Home Outreach Leaders Articles for Outreach & Missions 9 Lies the Media Spreads about Christians

9 Lies the Media Spreads about Christians

Lie 5. Evangelicals are mostly concerned about outlawing abortion, having limited government, getting prayer back in schools, standing against gay rights, gun control and evolution being taught in the public schools.

While some evangelicals believe all of these things, many do not. And among those who would agree in principal with the ideas, they are not priorities. On the contrary, many evangelicals are supremely concerned with the environment and the plight of the poor.

Lie 6. Evangelicals are warmongers.

Some evangelicals support war in certain cases, others do not. In fact, many evangelicals are vocally opposed to it.

Lie 7. Evangelicals are hypocrites.

The original meaning of the word hypocrite is someone who pretends or puts on a show. Thus, a person who speaks out against the use of handguns but owns and uses handguns himself would fit the definition.

Hypocrisy doesn’t mean imperfection or the inability to make mistakes. All Christians are imperfect, and all have made mistakes in their lives. The rare exception being Jesus of Nazareth.

So while hypocrisy is present in the evangelical community, it’s also present in every people-group and movement on the planet.

Lie 8. Evangelicals hate President Biden.

It’s unthinkable that a genuine Christian would hate anyone. “Hateful Christian” is an oxymoron.

Nevertheless, many evangelicals love President Biden yet disagree with many of his policies. Other evangelicals support and affirm many of his policies. If an evangelical Christian hates anyone, they are violating one of the central commands of the Bible—something in which all evangelicals claim to believe.

Lie 9. Evangelicals set homosexuality above every other kind of sin.

Some certainly do, unfortunately. But many view it as no greater a sin than gossip, slander, outbursts of anger and lying (pointing to Paul’s “works of the flesh” lists where he puts slander and outbursts of anger on the same par as gross sexual sins).

And as previously stated, some evangelicals do not believe homosexuality is a sin. (That’s another conversation for another time.)

So don’t be swept away by these lies, even though someone with a bigger megaphone than yours happens to be heralding them.

Looking for More? My book, Beyond Evangelical, was written to and for evangelical Christians. It discusses the changing shape of evangelical Christianity and provides evidence that there is a growing trend among Christians who do not fit the Progressive Left or the Christian Right. These are evangelicals who have moved beyond the traditional ideological categories on either side.