How could you hate a guy who wear's Mickey t-shirts?

How could you hate a guy who wear's Mickey t-shirts?

Mark Driscoll has a good piece out in response to the recent Newsweek cover story, “The End of Christian America”. It’s not so much a response as another perspective on the data – that the percentage of Americans claiming no religious affiliation has doubled, while the percentage  claiming Christian affiliation has shrunk -  from that offered by Al Mohler.

Rather than “despair” at the survey results, Driscoll rejoices, much as I did when I read it. I wasn’t excited about there being more athiests or fewer Christians, because I don’t think there are. I just think there are fewer people who feel the need to lie about it to pollsters.

Here’s what Driscoll has to say:

The confusion is that it was common in Christendom for people who did not practice Christianity to profess Christianity. This was often done for social reasons, such as living in a culture that expected church affiliation, being born into a religious tradition and assuming it was simply part of one’s identity (like a cultural or racial connection), or personally, socially, and vocationally benefitting from being connected, even loosely, to a church or denomination. Researchers such as George Barna have documented the fact that, as Jesus himself said, not everyone who says he or she is a Christian is in fact one. [...]

With the social benefits of professing to be a Christian no longer in place and the social stigma of not professing to be a Christian now lifted, those who were part of Christendom America are simply no longer pretending to be part of Christian America.

I still remember the feeling I had in high school, within a year of coming to Christ, when I found out that not everyone who claimed Christianity, even among those who seemed the most devout, actually practiced it. This survey is like the first realization of the distant hope that people would stop pretending to be Christians.

Since I was just reading a better explanation of my own opinion on the matter, the story wasn’t really a big deal to me. What was interesting was this response in the comments:

+ Debbie / Strongsville, Ohio

I think you can be a good Christian and not belong to a church. You need to be “Christ” like. Who is to say that this church or that church is somewhere you have to belong to be a Christian. I take offense to being classified as Christendom. Who made Mark Driscoll the authority on who is a Christian and who just thinks they are? Almost everyday in some town you can read a story about a church taking advantage of its congregation. I give charity but to people of my choice, and I give where I know it is being used to really help people in need.

My first reaction was that this response is like waving a flag that says, “GUILTY!!!” Driscoll simply described the difference between Christendom – in which people claim Christianity for cultural benefit – and Christianity. His description had nothing to do with going to church, or giving money to a church.

Debbie started defending herself from an attack that never came. My only assumption, based on my own responses – like this one – is that she feels like Driscoll is calling her out because, despite her protestations, she is only nominally Christian. If so, why is she so offended? And where does she live where there isn’t a good and faithful congregation she can be a part of?

People pretending to be Christians hurt the image of the church. And they make it very difficult to evangelize. Thank God people are finally willing to be honest about it.