A new survey commissioned by the BBC finds that nearly a quarter of Christians in the UK don’t believe in the resurrection of Jesus. Which makes you wonder why the hell they call themselves Christians…

It should be noted that the same survey found that “9% of non-religious people believe in the Resurrection, 1% of whom say they believe it literally,” so there are obviously a lot of very confused people out there. But still!

A quarter of Christians don’t believe in the resurrection?! That’s a major plot point in the mythology! That’s like a quarter of Harry Potter fans saying Harry’s parents are still alive.

The results didn’t surprise one liberal Christian pastor:

Reverend Dr Lorraine Cavenagh is the acting general secretary for Modern Church, which promotes liberal Christian theology. … “You’re talking about adults here. And an adult faith requires that it be constantly questioned, constantly re-interpreted, which incidentally is very much what modern church is actually about. “Science, but also intellectual and philosophical thought has progressed. It has a trickle-down effect on just about everybody’s lives. “So to ask an adult to believe in the resurrection the way they did when they were at Sunday school simply won’t do and that’s true of much of the key elements of the Christian faith.”

The questions remain, though: If you’re willing to say the resurrection didn’t happen, at what point do all the other dominoes fall?

How many beliefs do you have to give up before the whole “Christian” label no longer makes any sense?

And will these Christians be celebrating Easter? (Why?!)

You can see the raw data right here.

(Thanks to Scott for the link)



