The research carried out by Bible Society NSW for the Jesus. All about life campaign revealed that "Christianity is widely rejected by most non-Christians as an anachronistic and undesirably rigid set of doctrines‚ while the Church is widely regarded as an old-fashioned organisation that is guilty of failing to live up to its own ideals of tolerance‚ forgiveness and humility."
(Click image to buy)
While we may wish to present Christian faith in God as a distinct and intrinsically good idea‚ it is practically impossible to make any reference to Christian faith‚ Christ’s teachings or the Bible without immediately eliciting negative associations surrounding the Christian Church and its doctrines.
Most non-Christians believe that they already live in accordance with essential Christian values‚ and do not need either to accept articles of Christian faith or participate in Christian worship to fulfil the basic requirement that qualify someone as being ‘a good person’‚ such as ‘do unto others’ and ‘love thy neighbour’.
The commonly and often unwittingly accepted principle of secular humanism is that individuals need to look inwards in search of personal meaning and fulfilment, ‘a never-ending search directed towards realising your full potential‚ rather than a process that leads to some final‚ “ideal” state of consciousness’.
At a more fundamental level‚ non-Christians tend to reject the idea of ‘one truth’ as a divisive concept that is to blame for much of the conflict in the world today‚ and that clashes with the secular humanist ideal of taking personal responsibility for lifestyle choices and interpersonal values.
Against this background of attitudes and beliefs‚ the response to ‘born-again’ Christian testimonials tends to be overwhelmingly negative:
- to accept Christ as the only way to find meaning in life represent a failure to accept personal responsibility or realise self-awareness
- to accept Christian beliefs as the ultimate truth is to reject contemporary ideals of multicultural tolerance and openness to new ideas
Opportunity
The only way to break down the negative perceptions that act as barriers to acceptance of Christian faith‚ is to directly confront the issues surrounding the perceived hypocrisy of the Church on one hand‚ and the shortcomings of humanist ideal of self-actualisation on the other.
Our opportunity is to present Christian faith as a superior solution to secular problems that arise in the contemporary search for personal meaning. Only by addressing secular issues can we hope to demonstrate the ultimate relevance of spiritual beliefs in a way that will lead non-Christians to revaluate their attitudes and so direct their personal search for meaning towards Christ"s teachings.
Our challenge is to present articles of Christian faith as powerful truths‚ without implying that they are either unique or exclusive. This will provide non-threatening encouragement and constructive facilitation for personal interactions between non-Christians and Christians that will help the former realise that the latter have in fact resolved their own personal search for meaning in a way that reflects strength of personal conviction‚ rather than a failure to accept personal responsibility.
> more ...
(Summary by Angus Kinnaird‚ FutureBrand. A more complete research document is available for purchase on-line from Bible Society NSW. Click to buy)