Quote Source – Medium.com Responder

A Biblical Christian worldview perspective – The title of this post was taken from a “conversation” that started with a post we published about a 90-foot tall Hindu Monkey! The reader’s viewpoint that “Conservative = Christian” and “Liberal = Not Christian” is held by many, both inside and outside of those who hold a Biblical Christian worldview. The real question is, what does the data show.

Pew Research recently published an extensive poll (37k U.S. adults) on U.S. Christianity which offered insight into this and many other interesting questions. Two items stand out.

First, there is documentation that “Christianity,” as defined by Pew, after years of decline (since 2007) has become “relatively stable since 2019.”

• 62% of American adults consider themselves Christian. This includes Protestants (40%), Catholics (19%), and Other (3%).
• 29% of American adults are religiously unaffiliated including Atheists (5%), Agnostics (6%), and Nones (19%).
• 7% of American adults fall outside of the categories above, including 2% Jewish and approximately 1% each of Muslim, Buddhist, and Hindu.

Second, more to the blanket statement posted by our responder that Christians view all liberals as Non-Christian … there does seem to be a clear relationship between political affiliation and Christian affiliation. Specifically,

• Among Conservative responders, 82% said they were Christians.
• Among Moderate responders, 61% said they were Christians.
• Among Liberal responders, only 37% said they were Christians.

Summarizing, “the poll showed political polarization among those identifying as Christian.”

Conclusion

First and foremost, these results are at best an indication of possible trends rather than hard numbers, since the definition of a “Christian” in Pew Research polling is not the definition of a Biblical Christian (details here). For example, Roman Catholicism is not close to a Biblical Christian worldview, yet was treated as such by Pew. Second, there are many who see themselves as “Progressive Christians.” Again, not a Biblical Christian because they reject the inerrancy of the Bible in order to promote a social gospel. So, within the 37% of respondents above who consider themselves “Christian” are likely many who reject pro-life and support same sex marriage as just two areas where the Bible and their theology differ dramatically.

Of course, there are liberal Christians who are Biblical Christians and are headed to Heaven. Every person alive (in my view) has their theology wrong in some area of their worldview.

As humans, we naturally try to categorize people into buckets. It makes it easier to shoot at one unified group and praise another rather than having to deal with individuality. The truth is that each of us is unique, with our own personal mix of beliefs. However, it is also true that, when polled on the topics noted above, the numbers speak for themselves. There is a much higher percentage of Conservative Christians (and especially Biblical Christians) than there are Liberal Christians (and especially Biblical Christians).

POSTSCRIPT: I would offer two thoughts… First, we always seem to use the outliers to define the middle of a group in order to make our point stronger. Outliers should not be the example of the average in progressives or conservatives for example. Second, we sometimes forget that we are all sinners, before and after salvation. Examples of bad theology, bad thought, bad actions, bad words, can be found in any group regardless of “party affiliation.” Jesus came to save sinners regardless of what group they may fall in. However, looking broadly at groups based on individual opinions polled….. the stats are still the stats.

Salvation – Eternal Life in Less Than 150 Words

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