Is the Religious Right to Blame for Christianity's Decline?

[Willie Pep]

Last edited Sun Jul 2, 2017, 05:42 PM - Edit history (1)

June 5, 2017

Is the Religious Right to Blame for Christianity’s Decline?

The movement is one of the most dramatic failures in American political history.

By George Hawley

No one will be surprised to learn that religious beliefs, affiliations, and activities are important predictors of political attitudes and actions. This is one of the more well-studied subjects in the field of political behavior. Most of the literature examining this relationship, however, assumed a causal arrow that points in only one direction: religion influences politics. The stack of books and papers considering whether trends in politics influence trends in religion is much shorter. This is starting to change, and the results of this research increasingly suggests that the Religious Right played at least some role in America’s declining religiosity.

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Full article: http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/is-the-religious-right-to-blame-for-christianitys-decline/

[onecaliberal]

1. Yes. They're a cult and they're brainwashing people. They say they are Christians

But their actions tell a whole different story.

[SouthernIrish]

4. I agree

I believe it was Gandhi that said " I like your Christ. I don't much like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ". I have always found that to be the case of people that proclaim to be so self-righteous.

[onecaliberal]

5. Ive always thought that people should be able to see Christ in you through your actions.

"If you were on trial for being Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict"?

[Warpy]

2. They're the main reason "Christian" is a near pejorative in some circles

especially among younger people. They're seen as narrow, nasty, humorless, censorious, prideful, and avaricious and with no positive traits to balance all that.

The politicization of Christianity is definitely a contributor to its decline.

It's rather a shame it has come to this sorry state.

[northoftheborder]

7. totally agree

[notawinger]

3. Today's Christians

Are creating tomorrow's atheists

[Break time]

6. They have not

Done anything to change my mind at all, they have in fact proven what I have thought all along...

[angstlessk]

9. Interesting to know what you've 'thought all along'

You believed all along they were hucksters?

[msongs]

8. myth and superstition from the age of ignorance needs to be forgotten nt

[Buddha2B]

10. Please know this, the damage is not limited to the US

I'm Australian. The US religious right and their activities during the Bush year are 99% of the reason I am not a Christian now and never will be again.

In the era of the internet, their hatred and vileness is spread throughout the world.

[standingtall]

11. yes

I'm a Christian and will remain one for my entire life. I detest the religious right. However I love the Lord Jesus Christ more than I dislike them. So I would not abandoned my faith just,because there are those that make a mockery of it.


Should be shouted from the roof tops everyday that the pledge of allegiance was written by the socialist preacher Francis Bellamy whenever the try and tell or imply that someone has to be a republican to be a Christian.

[Ba52]

12. "Decline" is a tough category for any social reality

Liberal Christian churches have been losing members in much greater numbers for various reasons. Conservatives Christianity grows, especially in the Southern Hemisphere, but the narrative that liberals can tell is more honest and less manipulative. Liberals owe it their faith to tell the better story and expose a fraudulent one. People who live without faith would at least respect us more if we could tell a narrative about the world that's so close to the new humanity in Jesus that we all might for a minute forget about who's winning by random standard of decline and ascension and enjoy the process of having something that we can trust will only lose if people refuse to appreciate how much more compelling it is to follow Jesus than to love eternal life more than God.

[summer_in_TX]

13. Love is attractive and hate repulsive

At least to those who don't seek legitimization of their own prejudice and fear.

And the Christian Right's frequent highly-publicized displays of bigotry, narrow-mindedness, along with misrepresenting Jesus as someone who would ignore the poor, stand with the unjust and the oppressors is driving people away in droves, except those whose tribalism and bigotry has blinded them to what the Bible actually says.

Heck, a couple of my closes friends who have both been lifelong, devoted Christians find the fact that the evangelical right casted a high percentage of votes for Trump so appalling that it has shaken their faith.