Jesus and the American Christian
Money
Jesus: “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. […] Sell your possessions and give to the poor” (Matthew 6.24; Luke 12.33a).
The American Christian: “The median annual giving for an American Christian is actually $200, just over half a percent of after-tax income. About 5 percent of American Christians provide 60 percent of the money churches and religious groups use to operate. […] ‘A small group of truly generous Christian givers … are essentially “covering” for the vast majority of Christians who give nothing or quite little.’”
Sex
Jesus: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5.27-28).
The American Christian: “Over half of [E]vangelical pastors admit viewing pornography last year.” “One evangelical leader was skeptical of survey findings that said 50 percent of Christian men have looked at porn recently. So he surveyed his own congregation. He found that 60 percent had done so within the past year, and 25 percent within the past 30 days.”
Divorce
Jesus: “But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery” (Matthew 5.32).
The American Christian: “[W]hen [E]vangelicals and non-[E]vangelical born again Christians are combined into an aggregate class of born again adults, their divorce figure is statistically identical to that of non-born again adults: 32% versus 33%, respectively.”
