.
Reading about statistics on another thread has made me do some more thinking about cultural Christianity and how it might be helping or harming Christianity as a whole. Many people - as many as 74% of Americans (not sure about other nations) - claim Christianity as "their religion".
Wikipedia defines Cultural Christianity as: individuals who identify themselves with Christian culture while not being religious Christians. This kind of identification may be due to family background, personal experiences, the social and cultural environment in which they grew up, etc.
(Even Wiki misses the boat in their explanation, using the term "religious Christians" as a counterpart, which is also misleading. Someone can be religious and still not have a believing faith in Christ. But I digress.)
It would seem that a huge percentage of those labeled "Christians" are simply checking the "Christian" box because it's the best option of those offered.
Cultural Christians often do not even realize that they are not part of the genuine believing Christians of the faith. This makes it very hard to distinguish between the two sometimes, especially in public surveys used for determining things like divorce rates (as OnceFallen mentioned in another thread) or other political or cultural statistics.
Cultural Christians are especially prevalent in the "Bible Belt" areas of the United States, but their numbers seem to be shrinking. I'm wondering if this is a good thing or a bad thing.
On one hand, it is very difficult to truly share Christ with people who already believe that they know Christ. In addition to that, Cultural Christians who are not practicing a godly lifestyle can give Christianity a bad reputation, causing damage to the Church. (Not that believing Christians don't also sometimes fail to live in godly ways - we are all sinners.)
But on the other hand, Cultural Christians have aided the Church in standing firm on some controversial issues such as abortion or same-sex marriage, when otherwise the Church would have been overrun and defeated politically. We have much of our religious freedom here in the U.S. because of the power of Cultural Christians.
Also, from an evangelical standpoint, every bit of exposure someone has to the Gospel is a good thing, right? So Cultural Christians, while not sincere in their faith, are a little closer to that "awakening" of their spirit than they would be otherwise perhaps. (Or, they could simply be desensitized to such things, making them even more hard-hearted...)
Questions:
1. Do you feel that Cultural Christians make up a significant portion of society in your part of the world? Are their numbers growing or shrinking, and why?
2. If so, do you see this as harmful to the Christian community of believers, or is it beneficial?
3. How do Cultural Christians help a community?
4. How do they harm a community?
5. Why do people as a whole have such a hard time realizing that Christianity is not a "cultural" religion that can be latched onto without sincere personal faith?
Reading about statistics on another thread has made me do some more thinking about cultural Christianity and how it might be helping or harming Christianity as a whole. Many people - as many as 74% of Americans (not sure about other nations) - claim Christianity as "their religion".
Wikipedia defines Cultural Christianity as: individuals who identify themselves with Christian culture while not being religious Christians. This kind of identification may be due to family background, personal experiences, the social and cultural environment in which they grew up, etc.
(Even Wiki misses the boat in their explanation, using the term "religious Christians" as a counterpart, which is also misleading. Someone can be religious and still not have a believing faith in Christ. But I digress.)
It would seem that a huge percentage of those labeled "Christians" are simply checking the "Christian" box because it's the best option of those offered.
Cultural Christians often do not even realize that they are not part of the genuine believing Christians of the faith. This makes it very hard to distinguish between the two sometimes, especially in public surveys used for determining things like divorce rates (as OnceFallen mentioned in another thread) or other political or cultural statistics.
Cultural Christians are especially prevalent in the "Bible Belt" areas of the United States, but their numbers seem to be shrinking. I'm wondering if this is a good thing or a bad thing.
On one hand, it is very difficult to truly share Christ with people who already believe that they know Christ. In addition to that, Cultural Christians who are not practicing a godly lifestyle can give Christianity a bad reputation, causing damage to the Church. (Not that believing Christians don't also sometimes fail to live in godly ways - we are all sinners.)
But on the other hand, Cultural Christians have aided the Church in standing firm on some controversial issues such as abortion or same-sex marriage, when otherwise the Church would have been overrun and defeated politically. We have much of our religious freedom here in the U.S. because of the power of Cultural Christians.
Also, from an evangelical standpoint, every bit of exposure someone has to the Gospel is a good thing, right? So Cultural Christians, while not sincere in their faith, are a little closer to that "awakening" of their spirit than they would be otherwise perhaps. (Or, they could simply be desensitized to such things, making them even more hard-hearted...)
Questions:
1. Do you feel that Cultural Christians make up a significant portion of society in your part of the world? Are their numbers growing or shrinking, and why?
2. If so, do you see this as harmful to the Christian community of believers, or is it beneficial?
3. How do Cultural Christians help a community?
4. How do they harm a community?
5. Why do people as a whole have such a hard time realizing that Christianity is not a "cultural" religion that can be latched onto without sincere personal faith?