CRC Staff | August 6, 2024 |
From the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University
Glendale, AZ — An alarming new portrait of modern American evangelicals is emerging, as the latest research from the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University reveals a dramatic transformation of beliefs and behaviors in the nation’s evangelical community.
Evangelicals—with their commitment to biblical authority and emphasis on salvation through Jesus Christ—have powerfully influenced our culture over the past half-century. But this may no longer be the case among evangelicals today, according to a new report from the American Worldview Inventory 2024.
The new research points to diminished influence of Christian evangelicalism, and its findings challenge the prevailing perceptions of American evangelicals in the media and culture.
Dr. George Barna, veteran researcher and author of the AWVI 2024, asserts that the nation’s cultural decline is deeply rooted in the spiritual collapse of Christianity. And much of that decline, he says, is being driven by the shifts among American evangelicals identified in his research.
In reality, the research shows that evangelicals are far fewer in number than typically reported. They also often are far less biblical in their thinking than one might think, and they tend to vote in far fewer numbers than expected. Although more conservative on moral issues, as a whole, evangelicals reflect fewer lifestyle differences from the culture than often thought.
Surprisingly, the research found that most evangelicals do not possess a biblical worldview—only about one-third do. In fact, the findings strongly suggest that evangelicals are more likely to be shaped by the feelings-driven culture around them than they are to influence or “evangelize” it.
The inconsistency in belief and practice among evangelicals is concerning to Barna, who notes that many evangelicals struggle to apply core biblical principles in daily life, falling prey to cultural slogans and behaviors.
“The research does not suggest that evangelicals are anti-biblical or even biblically illiterate (as is true for many self-identified Christians who are not evangelicals),” Barna explained. “The study instead reveals that while evangelicals often get the ‘big picture’ of Christianity, they struggle to apply core principles to everyday situations.”
And according to Barna, that struggle arises from the lack of a biblical worldview among evangelicals.
As he notes, “In reality, having a biblical worldview requires a coherent spiritual perspective that results in a lifestyle robustly aligned with biblical beliefs. Biblical principles are not meant to exist in a vacuum. They must be integrated into a holistic understanding and practice of a Christ-like existence.”
In the latest report, Barna analyzes the state of evangelicals in the United States today by using the framework from the National Association of Evangelicals and incorporating data from the AWVI 2024, an annual national survey conducted by the Cultural Research Center about faith and worldview.
This research-driven analysis uncovers an unexpected portrait of American evangelicals, led by the fact that there are fewer of them than typically thought. Contrary to media reports that suggest 25% to 40% of American adults are evangelicals, more rigorous estimates from the AWVI 2024 place the figure at only 10%, translating to 25 to 30 million adults.
Not only are evangelicals smaller in number, the report indicates that they are less biblically grounded and less politically active than previously believed. The data also suggests that today’s evangelicals are strongly influenced by the surrounding culture.
For example, almost half of the adults attending evangelical churches (44%) believe that there is no absolute moral truth, and two out of every three evangelicals do not possess a worldview and lifestyle that is consistently in harmony with basic biblical teaching.
In fact, the AWVI 2024 research points out that the dominant worldview among Christian evangelicals remains Syncretism, a worldview defined as a disparate, irreconcilable collection of beliefs and behaviors. Nearly two-thirds of evangelicals (64%) qualified as Syncretists.
The research identified considerable differences between theological evangelicals (i.e., those who meet the NEA criteria) and people who attend evangelical churches.
The idea of a denomination or even individual churches being “evangelical” has lost much of its meaning in the past quarter-century. When adults who describe themselves as Christians are asked what type of church or denomination they attend, 11% of adults claim to usually attend an evangelical church. But only one-third (34%) of those adults meet the theological criteria of “evangelical.”
The research shows that simply attending an evangelical church does not make one an “evangelical” when it comes to beliefs and lifestyle. In fact, we see substantial worldview differences between theological evangelicals and those who attend evangelical churches. And that gap increases when compared to non-evangelical adults. Here are just a few differences:
- Those who reject the idea that determining moral truth is up to the individual: 72% of theological evangelicals, compared to 44% of those who attend an evangelical church, and 24% of non-evangelical adults.
- Those who believe the purpose of life is to know, love, and serve God with all your heart, mind, strength, and soul: 92% theological evangelicals, 61% evangelical church attenders, and 26% of non-evangelicals.
- Those who believe that people are born into sin and can only be saved from the consequences of sin through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ: 97% of theological evangelicals, compared to 58% of those who attend an evangelical church, and 15% of non-evangelicals.
Some of the report’s findings among evangelical church attenders are stunning, reflecting beliefs and behaviors not typically associated with evangelicalism. For example:
- Approximately half of evangelical church attenders believe people are basically good (54%) and that people can earn salvation through their good works (50%).
- Unexpectedly large minorities of evangelical church attenders reject the biblical nature and character of God (24%) and worship spirits other than the God of the Bible (26%).
- Just one-third report that they are “very likely” to vote in the 2024 Election.
- One in five prefers socialism to capitalism.
- An astonishing number—15%—revealed that they occasionally cast spells on other people.
According to Barna, making sense of all of these data points is complicated, But as the author of the AWVI 2024 study points out, this is all the more reason to carefully filter the messaging we receive about evangelicals from various sources and media.
“Identifying evangelicals and then developing an understanding of the mind and heart of the group is not a simple task,” Barna noted. “There is little uniformity to the belief patterns and lifestyle choices of evangelicals.”
“Unfortunately, it seems that complexity often leads us to seek the simplest analyses and conclusions, causing us to settle for comforting, if inaccurate, big-picture narratives,” he explained. “So, when consuming media reports about evangelicals, it is wise to be cautious about who the media have defined as members of that segment.”
This tendency, he said, is particularly common within the world of church-based ministry, where large numbers of people with substantially varying perspectives and experiences come together to receive what amounts to one-size-fits-all teaching prescriptions.
“Our recent research among pastors found that they generally believe they are doing a great job of facilitating a biblical worldview among their congregants,” Barna said. “However, this research, along with some of the congregational studies we have done related to worldview, highlight the fact that simply teaching Bible stories from the pulpit is, in itself, inadequate to form a biblical worldview.”
Asked how pastors might approach worldview development more effectively, Barna continued to draw from the Cultural Research Center’s ongoing worldview studies as the basis of his response.
“Because worldview is formed before the age of 13,” the ACU professor explained, “pastors who teach adults have to dismantle the existing, unbiblical views of most of their congregants.”
He continued, “Once that is accomplished, then the pastor has to replace that thinking with a robust, application-oriented understanding of biblical perspectives, connecting all of the principles to each other.”
As Barna stressed, “Biblical principles are not meant to exist in a vacuum, independent of other biblical principles. They must be integrated into a holistic understanding and practice of a Christ-like existence.”
The full report, American Worldview Inventory 2024: Report #4: “New Research Reveals the Limitations of Christian Evangelicalism in American Society,” is available here.
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George Barna is a veteran researcher of 40 years and author of 60 books, including his most recent, Raising Spiritual Champions: Nurturing Your Child’s Heart, Mind and Soul, which immediately became a bestseller on Amazon when it was released in late 2023.
Raising Spiritual Champions, published by Arizona Christian University Press in collaboration with Texas-based Fedd Books, covers a variety of topics helpful to parents and Christian leaders, including research-based descriptions of how a child’s worldview develops; the relationships between worldview and discipleship; how parents can develop a simple plan to guide their child to a biblical worldview, and to become a disciple of Jesus Christ; the role churches and godly church leaders can play in that process; measuring the worldview of children; and more. For more information about Raising Spiritual Champions visit www.RaisingSpiritualChampionsBook.com. For information about discounts for quantity orders, please email i[email protected].
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