30 Percent of Professed Christians Are Not Motivated to Address Racial Injustice, Barna Group Finds

(RNS) — As racial tensions have risen in recent months, a new report reveals that some Christians are becoming less motivated to act on racial justice, and an increasing share say there is “definitely” not a race problem in the country.

“Christians generally, and practicing Christians in particular, have changed their minds on addressing racial injustice, but if anything, they’re actually moving away from being motivated,” said David Kinnaman, president of Barna Group.

“It’s not a majority of Christians, but it is a segment of Christians who say they’re unmotivated or not at all motivated to address racial injustice,” he said, adding that the group has “essentially doubled” in the last year.

Thirty percent of practicing Christians — people who identify themselves as Christians, have attended worship in the past month and claim to strongly prioritize their faith — say they are not motivated to engage in matters of racial injustice (12% unmotivated, 18% not at all motivated). That’s an increase from 2019, when 17% said they were not motivated (9% unmotivated, 8% not at all motivated).

That was one of the most surprising findings of the summer study on race by Kinnaman’s California-based research firm.

“I think there was a lot of anticipation that the last three, four months might change Christians’ perspectives on some of these things,…