Not only do regular churchgoers believe key Christian tenets, so do most unchurched Americans. Businesses had better understand and respect the findings of a recent Rasmussen Reports survey or risk alienating around 80% of their customer base.
Here are key findings from the Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey:
- 88% of Americans believe Jesus Christ actually walked the earth 2000 years ago. 5% disagree and 7% are unsure. This fact is not in dispute, of course, but it is worth noting the vast majority who believe it.
- 82% believe Jesus was the son of God who came to Earth to die for our sins.
- 79% believe the central claim of the Christian faith, that Jesus rose from the dead.
More surprising to many is that those same beliefs are also held by a majority of people who “rarely or never attend church.” 72% of them believe Jesus walked the Earth, 58% think he was the son of God, and 50% believe he rose from the dead.
This data strongly contradicts the Newsweek cover story last week that predicted the end of Christian America and illustrates a point we make in our book, Faith-Based Marketing. The mainstream media portray Christians as kooks and business people as crooks. Therefore, businesses cannot rely on mainstream media to properly represent Christian beliefs in this country because either the media don’t know enough about to topic to get the story right or, as may be the case with the Newsweek article, they have an agenda and are writing from their hopes rather than facts.
Either way, trusting the mainstream media for information about Christian beliefs in this country will cause business to make embarrassing mistakes and miss gigantic opportunities. Better to talk with local pastors, seek counsel from experts, or read a book like ours. GS
