{"id":1311,"date":"2010-12-09T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-12-09T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=1311"},"modified":"2010-12-09T05:00:00","modified_gmt":"2010-12-09T12:00:00","slug":"who-is-a-christian-lifeways-asinine-survey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=1311","title":{"rendered":"“Who is a Christian?”: Lifeway’s Asinine Survey"},"content":{"rendered":"

Not helpful!\u00a0 That would be how I would describe Lifeway Research’s just released survey <\/a>which asked 1000 Protestant pastors one question:<\/p>\n

“Which, if any, of the following people do you believe are Christians?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Lifeway, affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, was kind enough to supply the respondents with\u00a0a list of five names on which to opine whether or not they believed said individuals were in fact Christians.\u00a0 A curious question given the fact that most, if not all, of the respondents do not know any of the asked-about individuals personally.<\/p>\n

The five well-known politicians and television personalities (some fall in both categories) were:\u00a0 President Barack Obama, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Oprah Winfrey, and former President George W. Bush.\u00a0 Gee, thanks Lifeway!\u00a0 Glad they didn’t include Pope Benedict XVI.\u00a0 That would have been really interesting.<\/p>\n

If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought that the article\u00a0where I first read about Lifeway’s survey was from The Onion <\/a><\/em>instead of Associated Baptist Press<\/a>.\u00a0 Go figure!<\/p>\n

Why is Lifeway\u00a0(or whoever paid for the survey) spending money on such a silly survey?\u00a0 Dr. Ed Stetzer, President of Lifeway Research, gives the reason for Lifeway’s survey on his blog:<\/a><\/p>\n

“Research like this can be helpful as it shows us what leadership is thinking– at least in Protestant circles — when it comes public figures and the nature of being a Christian, and the influence of being a Christian.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If this is what “leadership” is thinking, then the Church and country are in deep trouble!\u00a0 But, then again, if this is what Lifeway Research is asking, our Convention may be in far greater trouble than any of us realized!\u00a0 Who are these so-called “leaders” anyway?\u00a0<\/p>\n

That pastors of Protestant churches throughout America would even try to answer this question is mind-boggling.\u00a0 Only 15% of the survey-takers\u00a0said that they were “not sure.”\u00a0\u00a0If\u00a0I were surveyed (which I was not), I would have answered “not sure.”<\/p>\n

“What about\u00a0Glenn Beck?\u00a0 He’s a Mormon.\u00a0\u00a0How can you be unsure about HIM?”\u00a0 <\/em>Glad you asked.\u00a0\u00a0Beck claims to be a Christian.\u00a0 My understanding of\u00a0Biblical Christianity and salvation differ from his.\u00a0 But, then again, my understanding of\u00a0salvation differs from the vast majority of Catholics.\u00a0 Am I prepared to say that\u00a0specific individuals —\u00a0who\u00a0I may disagree with on theological issues — are\u00a0not Christians?\u00a0 No I am not.<\/p>\n

Am I prepared to say I believe\u00a0that Mormons and\u00a0Jehovah’s Witnesses and others\u00a0hold non-orthodox (i.e., non-Biblical) views of Christianity?\u00a0\u00a0Yes.\u00a0 Will I preach and teach that such views, according to Scripture, lead people away from salvation that is found only in Christ’s atoning sacrifice on the cross, not toward it?\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Apart from someone publicly renouncing their Christian faith, I will not pass judgment on\u00a0the self-professed Christianity of those\u00a0who I do not even know and who are not a part of the flock that God has entrusted into my care.\u00a0 Before you question my “lack of conviction”\u00a0for being unsure,\u00a0ask yourself if you would like your Christianity judged by 1000 strangers who you have never met and who only know you by what the media tells them.<\/p>\n

“How about Oprah Winfrey?\u00a0 She believes that all paths lead to heaven.\u00a0\u00a0There’s no way she can be a Christian if she believes that.\u00a0 Surely, you can’t be unsure about Oprah?”\u00a0 <\/em>Well, if\u00a0believing\u00a0all religions worship the same\u00a0god and all paths lead to heaven\u00a0automatically excludes\u00a0Ms. Winfrey from being considered a Christian, then George W. Bush is also right out as well.\u00a0\u00a0On at least two separate occasions, the most recent in\u00a02007, the former President\u00a0basically said the same thing that Oprah said about faith and religion.\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 If that’s the case, then how can 75% of pastors believe that\u00a0W is a Christian, but only 19% believe that O is one?\u00a0<\/p>\n

How is a one-question survey like this helpful, either within the church or in our culture in general?\u00a0 How does Lifeway, an entity of the Southern Baptist Convention, think this survey,\u00a0which asks pastors to\u00a0judge\u00a0the personal faith of these five people\u00a0— anything other than politics cloaked in the veil of religiosity?\u00a0 Who exactly is supposed to use the nifty Power Point presentation that is available for download?\u00a0 Is it intended for pastors and churches to integrate into their worship during the elections of 2012?\u00a0 Just asking.<\/p>\n

Did no one at Lifeway\u00a0Research or in the main offices of Lifeway — calling Dr. Rainer — stop to think about how this survey — the question and the five names — would be perceived by not just Southern Baptists but, by the general population?\u00a0 Are the people in Nashville so clueless when it comes to the politics of this?<\/p>\n

I expect Gallop or Pew or any number of secular polling organizations\u00a0to ask these kind of survey questions because they may not know any better.\u00a0 But, not Lifeway.\u00a0\u00a0I\u00a0usually find Lifeway\u00a0Research’s surveys to be most helpful in ministry.\u00a0 As one Southern Baptist pastor, I can say that their latest survey is not only unhelpful, but\u00a0so off-the-mark as to be asinine.\u00a0\u00a0At least no CP money was wasted on this!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not helpful!\u00a0 That would be how I would describe Lifeway Research’s just released survey which asked 1000 Protestant pastors one question: “Which, if any, of the following people do you believe are Christians?\u201d Lifeway, affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, was kind enough to supply the respondents with\u00a0a list of five names on which to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[34,35,37],"tags":[129,3370,341,438,443,608,609,610,746,3391,3392,864,3393,990],"class_list":["post-1311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-religion","category-southern-baptist-convention","tag-barack-obama","tag-christianity","tag-ed-stetzer","tag-george-w-bush","tag-glenn-beck","tag-lifeway","tag-lifeway-christian-resources","tag-lifeway-researc","tag-oprah-winfrey","tag-politics","tag-religion","tag-sarah-palin","tag-southern-baptist-convention","tag-tom-rainer"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1LP7G-l9","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1311\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}