Christian Con Artists are Now Diverting the Faithful from Truth


George Barna of the Barna Group and a devout Christian does constant polling about religion. He polls people about church attendance, how often the pray and read the Bible and other indicators of the faith. Consistently he finds Christianity practiced less. I've always wondered why he does this polling that is bad PR for his faith. 

I think I'm finally figuring out what he hopes to accomplish. This is because he also publishes and gives interviews to outlets firmly within the faith. There he states firmly what he thinks the problem is. He says over and over again Christianity is fading because parents do not teach (he means indoctrinate) their children properly. It's hard to fathom there could be a person so truthful and pragmatic about measuring the decline in the faith and still hold such an unrealistic view of why it is declining. 

It is declining because the culture writ large does not and cannot believe the basic myths and tenets of the faith. Thus, it is impossible to reverse the decline by parents pounding the faith into their children. Parent themselves don't believe the myths and tenets of the faith. Why would they indoctrinate their children with ideas they themselves do not believe?

In Barna's latest interview he points to the evil of "syncretism." In my understanding of that term it's about different religions synchronizing their various gods and mythical beings into one. It might be reflected in polls where people are asked something like, "How sure are you that Christianity is the only true religion?  Very certain, somewhat certain, somewhat uncertain, not certain?"  In answer to such questions, the majority of responses in the U.S. are that people are uncertain the Christian God or Christianity is the only path to salvation or whatever term is used for "the end." This syncretism must stop, Barna says, for Christianity to stop its decline. 

Barna is living in la la land. Cultural change is so complex we cannot know the cause and effect variables well enough to "manage" them. We cannot even explain with certainty how Christianity came to be so popular. It happened because of forces that caused cultural change 2,000 years ago and is now in another cycle. This cycle is about post Christian.  Both happened because of complex variables. Both changes were unstoppable. 

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