Niccoló Machiavelli, the Italian political philosopher, once wrote that, “Everyone sees what you appear to be, few experience what you really are.” These words, written more than 500 years ago, seem relevant when it comes to 21st-century American evangelicals.
This religious group has assumed a unique place in national discourse. The cohort of Christians has courted controversy, no matter how you slice it—whether evangelicals only make up just 6 percent of the U.S. population (as Barna’s legacy tracking of the group suggests) or whether they comprise a larger share of the public (as other polls, which use different measures, indicate). The parade of stories trying to explain the relationship between evangelicals and the Republican Party seem never-ending and are likely to continue in a heated election year. All this puts the future of American evangelicalism in a precarious spot. Evangelicals derive their name from their primary motivating factor: a desire to obey the Great Commission, to share their faith with and persuade others. However, their ability to preach the Good News may be hampered by a culture that perceives evangelicals in ways that they may not fully comprehend.
Barna’s research has long included evangelicals, and we’ve developed a detailed portrait of this Christian minority over the years. For this special report, however, our aim was different. We set out to understand how the general public understands evangelicals. What emerges is a portrait that should serve as a warning, but also offer hope that the public is still receptive to the message of evangelical Christianity. Based on a nationwide study of U.S. adults, we discovered that Americans view evangelicals through a political lens, which corresponds with mixed feelings toward this religious group. However, many people still understand evangelicals as a committed group of believers who put their faith first.
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