The book that I am currently working through that I got from The Ooze Viral Bloggers is called “The Seven Faith Tribes” by George Barna. I am about half way through it. I believe this is the first book I have read by George Barna and so far I am having a difficult time with it. Maybe it’s because I have been pretty busy and so much of the reading is broken up into pieces. In the book Barna lays out 7 faith tribes that make up America. The 7 tribes are Captive Christians, Casual Christians, Mormons, American Jews, Muslims, Spiritual Skeptics and Pantheists. In each chapter he spells out what these tribes believe, think, and feel in regards to politics, religion, the Bible, and various other issues.

I think one of the issues that I have with this is that he paints with a very broad stroke. For instance, he says that 4 out of 5 Americans consider themselves Christian (which boils down to 80% of the population). He then spells out what these 150 million people believe, how they act, and what they think. I realize that this is the limitation of such work. Anytime you do a survey of American Religion, thought, and life you will have to use a broad stroke, but I was hoping to find something more in this work.

Now I am not saying that I didn’t find anything helpful…..Here are some thoughts that I have agreed with or been challenged by:

“The future of America depends more upon the compassionate engagement with society by devoted Christians than upon their persistent insistence of their moral supremacy.”

“Sadly, Christians in America are not seen as loving, but we currently have a window of opportunity to demonstrate our love in the midst of hard times, confusion, and cultural chaos facing the nation.”

“Increasingly, we demand that the world embrace the worldview we possess or we respond in hostile ways: public criticism, nasty blogs, and text messages, lawsuits, angry letters to public officials or professional associations, confrontational letters to the editor, damage to property, or other means of retaliation.”

“Another paradox is that although they (Pantheist) view poverty as one of the most significant issues facing the country today, they have no personal interest in getting involved with the poor or with programs designed to address poverty.”

“Their (Muslims) identity is spiritual more than nationalistic.”

As I am only half way through the book, I will share some more later about how Barna sees these 7 faith tribes coming together to, what he calls, “restore our country to greatness.”