From Gay Christian Movement Watch:
Does the headline seem exaggerated to you? Well, its not. From Charisma Magazine:
A few weeks ago the Barna Group released a report on the spiritual shift that’s occurred among Hispanic Americans in the last 15 years. This week the focus turned to African-Americans, who remain the most faith-oriented ethnic group in the United States.
In response to nine statements regarding various faith fundamentals, blacks scored the highest among the four predominant groups in all but one—which was also the lone question for which they answered similarly to the national average. A whopping 85 percent—22 percent higher than white respondents—stated that the single most important purpose in life is to “love God with all your heart, mind, strength and soul.”
African-Americans were the leading group to believe in the Bible’s inerrancy, with 66 percent agreeing that it is completely accurate in all its teaching (20 percent higher than whites). Despite this, however, blacks also led the way in claiming that Jesus sinned while on earth (54 percent) and that Satan is merely a symbol of evil (46 percent).
When compared to the three other ethnic groups—whites, Hispanics and Asians—blacks proved to be the most likely to engage in church-related activities during the week, including praying and reading the Bible. And according to the Barna study, they are even more spiritually minded today than they were 15 years ago, with most of the spiritual measures the research group uses having increased significantly.
“While the beliefs and behaviors of America’s white population have changed little since the early 1990s, the new research underscored that the faith of African-Americans is dynamic, generally moving in a direction that is more aligned with conservative biblical teachings,” the report stated.
Serious problems
1. This is a stunning contradiction of positions. First, the report says that AA’s are the leading ethnic group to believe in the inerrancy of the Bible, yet 54% of those believe Jesus sinned on earth and satan is just a “symbol of evil”? How is that reconciled in any biblical manner? That’s rank confusion but perhaps explains why the so-called black church is a sinking into a quagmire of sin and ignorance. Both issues are cornerstone fundamentals of our faith.
2. Jesus never sinned. If he had, the totality of our faith is completely bogus. Of course,we know that not to be true based on Mt 27:4 (Judas), Mt 27:19 (Pilate’s wife), Mt 27:54 (theif on the cross), 2 Cor 5:21, 1 John 3:5, Heb 4:15 and in many more places. This reveals a serious deficiency in teaching and training in doctrine and faith which produces mature disciples. You cant learn that running after prosperity teachings, emergent church mess and gay theology! In fact, we need to go back and re-incorporate catechism training in the church. We’ve mastered all the tongue talking, shouting, dancing and dressing to the nines, but this report exposes a deep ignorance in the black church. And such leads to destruction (Hosea 4:6).
3. Satan is not just a symbol of evil. Actually, this is one of the strategies of satan is to cause people to believe something about himself that is not true. I wont go into here, but we have completely exposed satan by revealing his birth certificate and origins, tactics and judgment. Read here and here.
Its difficult to believe that these people in the Barna survey are true Christians harboring erronerous beliefs like this. Barna has exposed the real problem and from it stems all others.
