first, then anyone else interested in american sub-cultures and their perceptions of other groups and vice versa. The research findings in this book are a solid reminder that Jesus is recored as saying that the whole law and prophets hang on and point to the principle of loving God and other people. If you don't do those two things, then your opinions about baptism, church finance, "worship style", church size, inter-faith relations, the ultimate fate of 'non-believers', biblical authority, etc simply add to the divisive and destructive us/them, who's in/who's out noise in our world. Strange abstract doctrinal differences (like chosen method of baptism or interpretation of the apocalyptic book Revelation) are enough to forever separate Christians from each other, never mind the wide chasm it places between Christians and the rest of the world. This book is a call to return to what matters. There are several major criticisms of the American church in this book (written by a conservative evangelical.) The courageous way to read this book is to take each criticism personally. Instead of complaining about how THEY are so judgemental, or how THEY are so caught in their protective bubbles, or how THEY are so smug and unquestioning in their philosophies and ideaologies, one should read this book and question themselves. How are we devisive? How do we get caught up on abstract principles that dont matter? How do we miss the point? To be human means to develop, and to constantly move towards a fuller and wider understanding. This means that there is always personal work to do. If every Christian in America read this book with that attitude the baptists might talk with the universalists every once in a while. The Catholics might visit with the Episcopals more often. Christians might strike conversations with non-believers with the hope of learning something FROM them, rather than the hope of teaching something TO them. Christians might remember that they are part of a bigger body called HUMANITY! Maybe as HUMANS we'd be able to focus on what unifies us rather than what divides. O that eternal protestant problem of division!!"
"I dunno, dawg, this book was all over the place for me--to coin a Randy Jackson-ism. I wasn't really feelin' it toward the end, and it got a little pitchy in the middle, around the whole homosexuality part. I dunno. Paula?
There! Now I am HIP and WITH IT! and MEDIA SAVVY! and CREATIVE! and TUNED IN! Maybe now "outsiders" my age will be drawn to the Christian faith as though by a magnet!
Alas it's not so simple, and I would caution anyone from taking the research or conclusions in this book as definitive. Their polls found some dramatic numbers, true, but for me a big red flag was raised when they revealed just how dramatically the current numbers differ from their own 1995 numbers. Not to mention, I happened to notice that their survey results (on the attitudes of young Americans towards Christianity) were much more dire-sounding than other surveys I have seen from other news sources. To me this says "re-examine your methodology and sample for possible biases and confounds and re-do the study." Not "publish a book decrying how horrible everything has suddenly and inexplicably gotten." Dramatic changes in attitudes can happen in 10 years, sure, but they are rare and must be carefully appraised before we start running around trying to decide what to do about the putative "crisis."
Kinnaman however takes the numbers at face value, and pelts them at you again and again. Young people--nicknamed as "busters" (that's me, high school class of 1998) and "mosaics" (that apparently includes everyone from my little brother to my kids)--think that Christianity is full of it. That we're hypocrites, and "boring" and "out of it" and "archaic" and "homophobic" and sin-of-all-sins in this postmodernist postethics moral relativistic world--we're "judgemental." We're just uncool, man, face it. We probably smell bad and wear coke bottle glasses and can't get anyone to take us to the prom, also!
(I'm actually rather certain that the Baby Boomers who file in and make up the majority of every mainline Protestant church I have visited said the same things back in about 1971, no? And they had their fun with the guitars and flowers in the pews and suddenly now they're putting checks in the plate to fund Bach Cantata night.)
To use the jargon of social research, I'm not entirely sure that Kinnaman is right in identifying these dire numbers as being a "cohort effect," that is, a true trait of an entire generation, shaped by the environment in which they were raised. I think he may be seeing a transient effect based on newly protracted adolescence and its attendant rebellion. Overprotected and coddled, today's high school graduates live out their adolescence from 18-35 in many ways. The 28 year old of today may well be more like the 18 year old of 1968.
Having said that, Kinnaman is right that some of the blame can be placed on the shoulders of Christians and Christian institutions. It is right to see where we have come up short, and how we could better serve our most important missions and directives. That would be, by the way, the Gospel. I am of the opinion that if we stay true to that course, young people will eventually come to us. Kinnaman feels the same, it seems, but he's a lot more freaked out about it and offers all kinds of frantic ideas on how to polish our "brand image" as it were. Some of these are good, some of these are not so good, but the overall tone of panic and hysteria, not to mention the constant belting of statistics, makes it hard to discern.
While I take seriously charges of hypocrisy and prejudice, I find it hard to take as seriously complaints about being "boring" and "too set apart." It is not the job of serious people of faith to entertain and fit in. And then on the other hand, Kinnaman charges that we are also too conformist! This is what comes of trying to stay with the trends--confusion, chaos, and loss of one's direction. I found the young "outsiders" (as he calls them) to sometimes have good points, but sometimes as well to be vapid, shallow, and judgemental and narrow-minded in their own ways. There is a case to be made that the church would do better to stay put and wait for these folks to eventually hit the shallow bottom of popular culture and come to us looking for something steadier and deeper. (Usually about the time they start either having kids or realizing they will one day pass away.)
The biggest flaw with the book, however, was its neglect to mention the effects of the media. The media is all about splashy headlines, so the most outre and ridiculous specimens of any group--including both Christians and secular young people--are the ones that get reported upon. This distorts our opinions of one another considerably, and it was easy to see that many of the statistics reflected opinions based on media exposure rather than exposure to an actual church or Christians. Once again I was confirmed in my belief that one of the single most important things a parent can teach a child these days is how to debunk and disbelieve media hype and reports. Kinnaman would do well to examine this question, perhaps in another book."
""If only our view of outsiders were more like that of Jesus. And if only we condemned hypocrites the way he did: "They crush people with impossible religious demands and never lift a finger to ease the burden." (Matt 23:4)
"Think of the overwhelming perception among young outsiders that we are merely hypocrites. Does your life point people to a life in Christ that bursts with freedom to love, restoration, purity, and transparency?
"Or are you burying people - insiders and outsiders - under the weight of a self-righteous life? Do you lift a finger to help?
"As a Christian, it is my duty to ask: Are you lifting a finger now? Which one?""
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