American Values

The 10 Commandments in American Culture

/ Dennis Griffith / 1 Comment

While reading through The Art of Pastoring: Ministry Without All the Answers, by David Hansen, (a book recently recommended to me that I find myself wishing I had read years ago,) I came across this convicting assessment of American culture – an indictment that sadly is also widely applicable to a wide swath of American Evangelicalism:

“The majority of Americans will tell any pollster that they believe in the Ten Commandments. But only a small percentage of those people could even recite the Ten Commandment; and even a smaller percentage have any genuine interest in following them.”

Ouch!

Good News From the Front in the War on Christmas

/ Dennis Griffith / Leave a comment

War on Christmas

With all the War on Christmas rhetoric that has seemingly spewed these past few years, LifeWay Research has some good news from the front lines.  While I am not certain any full fledged war has actually existed, it seems there have certainly been a variety of insurgences erupting.  Such things have probably almost always existed but, as the culture wars rage, reporting of instances opposing Christmas – some quite ludicrous – seemed more numerous than ever.  But now a recent study offers some calm.

LifeWay Research data now shows that most Americans favor more traditional expressions of Christmas, and want more emphasis on Jesus during this season of the year. In fact, even most of those with no faith affiliations, dubbed by some as the “Nones”, say they have no problems with expressions celebrating Christ.

Over on his blog at Christianity Today, The Exchange, Ed Stetzer analyzes the research data, and provides a link to the downloadable research report.  Click: Americans Want to Keep Christ in Christmas.