In the 75 years since Bible Helps was founded in 1950, American society has shifted significantly in its attitude toward Christianity. In 1950, society in general viewed being a Christian favorably. Today, society sometimes views Christians with suspicion.
According to the Pew Research Center, in the 17 years between 2007 and 2024, the number of US adults who identified as Christians dropped by 16 percentage points. Today, there is a large divide between older and younger Americans. Among those ages 18-24, 46% identify as Christian, compared to 80% of those who are 74 and older. A more startling statistic is that according to the American Bible Society, 18% of Americans think that the Bible was written to control or manipulate other people.
Today, far fewer people have attended church or heard Christian teaching. Seventy-five years ago, many people believed that going to church was a good thing, even if they didn’t go. An evangelist could assume that the average person on the street understood the basics of Christianity. Today that is much less likely.
Instead, many people’s impressions of Christianity come from new reports about church leaders who abused others. Many times, people’s only knowledge of “Christian” beliefs comes from harsh political statements on social media.
At Bible Helps, we are committed to faithfully spreading the message of Jesus Christ in print and online. But that is only part of the work. We all need to personally present Christ to people around us. You might be the only real Christian that some people will ever meet.
The newsletter above accompanied the print publication of the new Bible Helps article entitled “The Pure in Heart,” which is now available online. Here are the opening paragraphs of this article:
In 2013, authorities discovered that some beef products sold in European supermarkets contained horsemeat. In some cases, the “beef” was 100% horsemeat. This sparked an outcry. Many people resented the unsuspected injection of horsemeat into their diet.
Sometimes products are not what they appear to be. This is also true of people. Sometimes what people appear to be on the outside is not what they are on the inside. And sometimes people fool themselves into thinking that as long as they appear good on the outside, it doesn’t really matter what they are on the inside. This is a scandal bigger than the horsemeat scandal.
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