THE MEDIA AND PUBLIC OPINION ABOUT THE CHURCH

 How is the Church in the USA regarded? In a 2011 nationwide survey, it was found that

·          …three-quarters of U.S. adults believe the presence of a church is “very” (53%) or “somewhat” positive (25%) for their community. In contrast, only one out of every 20 Americans believes that the influence of a church is negative—either very (2%) or somewhat so (3%). That leaves about one out of six adults (17%) who are indifferent toward the role of churches.

http://www.barna.org/congregations-articles/502-do-churches-contribute-to-their-communities

This means that 75% believe that the church of the USA is at least “somewhat positive.” With all of the negative publicity – we’re often portrayed as “bigoted” and “ignorant” – attached to Christians and the church, such a high percent expressing approval is remarkable. While it can be argued that public opinion polls might not be that valid, it can equally be argued that what we hear about the church in the media is equally invalid and unrepresentative.

Predictably, it was those aged 18-27 who expressed the highest levels of dissatisfaction with the church. Why? Perhaps because age gives us more perspective, while the youth are more influenced by this present Christophobic culture!

However, this survey was conducted 7-8 years ago. Since it seems that public opinion regarding the Church has significantly deteriorated further since then, I hoped to find a follow-up study by Barna.org, but couldn’t find any comparable. However, Barna had done a public opinion survey regarding the UK Church.

Regarding this survey released May 2018, David Kinnaman, president of Barna, observed that the public opinion was more negative:

• …non-Christians, among whom four out of five (81%) don’t believe that Christian churches are making a positive difference in the world.

• Yet, the study shows that churches are, in fact, serving a wide range of needs in the UK and around the world.

• About one in three UK adults sees the Church as a benefit to the world (33%) or their own community (35%), though not much more than the proportion who disagrees it has a positive impact (31% globally, 26% locally). Those outside the Christian faith are unsurprisingly the most skeptical of its potential, globally (41%) and locally (35%).

• a 2015 Barna study showed that the two-thirds of non-Christians in the UK (67%) who reported knowing a Christian were quick to associate these peers with positive traits like being friendly (64%) or caring (52%). Even the most commonly chosen negative quality—narrow-mindedness—was only applied by 13 percent of non- Christians who had a connection with a Christian.

It seems that there is a wide disparity between the public’s regard for the Church and their regard for their Christian associates? How can we explain this disparity? Perhaps it is because the public’s opinion of the Church depends almost exclusively on the media and their opinions of their peers depend upon their own personal experiences. Perhaps this says a lot about the influence of the media.