Why don't Christians live what they preach?

Alan Wolfe, famous contemporary scholar and director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life, has just published a penetrating study of American religious life. Evangelicals figure prominently in his book.

Here is his evaluation:

This is roughly the situation of Western or at least American evangelicalism today.

In spite of the Christian movement's proud claims to miraculous transformation, recent polls have showed that members of the christian evangelical movement divorced their spouses just as often as their secular neighbors. They beat their wives as often as their neighbors. They were almost as materialistic and even more racist than their pagan friends.

Scandalous behavior is rapidly destroying American Christianity. By their daily activity, most 'Christians' regularly commit treason. With their mouths they claim that Jesus is Lord, but with their actions they demonstrate allegiance to money, sex, and self-fulfillment.

The findings in numerous national polls conducted by highly respected pollsters like The Gallup Organization and The Barna Group are simply shocking. 'Gallup and Barna,' laments evangelical theologian Michael Horton, 'hand us survey after survey demonstrating that evangelical Christians are as likely to embrace lifestyles every bit as hedonistic, materialistic, self-centered, and sexually immoral as the world in general.

Divorce is more common among 'born-again' Christians than in the general American population.

Only 6 percent of evangelicals tithe.

White evangelicals are the most likely people to object to neighbors of another race.

Sexual promiscuity of evangelical youth is only a little less outrageous than that of their nonevangelical peers.