Which religious group is the most educated? Are Americans more divided than ever before? When did “self-fulfillment” become our new religion? Leading Christian pollster David Kinnaman joins us for this year-end podcast to talk about trends shaping the culture and the church. (Plus his new book, Barna Trends 2017.)
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I am a Ghanaian student who enjoys listening to your podcast. I have an eye on the trends in Western cultures, particularly the US, because I think it affect Christians globally. You mentioned that evangelicals find it harder to talk with people who are different. I think you saw it as a problem, not being able to have “natural conversations.” At one level yes, it is a problem, but maybe it isn’t. Maybe, if you asked Christians in the 1st century if they wanted to share their faith they would have said yes. If you asked if they found it easy to share their faith, I’m sure they would have said it wasn’t. Looking at it that way it isn’t so much a problem but a challenge, the challenge of communicating the difficult message of the Gospel. It is a blessing to freely share the Gospel but if you get to a stage where there is nothing challenging and world changing about it through over familiarisation, then that is a problem. Also, I was really surprised that the majority of American Christians think self fulfilment is the highest good. It’s so un-Christian. I see that same trend in Ghanaian Christian culture among millennials. God help us.