Survey Reveals ‘Unchurched’ Have Alternative Understanding Of God

According to a recent survey, most U.S. adults who don’t go to church believe in God, or a “supreme being,” yet many also assert that the Christian God is no different than the deities of other faiths.

USA Today reported that 72 percent responded that “God, a higher or supreme being, actually exists,” but similarly, 61 percent thought “no difference” exists between the Christian, Biblical “God” and the supreme beings in Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and other world religions.

LifeWay Research, a Nashville-based firm affiliated with the Southern Baptist Conference, polled 1,402 adults who had not attended a worship service in six months. Troubling for Christian leaders, 72 percent of the respondents thought that Christianity is “full of hypocrites, and similarly, 44 percent responded with “Christians get on my nerves.”

LifeWay Research director Ed Stelzer told USA Today that Christianity no longer benefits from “a home-field advantage” in the United States as it did decades ago.

“If you went back 100 years in North America, there would have been a consensus that God is the God in the Bible,” Stelzer said. “We can’t assume this any longer.”

Though 86 percent believe they can have a “good relationship” with God without ever going to church, 78 percent said they are “willing to listen” to what Christians have to say about going to church. Another 71 percent believe that “Jesus makes a positive difference in a person’s life.”