UnChristian by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons (Criticisms and Final Thoughts)

Criticisms:

I don't have much to say negatively about the book, but I'll start with a few points I considered negative before moving on to the positives.

Negative:

1. Positives in the Present?
   While Kinnaman is quite optimistic about the future of the "Christian Brand" there seems to be little said about what might be perceived as good about Christians currently. I understand that his goal is to prick the hearts of the readers and point out the areas where we can improve, but he doesn't say if the lack of information is purposeful or if it was simply not part of the survey or if no positives good be found. This sort of slant is clearly intentional, but it causes me to ask, "Is there anything that we are doing right?"
2. Repetitive advice:
   As Kinnaman proceeds through the data, he offers suggestions for how we might alter the perceptions of Christians, but very little of the advice is specific or applicable. Most of it is in the form of the same generic aphorisms that have landed Christians in a place of such stagnation that we are becoming irrelevant culturally. He scorns the old adage "hate the sin, love the sinner," but most of his advice boils down to just that (especially in sections concerning the Anti-homosexual and judgemental perceptions).
   While there are some useful pieces of advice (including how we might exemplify the transparency necessary to undo the Hypocritical perception, by first being more transparent with each other within the church) they seem to be the exception to the rather generalized norm.
3. Use of Scripture:
   This actually is two criticisms. First, the use of scriptural basis for Kinnaman's theories on progress is lacking much of the time. The other complaint is that the few references there are in the work are all rendered in the Message (which is a paraphrase rather than a translation, which makes the rendering of true meaning in the verses a somewhat difficult matter). The lack of Scripture can often lead to the generalized/thematic view of Christianity and the Bible, which often leads to the aphorism ridden view that boils down Christianity to something other than the incredibly complex, life changing, soul saving truth that it is.
   There is a silver lining here. This book does avoid a major pitfall of many works in this genre. One that causes me much heartache when I read it, I call it, "Sound bite Christianity." Basically it is when a writer (or speaker) uses countless one and two verse scripture references to show that the Bible supports their argument. This is a problem for a few reasons. The primary issue is that such small clippings from scripture ignore the unique context, authorships and audiences of the various books that compose the Bible. An additional complication is that it can reveal a lack of confidence in the authority of scripture with what amounts to an argument of, "Look how many times it says it," which could further devolve into the "Well it talks about this issue 7 times and this issue 10 times, so the 10 is clearly more important," argument that is prominent in some circles trying to down play the importance of certain passages.
4. Baptism:
   The classifications for the Born-again Christians in clude a subculture of the Evangelicals, who are those who hold to the include the following 7 things:
   saying that their faith is very important in their life today
   Believing they have a personal responsibility to share their religious beliefs about Christ with non-Christians
   Believing that Satan Exists
   Believing that eternal salvation is possible only through grace, not works
   believing that Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth
   Asserting that the Bible is accurate in all that it teaches
   Describing God as the all-knowing, all-powerful, perfect deity who created the universe and still rules it today
   
   I am bothered, as I am with many books of this sort, with the aversion to the mention of baptism. I will be the first to note that since their survey focuses on those who do not associate themselves with Christianity in anyway, but neglecting the necessity of baptism is becoming an all to common pattern in works addressed to Christian audiences.

Positive:

1. Insightful
   This survey is broadly sweeping (including the surveying of roughly 10,000 people by various means). Kinnaman does an excellent job of taking this information from the level of a statistician and researcher and explaining it to those of us who didn't pay that much attention in statistics class. Further more he doesn't just tell us what the numbers say, but what they mean for us on a grander scale. Kinnaman leaves no doubt as to why we should care about each of these 6 perspectives brought to us by the data.
2. Voices:
   Though Kinnaman is the primary guide through the data. There are two other noteworthy groups that add to the commentary. The first group, found at the end of each chapter, is composed of prominent Christians (authors and the like) and their reflections on each individual perception. It is interesting to hear from other Christians about what their perspective is on the implications of this information. The second group's voices may be the the most poignant for us, they are the outsiders themselves. In their entries we find tales of hurt; we hear the anger of the mistreated; we can see the sorrow of an unloved generation. Their statements do the most to show us what the cost of our indifference to these perceptions can be.
3. Anecdotes:
   Normally the, "I was having lunch with a friend," or "I was talking to an unchurched person the other day," anecdotes wear thin on me in Christian works, but their use in this book is different. You see they aren't the point, they support it. The data is the point. The voices of thousands are the focus, the stories and quotes merely stand to give us an idea of how an individual might express this data on the street.
4. Stood Strong:
   Too often these books are, "What are Christians doing wrong and how can we change?" and while unChristian is that it does one thing that most works don't. It doesn't try to guilt you out of your adherence to socially inconvenient scriptures, it tries to help us cut away everything we have added on to scripture.
   Dick Staub, in his book The Culturally Savvy Christian, says that there are three ways that many Christians choose to encounter society and each is equally flawed. They are that we cocoon (shelter ourselves from all of non-Christian culture, thus making us irrelevant), we combat (attack everything that doesn't line up with what we believe, thus alienating the society we wish to change), and we conform (hide all of our Christian traits that are different from society, thus rendering us impotent to change anything). Most Christian authors agree that cocooning and combating are not the proper options. However, many authors, though they grant lip service to the dangers of conforming, seem much more comfortable with conformity than standing out because we stand for something. UnChristian recognizes that some things cannot be changed, because to change would be to compromise those very things that God intended to set us apart.
   

Final Thoughts:

I found the book a bit slow at points. This is partly because I am not necessarily, it's target audience, but Kinnaman is not an author by trade. He is a researcher, and he is sometimes given to repetitiveness. Be prepared for a bit of, "Didn't he already say that?" as you read.

Overall, I found this book challenging, heartbreaking, and inspiring. Having grown up outside of the "Christian Bubble" I can't say that any of the perceptions were surprising to me, but it was a reminder to me that at a place like Harding, we can easily lose a sense of how to be real and applicable to those who don't share our beliefs.

As I've said before I don't aside a numeric value in my reviews, because each work is uniquely good and bad and can't be truly placed on equal enough footing to be numerically compared to another.

That said, I do endorse this book. Read it, talk about it, and honestly try to understand what this data means for your life among the outsiders, because that is where we are called. Regardless of location, or vocation, we aren't called to cloister together and play some sort of spiritual hide and seek with those who still need the blessing of Christ in their lives. We are called to go among them, influence them, care for them, help them as best we can, and above all... in all we do avoid those unChristian behaviors that can be devastating to those who have yet to build a relationship with Jesus.

As with all of these reviews I'd greatly appreciate your feedback.

ti voglio bene

-matt