Americans becoming less Christian as over a quarter follow no religion

[left-of-center2012]

The United States is becoming a less Christian country, and the decline in religious affiliation is particularly rapid among younger Americans, new figures show.

The proportion of US adults who describe themselves as Christian has fallen to two-thirds, a drop of 12 percentage points over the past decade, according to data from the Pew Research Center.

Over the same period, the proportion of those describing themselves as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular” has risen by 17 percentage points to more than a quarter of the adult population.

Although churches and faith movements continue to exert strong political influence on the Trump administration and at the state level, the proportion of American adults attending religious services has declined.

The proportion of US adults who are white born-again or evangelical Protestants – the religious group which strives hardest to see its political agenda adopted – is now 16%, down from 19% a decade ago.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/17/americans-less-christian-religion-survey-pew

[NeoGreen]

1. Apparently, an increasing number of Americans are having an adversion to...

...delusion.

[smirkymonkey]

2. Good.

I'm sick of this religious fucknuttery. Eventually, I would like to see it go the way of ancient Greek and Roman mythology.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. Evangelicals have given Christianity in general a bad name.

If someone tells me he/she is a "Christian" I'm inclined to assume they're also a right-wing, Bible-banging fanatic. If someone wants to tell you something about their religion (I don't ask) and they're not a right-wing, Bible-banging fanatic, typically they'll specify their Christian denomination (Lutheran, Presbyterian, whatever), but if they say they're a Christian, watch out, because those other people aren't really Christian because unless you're also a right-wing Bible-banging fanatic you're not one.

[Major Nikon]

5. Part and parcel

Were it not for evangelicals there would be no Christianity. It's more of a case of non-evangelicals trying to change the nature of Christianity.

I think there's considerably more to it. European Christians faded into a non-evangelical identity a very long time ago and it didn't change their inevitable irrelevancy. For most of Western Europe Christianity is looked at in a traditional ceremonial sense. People still get married and buried in churches, but nobody believes the mythology. This is the same direct the US is moving toward. The only difference is those believers who remain are becoming more fanatical.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

9. That may be true, but the particular issue of the waning of Christian affiliation

in the US is probably attributable at least in part to the joining at the hip of right-wing politics and the so-called evangelical denominations, resulting in the suspicion that all forms of Christianity require you to turn MAGAt.

If someone tells me they're Lutheran or Presybterian I don't expect them to try to convert me to either Christianity or right-wing politics, even if their religious belief system is generally the same as that of a Bible-thumping Baptist. I am not bothered by other people's religious beliefs if they keep them out of my face and out of my government.

[Major Nikon]

11. The idea of separation of church and state has always been more of an illusion than reality

Throughout most of recorded history, government and religion have been synonymous. The very nature of politics is to use whatever advantage you can and the very nature of organized religion is to further their theology. It will always be a match made in heaven (pardon the pun). The only way you are going to really break those bonds is when people stop believing there's some sort of divine monopoly on morality.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

20. More than that, at some points in history the Church has been more powerful

than the rulers. When it came down to it, it was about power rather than theology, or, more accurately, employing theology to acquire power. Martin Luther was deemed a heretic because he opposed the Church's sale of indulgences - basically, paying your way into heaven. So he argued that the only way a person could get to Heaven was through faith alone (sola fides) and not through "works," that is, by donating money to the Church. But the Church didn't care so much about the theology underlying sola fides, but that if his argument caught on, the Church wouldn't be able to collect as much money. Henry VIII couldn't get the Pope to grant him a divorce from Catherine of Aragon, so he declared that the Church of England was no longer governed by the Roman Pope. But Henry didn't want the English church to change its theology - he also thought Luther was a heretic - he just wanted to do something the Pope wouldn't allow. The devastating Thirty Years War in the 17th century started out when Ferdinand II declared that everyone in what was then the Holy Roman Empire (most of central Europe) would be required to convert to Catholicism notwithstanding the Treaty of Augsburg; but this quickly devolved into a struggle for power and not over religion among the various states within the HRE.

Throughout history religion has been used as an excuse for whichever ruler controlled or was controlled by religious leaders to acquire more power or territory. Even the more recent Troubles in Ireland didn't happen because the Catholics in Eire and the Protestants in Ulster wanted to convert each other; it was because the Irish opposed the presence of a British "colony" in Ulster. With Brexit about to take Ulster out of the EU, that's going to flare up again.

Nevertheless, I doubt that religion in any or all of its forms will ever be eliminated, or that the desire of secular leaders to acquire power will ever go away either - even if religion did not exist.

[SWBTATTReg]

6. I agree w/ you. Too many preachers and the like have been charged w/ corruption and ...

such, and too many are way too political, so they obviously have a hidden agenda of some sorts, and aren't really interested in the teachings of the bible. Folks see how toxic they are and stay away. I don't blame them. They deserve every bit of it.

[dewsgirl]

8. They sure have.

[trotsky]

17. Christians have given Christianity in general a bad name.

It's not like the religion was perfectly awesome until the modern evangelicals came along.

[Voltaire2]

19. There are essentially zero evangelicals in Ireland

and religiosity is decreasing there too, mainly because the shit-show of centuries of astounding abuse of the Irish people by the Catholic church has finally been brought out into the open.

[Prez]

4. Trump is responsible

Ever since the election this country has fallen into a black hole. The inmates have been running the asylum. Amazingly Trump followers who claim to be "good Christians" willingly and knowingly approve of their own bigotry and actually believe they ARE good Christians. It makes me want to vomit.

[NeoGreen]

7. Trump is merely a symptom...

...the decision of evangelicals to become actively engaged in politics, as an organization, in the early 80's is where the blame lies.

Any so called 'good christians' are culpable in this, they share equal blame for the religious corruption of our politics.

The religious corruption of our secular, godless, Constitution.

[Voltaire2]

14. Trend started long before Trump.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

15. No, he's just taking advantage of it.

Evangelicals got involved in right-wing politics in an organized way back in the '80s or even earlier. Before long the political part of the relationship overtook the Christian part, and the fundies, mostly in the South, decided it was more important to support the most racist, oppressive and inhumane policies of the GOP than to love their neighbors, heal the sick, feed the hungry and all that other subversive liberal stuff Jesus was into. They also aligned with the Catholics on the abortion issue despite the fact that the evangelicals mostly think Catholics are heretics, and vice-versa. Many evangelical denominations became arms of the GOP, despite risking their nonprofit tax status (which the IRS has never seemed to enforce), and right-wing politics became subsumed into their religious doctrine.

[Mariana]

18. This trend started long before the 2016 election.

The majority of Christian voters in 2016 cast their ballots for Trump. Given this fact, is is clearly a good thing that Christians make up an ever smaller percentage of the population. Let us hope that this trend continues.

[Downtown Hound]

10. Ironically, that fact is able to do what no Christian ever could

Make me believe that God just might be real.

[keithbvadu2]

12. We should practice Christianity just like Tump does?

-----------------

Trump devout Christian - practice Christianity

[3Hotdogs]

13. That's great news.

Thank you, Jesus.

[eppur_se_muova]

16. Join us -- come over to the neutral gray side. nt

464K likes
464K dislikes

and a reeeeeealy long comments section