The idea is elegant. Sit down at your computer and bring up Google or any search engine that has an autocomplete feature. As you type a word or phrase, the search engine will predict what you are trying to type based on what other people have typed in the past. A small menu appears with suggested ways to complete your expression. This pop-up menu provides a window into public thoughts and perceptions.
When someone typed the words "Why are Christians so" into Google, this is what appeared.
These results ought to be sobering. The distinguishing characteristic of a disciple of Christ, the mark by which we are supposed to be known in the world, is love. In John 13:35, Jesus said, "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." This confirms what researcher David Kinnamon and others have been saying for a long time. Christians, especially evangelicals, have a serious image problem.
Actually, it's far worse than an image problem. Calling it an image problem suggests that (a) the public has gotten us wrong, (b) that we are actually wonderful people after all, (c) that if people really knew us, they would see how wonderful we are, and (d) the solution to this problem is to correct people's misperceptions by getting out the message of how wonderful we are. I don't buy that analysis. If large numbers of people don't feel loved by us, the primary reason is that we have failed to demonstrate Christ's love in ways that they can understand. The solution is not to change people's minds but to change the ways in which we interact with them and demonstrate love.
Someone repeated the procedure for other major religious groups and summarized the results with a Venn diagram.
In the realm of public image, Muslims and Jews don't fare much better than Christians. The adjectives applied to Muslims and Jews (in many cases, no doubt, by people who identify themselves as Christians) include a laundry list of ugly stereotypes.
I found it ironic that the only adjective applied to Buddhists was happy. The Buddhist worldview is summarized by the so-called Four Noble Truths. Noble Truth #1 is usually stated as, "To live is to suffer." The other truths explain that the root cause of suffering is human desire, and the way to escape from suffering is to purify your desires, adjust your expectations, and live wisely. In other words, Buddhism dedicates itself not to the pursuit of happiness, but to the acceptance of suffering. So why has Buddhism, in the marketplace of public opinion, become the purveyor of happiness? Why hasn't Christianity been able to do that? (After love, the next mark of a Christian, according to Galatians 5:22, is supposed to be joy.)
On a whim, I went to Google and typed, "Why are UBF members so." Nothing came up. Apparently, so few people have typed those words that the search engine was unable to make a prediction.
A few years ago, however, I sat down with a group of young people to conduct an informal focus group. All the participants were in their late teens (about 18 years old) and had grown up in UBF in various western nations. I asked them, "When you think about UBF, what adjectives come to mind?"
They could think of only one.
Before I reveal what they said, allow me to tell a
and so on. These answers reveal a great deal about how UBF leaders imagine themselves to be, but very little about how others (in this case, their own children) perceive them.
None of these UBF leaders - not a single one - was able to guess the one and only adjective that the second-gens had applied to UBF.
That adjective was ("drum roll, please"):
Korean.
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