News

Evangelicals Are the Most Beloved US Faith Group Among Evangelicals

And among the worst-rated by everybody else.

Christianity Today March 15, 2023
Daniel Gutko / Unsplash

When asked about their views of the countryโ€™s biggest religious groups, most Americans donโ€™t have strong feelings either wayโ€”except when it comes to evangelical Christians.

In a Pew Research Center report released Wednesday, 27 percent of Americans expressed an unfavorable view of evangelicals, compared to 10 percent who have a negative view of mainline Protestants or 18 percent who have a negative view of Catholics.

About as many have a favorable approach to evangelicalsโ€”28 percentโ€”but thatโ€™s mostly due to positive sentiment from American evangelicals themselves, about a quarter of the population.

The findings follow a trend from Pew. Six years ago, researchers reported that Americans were warming up to each major religious group in the US, from Mormons to Muslims, except for evangelicals.

Other surveys over the past year have pointed to Americansโ€™ negative perceptions of certain evangelical denominations and traditions.

When asked about 35 specific โ€œreligious groups, organizations, and belief systemsโ€ in a 2022 YouGov poll, Americans gave the best ratings to Christianity and Protestantism, the biggest religious affiliations in the US.

YouGov respondents werenโ€™t asked about evangelicalism as a category, but traditions with mainline denominationsโ€”Presbyterianism, Methodism, Lutheranism, Anglicanism, and the Episcopal Churchโ€”were ranked favorable, while those that fall more squarely in evangelicalismโ€”Pentecostalism and the Southern Baptist Conventionโ€”skewed negative. (The worst ratings, though, went to Jehovahโ€™s Witnesses, Scientology, and Satanism.)

Additionally, just over half of Americans are turned off by Pentecostal churches, more than any other denomination, in a Lifeway Research survey from last year. Other denominational names also carry some baggage, but the researchers found people were most open to nondenominational and Baptist churches.

In the recently released Pew report, evangelicalsโ€™ critical reception wasnโ€™t the result of a lack of familiarity. Nearly two-thirds of Americans say they personally know someone who is an evangelical Christian, a number that has held pretty steady since 2019.

โ€œWhile those who know an evangelical Christian are more likely than those who do not to express a positive view of the group (24% vs. 9%), they are also slightly more likely than those who do not personally know an evangelical Christian to express a negative view of evangelicals (35% vs. 29%),โ€ the report wrote.

Many evangelicals can speculate the reasons behind the negative reputation. Evangelical identity in the United States became associated with additional political baggage in recent years, as more supporters of President Donald Trump took on the label.

Back in 2020, National Association of Evangelicals president Walter Kim raised concerns about politicized perceptions of the faith, stating, โ€œWe are in a season in which the evangelical faith is being narrowly defined and misunderstood by many, with long-term ramifications for our gospel witness.โ€

โ€œToo many, especially young people and people of color, have been alienated by the evangelical Christianity they have seen presented in public in recent years,โ€ he said.

Evangelical institutions have continued to reckon with racism, sexism, and abuse, past and present. Some leaders have spoken of โ€œministry from the marginsโ€ as some traditional, conservative Christian stances on issues around marriage, gender, and family are falling out of favor in mainstream society. Plus, Christianity is aging and declining in the US as more leave the church or donโ€™t follow their parentsโ€™ faith to begin with.

Among nonevangelicals in the US, just 18 percent view evangelicals positively and 32 percent view them negatively, Pew found.

โ€œAs someone who cares a lot about apologetics, it can be easy to shrug this off as merely the price of doing evangelism in a secularizing context. But if we take Paulโ€™s words seriously, we should care about our reputation with those outside the church,โ€ said Dan DeWitt, executive director of the Center for Worldview Analysis and Cultural Engagement at Southwest Baptist University. โ€œThese statistics should grieve us. While we cannot water down our beliefs to make people like us, we need to listen to how the world perceives us.โ€

DeWitt referenced Scriptureโ€™s call to be friendly to those outside the faith. Colossians 4:5โ€“6 instructs Christians to โ€œbe wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.โ€ In 1 Timothy 3:7, elders are required to โ€œhave a good reputationโ€ with those outside the church.

Questions and concerns around evangelicalsโ€™ reputation in America are nothing new. More than a decade ago, CT dedicated a cover story to the topic, with sociologist Bradley Wright writing that โ€œThe feeling of being disliked and alienated has worked its way deep into the evangelical consciousness. We feel it in our bones.โ€

Indeed, America evangelicals continue to report experiences of discrimination based on their Christian convictions and debate to what extent the pressures of โ€œpost-Christian cultureโ€ amount to persecution or marginalization in their country.

In the Pew survey out this week, itโ€™s atheists and agnostics who have the worst views of evangelicals, followed by Jews and those who identify as โ€œnothing in particular.โ€ (For their part, evangelicals hold their strongest negative views against atheists but feel warmly toward Jews as well as mainline Protestants and Catholics.)

โ€œChristian leaders should take findings like these to heart and seek to season our worlds with salt in order to know how to better answer each person,โ€ DeWitt said.

โ€œPolls like this should give us pause. Since having a good reputation with outsiders is a requirement for leadership in the church, the church in America could well be facing a leadership crisis in the area of our public witness. But thatโ€™s old news. The Pew study is yet another reminder: We canโ€™t ignore the problem any longer if we care about our commitment to the Bible, the Great Commission, or our neighbor.โ€

Our Latest

News

Died: Jack Iker, Anglican Who Drew the Line at Womenโ€™s Ordination

The Texas bishop fought a bitter legal battle with the Episcopal Church and won.

Why Canโ€™t We Talk to Each Other Anymore?

Online interactions are draining us of energy to have hard conversations in person.

Church Disappointment Is Multilayered

Jude 3 Project founder Lisa Fields speaks about navigating frustrations with God and fellow believers.

The Robot Will Lie Down With the Gosling

In โ€œThe Wild Robot,โ€ hospitality reprograms relationships.

How Priscilla Shirer Surrenders All

The best-selling Bible teacher writes about putting God first in her life and how healthy Christian discipleship requires sacrifice

The Bulletin

Second Hand News

The Bulletin talks presidential podcasts, hurricane rumors, and the spiritual histories of Israel and Iran.

Which Church in Revelation Is Yours Like?

From the lukewarm Laodicea to the overachieving Ephesus, these seven ancient congregations struggled with relatable problems.

Apple PodcastsDown ArrowDown ArrowDown Arrowarrow_left_altLeft ArrowLeft ArrowRight ArrowRight ArrowRight Arrowarrow_up_altUp ArrowUp ArrowAvailable at Amazoncaret-downCloseCloseEmailEmailExpandExpandExternalExternalFacebookfacebook-squareGiftGiftGooglegoogleGoogle KeephamburgerInstagraminstagram-squareLinkLinklinkedin-squareListenListenListenChristianity TodayCT Creative Studio Logologo_orgMegaphoneMenuMenupausePinterestPlayPlayPocketPodcastRSSRSSSaveSaveSaveSearchSearchsearchSpotifyStitcherTelegramTable of ContentsTable of Contentstwitter-squareWhatsAppXYouTubeYouTube