The United States is in a cultural crisis. There are gaping fissures
between the rich and poor, growing tensions between races, disunity
among faith groups, increasing resentment between genders, and a vast
and expanding gap between liberals and conservatives. Generation,
gender, socioeconomics, ethnicity, faith, and politics massively divide
the American population.
And the Christian community has not been immune. Just look at the
current election cycle. Candidates like Donald Trump have fiercely
divided faith “tribes,” especially evangelicals. In
recent research
on the presidential race, Barna found that the five unique personal
faith segments in America—evangelicals, non-evangelical born again
Christians, notional Christians, people associated with non-Christian
faiths, and religious skeptics—hold substantially different attitudes
and candidate preferences, causing deep tensions and divides.
This splintering and polarization of American culture has made it
more difficult than ever to have a good conversation. In research
conducted for David Kinnaman’s new book
Good Faith,
Barna discovered just how difficult it is for most people to reach
across these cultural divides. Most Americans indicate that they think
it would be difficult to have a natural and normal conversation with
minority groups who are different than them. As shown in the table
below, a majority of Americans would struggle to have a conversation
with a Muslim (73%), a Mormon (60%), an atheist (56%), an evangelical
(55%), or someone from the LGBT community (52%).
Evangelicals seem to have a particularly difficult time talking to
those outside their group. They report higher tensions than any other
group when it comes to having conversations with those who are different
from them. For instance, almost nine in 10 evangelicals (87%) believe
it would be difficult to have a natural and normal conversation with a
member of the LBGT community, but only six in 10 in the LGBT community
(58%) say it would be difficult to have a natural and normal
conversation with an evangelical.
This is consistent across the board. Evangelicals consistently report
higher levels of difficulty toward other groups than those groups
report toward them. Nearly nine in 10 evangelicals (87%) think it would
be difficult to have a conversation with a Muslim, but only two-thirds
of those with other faiths (66%) report difficulty in conversing with
evangelicals. Similarly, when it comes to speaking to atheists, 85
percent of evangelicals think it would be difficult, but again only
two-thirds of atheists, agnostics, or those who do not have any faith
(66%) say they would have a hard time talking with evangelicals.
Also, and not surprisingly, most groups tend to have more
internal than
external
harmony. For instance, almost three in 10 evangelicals (28%) think it
would be difficult to have a conversation with another evangelical.
That’s a comparatively low number—especially when 87 percent of
evangelicals think it would be difficult to have a conversation with a
Muslim—but even three in 10 is high, and points to signs of growing
tensions even within groups. This goes beyond evangelicals though. Four
in 10 LGBT adults (39%) think it would be difficult to have a
conversation with another member of the LGBT community.
Barna’s research also revealed that social media has changed our
capacity for healthy, effective, good conversations about our
differences. According to the data, most people believe these digital
tools have made meaningful dialogue and deep connection more difficult.
In fact, 61 percent of adults say they believe social media has made
people less social, less capable of deep friendships and strong
connections. Furthermore, Americans are twice as likely today to say
they are lonely compared to ten years ago. It would appear that social
media doesn’t always make us more social.
"Good Faith: Being a Christian When Society Thinks You're Irrelevant and Extreme"
What The Research Means
“This splintering and polarization of American culture has made it
more difficult than ever to have a good conversation, especially about
faith,” says David Kinnaman, president of Barna Group and the lead
designer and analysis on the study. “Even when two people agree, honest
interaction can seem elusive. Try to talk about things like gay
marriage—or anything remotely controversial—with someone you disagree
with and the temperature rises a few degrees. But being friends across
differences is hard, and cultivating good conversations is the rocky,
up-hill climb that leads to peace in a conflict-ridden culture.
“In order to have meaningful conversations, we must first realize
that it’s not enough to be nice,” continues Kinnaman. “Though important,
being winsome often means leaving some of the more inevitable conflict
at the door, which limits meaningful dialogue. It also causes an
uncomfortably large segment of Christians to agree with people around
them rather than experience even the mildest conflict. We must embrace
the hard edges of dialogue, extending kindness and hospitality, but
doing so in the face of
inevitable, but healthy and constructive, conflict.
“Also, social media, for all the remarkable benefits of digital tools
like Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram, can make connecting
across these gaps more difficult, not less,” concludes Kinnaman “In
spite of the truly wonderful gifts of the digital revolution, social
media at its worst can magnify our differences, making it even harder to
have conversations that matter. For one thing, it can make it more
difficult to see other people for who they really are. For another, it
helps us find the tiny cliques of people who are already convinced of
the crazy things we believe. Social media makes it far too easy to
self-select voices that always affirm and never challenge our
assumptions and sacred cows. Plus, many of our sanest thinkers and
leaders are choosing to stay out of the fray altogether. They’ve clued
in that the most strident and extreme voices are liked, shared, and
retweeted—not the most reasonable ones.”
About the Research
The study on which these findings are based was conducted via online
surveys from August 17 to August 21, 2015. A total of 1,000 interviews
were conducted. The sample error is plus or minus 3.0 percentage points
at the 95-percent confidence level. The completion rate was 66% percent.
Minimal statistical weighting was used to calibrate the sample to
known population percentages in relation to demographic variables. The
online study is derived from a probability panel, which means that
respondents are recruited for inclusion in the research based on
physical mailing addresses, not an opt-in online panel. Those randomly
selected households without Internet access are provided an
Internet-enabled device to complete surveys
"Evangelicals" are those who meet nine sets of
criteria, including having made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ
that is still important in their life today and believing that, when
they die, they will go to heaven because they have confessed their sins
and accepted Jesus Christ as their savior. The seven other conditions
for evangelicals include saying their faith is very important in their
life today; believing they have a personal responsibility to share their
religious beliefs about Christ with non-Christians; believing that
Satan exists; believing that Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth;
asserting that the Bible is accurate in all that it teaches; believing
that eternal salvation is possible only through grace, not works; and
describing God as the all-knowing, all-powerful, perfect deity who
created the universe and still rules it today. Being classified as an
evangelical is not dependent upon church attendance or the
denominational affiliation of the church attended. Respondents were not
asked to describe themselves as “evangelical.”
"Other faith" indicates respondents who self-identify with a religion other than Christianity.
"No faith" indicates respondents who self-identify as atheist or agnostic, or who are religiously unaffiliated.
"Practicing Christians" are self-identified
Christians who have attended a church service in the past month and say
their religious faith is very important in their life.
"LGBT" indicates respondents who self-identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender.
About Barna Group
Barna Group is a private, non-partisan, for-profit organization under
the umbrella of the Issachar Companies. Located in Ventura, California,
Barna Group has been conducting and analyzing primary research to
understand cultural trends related to values, beliefs, attitudes and
behaviors since 1984.
If you would like to receive free e-mail notification of the release
of each update on the latest research findings from Barna Group, you may
subscribe to this free service at the Barna website (www.barna.org).
© 2016 by Barna Group.
A counselor friend helped me understand how our hidden areas
influence what we think, feel, and do. He drew a diagram on the white
board in my office that psychologists use to help people become more
self-aware in their relationships. It’s called the Johari Window
pictured here.
