Sally Price, writing in both The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald tells us that Christianity is fine, but please don’t mention the church.
The church is virtually the last image that should be used by Christian organisations to attract followers to God, research has found.
The study, carried out by Market Access Consulting and Research for the Bible Society NSW, has found that the most apparent barriers to Christian beliefs and practices were related to perceptions of the church.
Those included pedophilia in the church, perceived intolerance towards gay and lesbian lifestyles, perceived lack of equality regarding the role of women, hypocritical behaviour on behalf of church leaders and people who stand for Christian beliefs, and Christian leaders being seen as intolerant, hypocritical and judgmental, the opposite of Christian values.
Bible Society NSW communications manager Martin Johnson said that, while the research findings were not overtly surprising, the depth of feeling against the church was.
It’s a sad state of affairs that those of us who call ourselves Christian have done so much damage to the perception of God’s church.
We would do well to take note: There was a positive response to the core values espoused in Christianity and displayed by Jesus, the report said. “Jesus himself, particularly his life and core teachings, was generally somewhat distanced from the negative elements associated with the practice of organised religion,” it read.
It’s well worth reading the complete article. Click here if you want the full picture.
I’ll be interviewing Martin Johnson from The Bible Society New South Wales about the survey and its findings on-air at Sonshine FM sometime soon.
Posted by Rodney Olsen
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