I ran across an article that I thought was interesting regarding the self perception of Christians in America. The one rather telling item was that almost 48% said they rated themselves “above average” in their “ability to develop and maintain” relationships. While at the same time, the three areas of poor performance were: Bible knowledge, sharing faith, and spiritual leadership in the family.
How does this reconcile with the divorce rate among Christians (presently around 52%) being so high? How does sharing faith and leading our families spiritually relate to our relationships? Last I checked, this is all based on relationships. I know survey’s are right up there with visits to the dentist’s office, but are there items that strike you as unusual?
What I found interesting in the article was the way in which certain groups within “christian” culture viewed themselves differently. Evangelicals (those who according to the article credit their salvation to grace and hold to core biblical principles in regards to the nature of God) are more likely to view themselves as having a higher knowledge of the Bible, take spiritual leadership more seriously, participate in worship regularly, etc. As one moves further out from the evangelical core, those within the particular group begin to rate themselves more lowly in regards to the “biblical” type issue, but still think they are great at relationships. I found it surprising that the people in the outer “christian” groups were so accurate and honest in their self-assesment. If you don’t take God seriously, why bother with spiritual leadership and all that other stuff. As expected, the “born again” and “notional” christians rate themselves highest in the lite areas-relationships. It’s almost a picture of the average non-reformed church.
I wonder if this article really serves to show the significance of personal misperception. If a person disregards Biblical truth, can they make a proper assessment of themselves? I find that most people rate themselves according to how their peers function or the images they see on T.V. Let’s face it, 99% of the country is “better” than the daily Jerry Springer participants. But that does not mean they are healthy, it just means they are healthier than another person. So, is this article heavily skewed due to self-perception being the basis for the statistical analysis to the point of being invalid. Or is this article simply a tool to rate the self-image of people and not a scientific example?