16AR21-07

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AR 21:7 - Why academics look down on Evangelicals

In this issue:

APOLOGETICS - Next Generation Project charts the "staggering decline of American Christianity"

EDUCATION - "recent study indicates widespread bias toward conservative Christians by college and university teachers"

Apologia Report 21:7 (1,280)

February 17, 2016

APOLOGETICS

"The Need for Apologetics: What the Data Reveal about the Crisis of Faith among Young Christians in America" by Larry Barnett, Principal Investigator, The Next Generation Project -- from the abstract: "While doubt is nothing new, it has now become much more harmful to Christian faith, and it is the major cause of the recent decline in American Christianity, according to new findings of the Next Generation Project. Given the serious threat posed to the next generation by unanswered questions and unresolved doubts, Christians must better meet our biblical obligations to doubters and those with questions (Jude 1:22, I Peter 3:15). If and only if we faithfully fulfill these duties - answering their questions and offering them good reasons to believe - we can expect a bright future for the American church."

A graph on page 474 charts the size percentage of America's Christian and non-religious population by generational age group / birth year (Greatest [pre-1928], Silent [1928-1945], Boomer [1946-1964], Gen X [1965-1980], and Millennial [1981-on]) from the 1970s through the early 2010s. The result shows that with each successive generation, Christian numbers have been declining (especially among Millennials) with a corresponding growth among the non-religious.

"The Next Generation Project explores the causes of Christianity's decline using survey data collected by two major universities and a well-respected research center. ... Data came from the General Social Survey <www.gss.norc.org> (conducted by the University of Chicago), the Religious Landscape Study <www.goo.gl/Yi6wH8> (conducted by the Pew Research Center), and the National Study of Youth and Religion <www.goo.gl/TnAv1V> (conducted by the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill).

On page 480 a graph charts "Generational Differences in the Risk of Doubters Leaving Christianity" among adults raised as evangelicals. Similar to the previous graph, there is a linear increase in the "proportion of doubters that leave Christianity by generation" from 20% of the Greatest generation to nearly 70% of Millennials.

In his conclusion, Barnett writes: "I have attempted to lay out the implications of our findings regarding the critical importance of apologetics: Christianity's recent decline in the United States is primarily due to these unanswered questions and unresolved doubts people have about Christianity. It is thus absolutely necessary to effectively deal with these questions and doubts if the decline of American Christianity is to be reversed. However, if we will passionately pursue our duty to doubters - answering their questions and offering them good reasons to believe - then we can expect a bright future. The next generation is at stake." Philosophia Christi, 17:2 - 2015 (just received), pp473-487. [1]

The Next Generation Project web site <www.goo.gl/ot1ib4> sums up the "staggering decline of American Christianity":

* - "The number of professing Christians has declined from 96% of the U.S. adult population in the 1950’s to 70% today, and only 59% of the Millennial Generation now identify with Christianity

* - "Decline has occurred in every population segment – young and old, male and female, Catholic and Protestant, and across racial and social barriers

* - "10 of 13 Christian denominational families have seen substantial decline since the 1970s

* - "Recent Christian upbringing has been no more effective at producing adult Christian faith than a NON-religious upbringing of fifty years earlier

* - "The number of conversions to Christianity among those raised in non-Christian families has declined over 75% from the Greatest Generation to the Millennial Generation"

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EDUCATION

"Bigotry in Numbers: Why Academics Look Down on Evangelicals" by David Briggs, a writer for the Association of Religion Data Archives -- reports that "A recent study indicating widespread bias toward conservative Christians by college and university teachers provides some possible answers.

"The unpleasant truth supported by this and other research: It is easier to judge people we do not know, and inhibitions about expressing prejudice tend to fall away if enough of your colleagues have the same beliefs. ...

"Asked to assess religious groups on a 'feeling thermometer' of 1 to 100, Jewish people, mainline Protestants and Catholics all achieved an average score of 65 or higher, researchers led by University of North Texas sociologist George Yancey reported in an online article in the journal Sociology of Religion.

"Next to the bottom, just slightly above fundamentalists, were Protestant evangelicals with an average score of 48. ...

"The greatest sin of evangelicals: A perceived intolerance toward the academic critics own political views and belief systems. ...

"Thus, while critics gave evangelicals an average score of 41 on the feeling thermometer, theological definers gave an average score of 63. ...

"Research has indicated academics in general are less religious and more politically liberal than most Americans, and that conservative Protestants are substantially underrepresented on university faculty. Conservative Protestants are also viewed as being less educated and low status, separate from the elite status aspired to by many academics in higher education. In several ways, conservative Protestants may be considered the "quintessential out-group for academics," Yancey, [fellow researchers Sam] Reimer and [Jake] O'Connell noted. ...

"In the study, the harshest academic critics of conservative Protestants were the ones with the least contact, and least likely to seek to establish relationships with evangelicals. Those who took a more neutral academic approach were most likely to have evangelicals in their social network. ...

"The study also found academic critics felt free to use harsh, emotional language when describing conservative Protestants; more neutral observers largely confined themselves to academic, dispassionate assessments. The open hostility of critics "may produce a silencing effect which keeps conservative Protestants 'in the closet,'" study researchers said.

"Another set of new studies suggests that belonging to a tightly knit and unified group not only tends to legitimize prejudice against others, but also gives permission to be openly hostile to those opposed by a majority of their own group.

"Membership in a group where bias is acceptable appears to give individuals a license to 'express prejudices they would otherwise keep to themselves,' researchers from the London Business School and New York University reported."

Briggs concludes that "intellectual humility, the ability to understand the limits of one's own knowledge and to be open to new ways of understanding, seems to be in short supply, even, or perhaps in some cases especially, among academics." Huffington Post, Aug 25 ’15, <www.goo.gl/hJSCPJ>

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