Orcinus had an interesting analysis of a new study by the Barna group, an Evangelical research group.

The picture is stark:

Basically, it shows that Christians in general, and Evangelicals in particular, are losing the youth in a very profound way.

Here, I think is the money quote:

Roughly a quarter of both the Christians and non-Christians in the under-30 group also mentioned — without being prompted — that “Christianity has changed from what it used to be,” and that it “no longer looks like Jesus.” Their sheer frustration level over how far the modern Christianity had deviated from its roots took Kinnaman by surprise:

In our interviews, we kept encountering young people – both those inside the church and outside of it – who said that something was broken in the present-day expression of Christianity. Their perceptions about Christianity were not always accurate, but what surprised me was not only the severity of their frustration with Christians, but also how frequently young born again Christians expressed some of the very same comments as young non-Christians.”

(emphasis mine)
Basically, the public face of Christianity, and by that I mean the Fallwells, Robertsons, etc. who have the shows and get the face time with politicians, have alienated the youth with their hate.

I don’t understand the finer points of Christianity, but I do understand how the pursuit of secular power corrupts religion. One only has to look at Iran to see that.

To the Christians reading this, you need to figure a way to convince people that the current public face of Christianity are not the preachers of hate that seem to appear on every talk show, and who dominate the religious air waves.