Americans Are Leaving Religion Behind and It Scares the Hell Out of the Christian Right

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/americans-are-leaving-religion-behind-and-it-scares-hell-out-christian-right



There’s been a lot of ink spilled about the increasing political polarization in America , which is at historically high levels. There’s a lot of reasons for it, including changing demographics, women’s growing empowerment, the internet, the economy and cable news. But religion and religious belief plays an important role as well. There’s no way around it: America is quickly becoming two nations, one ruled over by fundamentalist Christians and their supporters and one that is becoming all the more secular over time, looking more and more like western Europe in its relative indifference to religion. And caught in between are a group of liberal Christians that are culturally aligned with secularists and are increasingly and dismayingly seeing the concept of “faith” aligned with a narrow and conservative political worldview.

That this polarization is happening is hard to deny, even if it’s harder to measure that political polarization. The number of Americans who cite “none” when asked about a religious identity is rising rapidly, up to nearly 20% from 15% in 2007, with a third of people under 30 identifying with no religious faith. Two-thirds of the “nones” say they believe in God, suggesting that this is more of a cultural drift towards secularism than some kind of crisis of faith across the country.

But even this may underrepresent how secular our country really is getting, as many people who say they belong to a church don’t really go to church much, if at all. While Americans like to tell pollsters they go to church regularly, in-depth research shows they are lying and many of them blow it off, putting our actual church-going rates at roughly the same level of secular Western Europe.

Even when people identify with a label like “Catholic” or “Methodist”, that doesn’t mean they consider it an important part of their identity in the way that people used to. Take, for instance, the way that weddings have quietly changed in this country. It used to be that you had a wedding in a church, and only people who were eloping got married by someone other than a minister. Now, outside of very religious circles, it’s more common to see weddings on beaches or at country clubs, and very often officiated by friends of the couple rather than clergy. Indeed, state laws are slowly beginning to change to reflect this reality, allowing more flexibility for people to have the secular weddings they increasingly desire.

[RobertEarl]

1. The churches have failed

They used to preach love and now they preach whatever fills the basket.

Many people need to be taught love and since the churches quit doing that, the country doesn't quite know what to do and the easiest thing to do is be hateful, so here we are.

[xchrom]

2. +1

[JoeyT]

5. Maybe they were preaching whatever filled the basket at first,

but way too many of the leaders have been getting high on their own supply, and fervently believe what they're spewing.

The money helps, sure. But what they're really after is power and control.

[uponit7771]

27. +1

[Arugula Latte]

29. But a big chunk always preached fire & brimstone, women made from a rib, and other bullshit.

[jlover70]

3. religion

The few wingnuts I know ....dont even go to church....the last time they went to church was during reagan administration. .. they just talk the talk

[Justice]

4. I would say organized religion - people still have faith, but don't go to services

[IronLionZion]

6. These fools think they can breed their way out

except people leave the church faster than those fundies can pop out new babies.

An inconvenient truth that team GOP likes to ignore is that some of the biggest users of assistance are these large family fundie types who depend on Medicaid, WIC, SNAP, etc. just to survive since they have so many extra mouths to feed.

[Brainstormy]

7. " in-depth research shows they are lying"

as does my own casual observation. The vast majority of my fundie friends and family members never darken the door of a church.

[Rex]

8. Funny, do they ever even watch tele-evangelists beg for money on TV?

Their own supposed kind did in their religion, by using cheap tricks to steal grandma's social security check! Of course people are disillusioned with Christianity - it has been turned into a CIRCUS by petty charlatans bent on becoming billionaires!

[brewens]

32. I never say Jesus normally. I always say something like JAYUSUS!!! In my best TV preacher accent.

When they stop buying hucksters like that private jets, I will stop making fun of them!

[Xyzse]

34. This is the problem I have though.

They capitalize on people that are feeling older, who are feeling their mortality, and generally prey on their fears. Granted, they sometimes provide comfort, and alright, it does provide comfort, as it allows them to find a sense of belonging.

It really sucks though that their means of doing so is by denigrating or excludes everyone else.

This is why I absolutely hate Pat Robertson who has misled his flock.

[smilodon populator]

9. Quaker weddings have no one to officiate.

The couple enters the Meeting room after everyone has settled into silence and takes a seat on the facing bench (where the pulpit/alter would be) After an additional period of silence - and suspense for the groom - and probably the bride - the couple stands up together and says their vows. there is an additional period of silence punctuated by occasional words - blessings, stories, wishes, prayers, whatnot, from anyone moved by the spirit. Simple, yet deeply moving.

Note that there is no "giving away" of the bride. Each one freely gives him/her self to the other.

[Lex]

10. They did it to themselves.

Who wants to listen to the divisiveness and whining from the pulpit that is so pervasive now? I went to my mother's church recently and that's what I heard. My uncle who is a pastor is always on FB with same thing. Blech.

[closeupready]

12. Responded to you in post #11 below.

[closeupready]

11. "same on FB" - yep, why I unfriended about a dozen 'friends'

It turned way too much into fundie freak show, what with god this, jesus that, pray for rainbows, etc.

EDIT: oops meant to respond to post #10, sorry. Anyway.

[Lex]

13. The "magical thinking" thing is what bothers me.

That's what it amounts to from most of them.

[Populist_Prole]

16. Hell, I'm damn near losing real life friends of 20+ years over this

Not in the big blow-up and angrily parting ways sense, but in the drifting apart sense. I'm finding anymore that unless we talk about only the hobbies or common interests we have, the conversation gets terse and argumentive...with them the ones getting ugly and nasty.

They aren't the christian right as such, but they have affected some pseudo-pious BS in being more religious as they age and gotten much much more conservative. It's one of those "you have to be there" things: If I had to analyze it clinically as possible, I'd conclude they're using as religion as both a way to hide or sanitize the fact they've become racist reactionary gun nuts.

[Xyzse]

35. I am looking at your second paragraph.

That though I can agree, it feels like the second part is a symptom of the group that they become indoctrinated to.

In my prior post, I mentioned how the leaders of the Christian Right capitalizes on the feeling of mortality and wanting a sense of belonging of people as they get older.

I don't think they became "religious" to hide or sanitize that they've become racist reactionary gun nuts, rather the religion and the right's method of excluding various people and behaviors have made them racist reactionary gun nuts, since the fears that they have, has become a more dominant part of their personality, and it is those that lead them to that path.

I mean, I consider the Republican party as a cult now. At some point or another, they were at least a little bit more reasonable. Their leadership got co-opted by crazies that play with their fears, and Fox news is their church service. The more they watch it, the angrier they get with the world, and they get let to believe worse and worse things.

[Zorra]

14. The hate driven conservative RW churches are driving people away from religion in droves.

Anyone with a conscience takes one look at those groups and goes "eeeeeeeewww, I don't want to be associated in any way with that group of bigoted sickos".

[2banon]

15. I only WISH the analysis is True..

Religion is at the root of all .. evil.

[jwirr]

17. I am delighted that they are scared - they are the reason many are leaving religion behind. They

have been preaching hate and division for 30+ years now. They deserve to fall.

[Hugabear]

18. No coincidence they're pushing for more religious control of government

If they can't get people to voluntarily abide by their rigged morality, they'll try to use government to FORCE them to do so

[closeupready]

23. Yes, just like - historically - ALL organized religions have done.

With predictably horrific and blood-drenched results.

[L0oniX]

19. "liberal Christian" here.

[gratuitous]

20. Here, too

It depends on what's being referred to under the rubric of "religion." It has been my experience that authoritarian congregations, the top-down model, is losing some of its steam. Congregations that adopt a more communitarian approach, seeking answers and practical implementation of principles for their members, seem to be holding their own.

[L0oniX]

21. Law and Grace do not mix IMO.

[hamsterjill]

24. Another one here!

I find it harder and harder to "fit" anywhere these days.

Some days I get completely disgusted even with DU because of the rude comments made about Christians as a whole. I realize that the comments are true about many Christians, but they are not true about all of us. I believe that all people have the right to believe or not believe as they see fit. I wish the same respect were paid to US by others here.

I cannot imagine my own life without having a belief in a higher power. I don't believe that everyone else has to have that same belief at all, but especially they do not have to have it in order for us to be friends, to be civil, and to exchange in words and ideas.

[haele]

22. Problem for churches is that too many of then push a God between the Ears rather than

one that is capable of dealing with an entire universe of creation (and destruction). These "evangelicals" or "fundimentalists" push a "God" that is convenient, which can appeal to people who are too stressed and frightened to think much beyond their own circumstances, but somehow is unable to deal with the world outside the immediate group.
When people aren't in a defensive mode or have not traded a substance addiction that allowed them to avoid responsibility or pain for a religious addiction, that "God" is obviously not up to the task of being a Creator - so that church, that religious conceit is shown to be the scam that the heads of these churches or spiritual centers have created for self-aggrandization or their own profit.

When someone preaches isolation, and rejection of the world as it is rather than encouraging an exploration of what it means to be part of creation as a whole, then you have a someone setting themselves up to be God and their congregation's personal saviour.

Which I personally view would be considered the ultimate arrogance, blasphemy and sin to any Creator God(s). Wouldn't want to be that idiot when they actually had to face their creator and explain why they thought they had the right to f'*** everything up in their pride, fear, and greed.

Just my two cents.

Haele

[GOLGO 13]

25. I'm a CINO...

Catholic In Name Only.

Whenever I meet new people and the "Jezuz" talk comes out I'm already crossing their names off my possible friends list. At this point it's an automatic response for me.

I'm more likely to keep the kids away from associating with those people as well. However, the conservative Muslims that live next door to me have babysat my daughter many, many times.

[Initech]

26. Anything that pisses off the religious right is definitely a good thing.

[Wounded Bear]

28. This about covers it...

for me.

[conservaphobe]

30. My Christian parents have come to realize this.

After seeing some of the people they've known for years exhibit more hatred for the President and the poor these past few years.

[woodsprite]

31. Truthfully, I don't need a brick building to believe what I believe.

I go because I have friends there. It gives us a different circle of friends - singing friends, family, work friends, and church friends (which is where many of our IRL political friends come from). The fact that its a liberal Presbyterian church whose mission is service to others is another reason I stay. With everything the way it is today, I am increasingly put off by the hypocrisy of most factions of organized religion. Thankfully our church and it's members continue to seem sane, well grounded in reality and share very similar, if not identical, political beliefs as we do.

I believe in a higher power, a "spark" that jumpstarts our lives -- especially since we're energy based. I can't imagine looking at the complexities of the human body or of the natural world and NOT believing in a higher power. I've believed that since I could talk (at least that's what I'm told) and it used to piss our fundy neighbors off because I didn't necessarily acknowledge that entity as GOD. I actually put that belief in my faith statement when I joined my church. I believe that different religions call the higher power different things and who am I to say that my idea of "God" isn't the same higher power that someone else knows by another name.

[PM Martin]

33. Why does one have to go a fixed location to get advice on how to exist?

[HockeyMom]

36. Take it from a former Catholic School Teenage Girl

they cannot MAKE you believe it. I know others on DU with agree with that.

[Arugula Latte]

37. And today it is sooo easy to compare notes in cyberspace.

People are no longer confined to their own little village/church bubbles where everybody believes the same thing and reinforces the belief in that bubble's particular brand of nonsensical mythology.

The Emperor has no clothes.