Lifeway Wants to Know--"What Politico-Cultural Icons are Christians?" by Peter Lumpkins

Suppose I asked, “Which, if any, of the following people do you believe are Christians?” and listed five people:

• Barack Obama
• Glenn Beck
• Sarah Palin
• Oprah Winfrey
• George W. Bush

Do you think a poll like this offers substantial information which assists us with the Great Commission?  Or, could the negativity toward the inquirers (Lifeway affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention) outweigh any potential assistance the feedback could offer? Well Lifeway Research answered "yes" to the first question and "no" to the second.

Not with an added benefit of a free pass, however. 

For example, consider New Mexico pastor, Howell Scott, in his lively critique of Lifeway's "asinine survey." 

He queries: 

How is a one-question survey like this helpful, either within the church or in our culture in general?  How does Lifeway, an entity of the Southern Baptist Convention, think this survey, which asks pastors to judge the personal faith of these five people – anything other than politics cloaked in the veil of religiosity?  Who exactly is supposed to use the nifty Power Point presentation that is available for download?  Is it intended for pastors and churches to integrate into their worship during the elections of 2012?... Did no one at Lifeway Research or in the main offices of Lifeway...stop to think about how this survey...would be perceived by not just Southern Baptists but, by the general population?  Are the people in Nashville so clueless when it comes to the politics of this?

Scott concludes by taking comfort in the fact no CP funds were wasted on "unhelpful" research.  Granted.  However, such comfort easily vanishes when one thinks of the negative feedback sure to come as a result of this hopelessly irrelevant survey.  

And here I thought culture-watchers like Ed Stetzer were profoundly concerned that Southern Baptists were viewed so negatively already within the culture at large.  Indeed Thom Rainer himself laments the negativity people have toward Southern Baptists.  In January of this year I wrote:

...in April, 2009, Dr. Thom Rainer, President of Lifeway twittered the question, "What do you think when you hear ‘Southern Baptist’?” ((//link).  According to his report, "the results were fascinating, if not a bit troubling," results being 60% negative views of Southern Baptists. Some of the responses included, Legalism, Controlling, Fights, Pharisees, Don’t drink, Fundamentalism, Bickering, Suits and dresses, Old school, Not real, Behind the times, Extreme conservatism, Crazy people, Restricted missionaries, and being Inefficient

How does a poll question implying Protestant pastors, generally speaking, are the only reliable judges when it comes to evaluating true spirituality--not to mention "judging" whether a person is a "real" Christian or not--fare in the public square at large?  Does it make Southern Baptists look better in the public's eye?  Or, does such a poll lend itself to images of "Pharisees," "Fundamentalism," "Old School," "Not real," "Extreme Conservatism," etc.?

It must further be asked if Lifeway made a mistake by getting into the research marketeering business at all; or, put another way, would it have been better use of funds to farm out the research needed to reputable, independent polling firms?  

Just asking.

With that, I am...

Peter

Read Howell Scott's entire critique here

Comments

[Rick]

"It must further be asked if Lifeway made a mistake by getting into the research marketeering business..."

Yes, indeed they did, and the evidence is mounting:

(1) The "Breakout Churches" research a few years ago found startlingly few (13 out of 50,000) churches to be effective. Not only is that too small a number from which to draw meaningful conclusions, but the "good" churches are clustered in certain locations and have predictable demographics in common. From this quantitative analysis they switched to qualitative analysis looking at subjective matters and connecting dots in a manner that can best be described as "creative speculation" rather than "rigorous research."

(2) Barna's research totally contradicts Lifeway with regard to Calvinism.

(3) We are now officially speculating on which public personalities are saved and which are lost. I think Lady Gaga is lost. I'm pretty sure Tim Tebow is saved. I'm terribly confused at this point about Mel Gibson. However, as Howell points out clearly, only God truly knows, making this exercise pointless and futile.

While the GCR encourages Baptists to consider eliminating so-called "bloated bureaucracies" from our CP ministries, why not pull the plug on this research arm? Just because it's not CP does not mean that Baptist dollars are not being used to prop it up. We should be good stewards of non-CP resources as well.

[Chris Gilliam]

Evidenlty our focus is in the wrong place. What a catastrophic waste with residual results to follow.

[Job]

Methinks Howell Scott doth protest too much. By the way, I say that a poll like this is useful to the pastors who wish to DISSUADE their congregations from viewing faith to a political lens. It would make an excellent sermon point. For example: "75% of pastors state that George W. Bush is a Christian despite Bush's multiple public declarations in support of religious pluralism and in opposition to inerrancy. If you ask me, this says more about the faith of 75% of our pastors than it does about the faith of George W. Bush!" Or something along those lines. Information gathering is not the problem. Instead, the problem is the motive for gathering the information, and how information is used once it is gathered. And by the way, Christians should not be overly concerned with "our image." The Bible tells us that we will be despised and rejected just as was our Master and Lord Jesus Christ. Instead, we should be concerned with our private and public adherence to the Bible. Anyone who is concerned about our "image problems" need to go read the narrative of Stephen's getting stoned to death for the gospel in Acts for a reality check. And yes, I do include Stetzer and Rainer among those who need to go check their scriptures again, and I will add Howell Scott in too.