Phase 4

"Combating Christian Stereotypes; or, How to Turn the Titanic Around." www.staypcusa.com
http://staypcusa.com/2012/07/27/combating-christian-stereotypes-or-how-to-turn-the-titanic-around/

My source is credible due to the fact that the individual has entered the home stretch in obtaining their Master's of comparative religion degree and therefore has sufficient knowledge for the topic on which they are addressing.

My source addressed her specifically non-Christian friends, in an effort to see the ways in which non-Christians view Christians, and asked them to give some characteristics of Christians that they thought could use improving. This lead to some very interesting, yet saddening, results which I argue will be very beneficial for my blog.

My source, Jodi Craiglow, sought to identify with her non-Christian friends just what the reasons were for their dislike towards Christians. Upon gathering the results from her non-Christian friends Craiglow seeks to find a solution to these views of Christians. She does so first by Drawing upon history and mentioning the beginning of a still present stereotype of Christians today, which views Christians as power hungry. While not all Christian stereotypes involve the facet of power, the Christian of today has  lost the meaning of being a Christ follower, according to Craiglow, which leads to the modern Christian  stereotypes. To rid our community of Christians of stereotypes, Craiglow offers that we must go back to truly seeing, and caring for, the person behind the non-Christian title; not merely as an individual to win over to "our side".

Phase 3

Source 1. "Former Atheist Aims to Reverse Negative Christian Stereotypes." www.christianpost.com. http://www.christianpost.com/news/former-atheist-aims-to-reverse-negative-christian-stereotypes-48249/.

Source 2. "Religion and Politics in the United States: Nuances You Should Know." www.publiceye.org. http://www.publiceye.org/magazine/v17n2/evangelical-demographics.html. 

For my first source, the credibility comes from the fact that the source is a website dedicated to bringing world news to any reader interested in gaining international news from a nonjudgmental, Christian perspective. In regards to why this article is a good fit for my topic: I will be using the relative statistics from the article, as well as gaining further information on what Christian stereotypes exist. I trust that this article will be useful for developing my blog topic. 

My second source is perceived as being credible upon becoming aware of the fact that the website is focused on exhorting the democratic society of the United States with researched information. This article is applicable to my blog topic as it will aid in the furthering of my knowledge of the different ways in which the Western world views Christians. The views this article expresses on Christians is just one of many which must be addressed if the Christian stereotypes are to be eliminated.

Stereotypes of the Christian in the United States

My topic for this blog sequence will be Christian stereotypes in the United States. My reason for picking this topic is with the hope that upon further educating myself on the subject I will be better prepared to address the issue with non-believers, therefore becoming a better witness for Christ. As I have spoken to many non-believers about the issue at hand I know many stereotypes exist, but as far as the reasons behind these stereotypes or how to address these stereotypes, I know very little. In regards to what I hope to learn about this topic: I genuinely hope to learn about as many stereotypes as I can while also learning how to better address these stereotypes when engaging in discourse with non-believers. As I am blogging on Christian stereotypes I would consider the ideal audience for my blog to be other Christians who also hope to bring these stereotypes to light with non-believers, with the hopes that once addressed, these stereotypes will cease to exist in the mind of the non-believer.