Oprah? Beck? Palin? - Christian or not?

[evolution8]

Oprah? Beck? Palin? - Christian or not?
Russ Jones - OneNewsNow - 12/13/2010 4:05:00 AM
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Church/Defaul ... id=1251202


A new survey reveals what Protestant pastors perceive about the Christian beliefs of five popular personalities in U.S. culture.

Oprah Winfrey and former President George W. Bush, along with Glenn Beck, Barack Obama, and Sarah Palin, comprise the list that LifeWay Research presented to Protestant pastors with the question: "Which, if any, of the following people do you believe are Christians?"

Scott McConnell, director of LifeWay Research, says the five personalities listed in the poll have a significant platform to speak into culture, so Christians need to know what principles guide their ideas.

"Just 19 percent of Protestant pastors believe Oprah Winfrey is a Christian, and even though [she] has had quite an impact on American spirituality and conversations about spiritual things, pastors pretty clearly indicate that they don't believe she's speaking from a Christian perspective," McConnell reports.

Among the politicians on the list, Bush earned the highest affirmative response with 75 percent of pastors' support. He was followed by Palin, leaving Obama a distant third.

"We will recognize others by their fruit, and so there is a level of discernment that we are to have as believers," the LifeWay Research director decides. "As we look to our pastors for leadership in that area, their perspectives on some of these voices in our culture can be very revealing."

The ages of the pastors also reveal differing opinions, as 46 percent of pastors 55 and older are most likely to believe Winfrey is a Christian, compared to only 30 percent under the age of 55 who reach that same conclusion.

The survey further shows that a pastor's political persuasion is reflective of his answers. Liberal mainline pastors, for example, are more inclined to consider Obama a Christian.