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Evangelical Pollster Learns Major Christian Leaders Are Widely Unknown
In the more recent poll, Barna's organization wanted to know what percentage of American adults had heard of certain religious, political, and entertainment figures (16 in all) and what they thought of them. The polling, which took place in October of this year, also determined, based on beliefs, if a respondent were Evangelical or a born again Christian. To the evident disappointment of sociologist Barna, Evangelical notables such as Rick Warren, T.D. Jakes, Tim LaHaye, and Joel Osteen were identified by only a quarter to a third of those polled. Nor did these men earn high approval ratings. Even combining "very favorable" and "somewhat favorable" responses, the percentage of Americans with positive views of these Evangelical leaders ranged from 12 percent (Rick Warren) to 22 percent (T.D. Jakes). Only James Dobson stood out from the pack: 43 percent had heard of him and of those that had, 27 gave him favorable reviews. Barna also noted that two out of every three born again Christians (63%) did not recognize Rick Warren or T.D. Jakes, and 55 percent of the same group failed to identify Tim LaHaye. (Nearly 80 percent of Evangelicals, however, recognized Dobson and more than two-thirds of them approved of him.) In contrast, nearly everyone had heard of Bill Clinton, George Bush, Britney Spears, Denzel Washington, and Mel Gibson, though their approval ratings varied tremendously--85 percent liked Washington but only 34 percent could say the same for Spears. Americans had strongly positive feelings towards singers Tim McGraw (72%), Faith Hill (71%), actor Mel Gibson (69%) and former president Bill Clinton (64%). But 50 percent of Americans had a negative attitude towards George Bush. Commenting on the poll results, Barna said, "You cannot make a difference in someone's life if you do not have entrée in that life. In our society, even clergy compete for people's attention and acceptance. One of the reasons that the Christian faith is struggling to retain a toehold in people's lives is because even the highest-profile leaders of the faith community have limited resonance with the population." "The survey statistics suggest that perhaps Christian individuals are more attuned to matters of culture and entertainment than to matters of faith . . . . People pay attention to what they deem important. These figures may be another indicator that millions of Christians invest more of their mental energy in cultural literacy than in biblical literacy."
Evangelical Pollster Learns Major Christian Leaders Are Widely Unknown | 9 comments (9 topical, 0 hidden)
Evangelical Pollster Learns Major Christian Leaders Are Widely Unknown | 9 comments (9 topical, 0 hidden)
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