There it was, an old term with new urgency: post-Christian. This is not to say that the Christian God is dead, but that he is less of a force in American politics and culture than at any other time in recent memory. To the surprise of liberals who fear the advent of an evangelical theocracy and to the dismay of religious conservatives who long to see their faith more fully expressed in public life, Christians are now making up a declining percentage of the American population.
According to the American Religious Identification Survey that got Mohler’s attention, the percentage of self-identified Christians has fallen 10 percentage points since 1990, from 86 to 76 percent. The Jewish population is 1.2 percent; the Muslim, 0.6 percent. A separate Pew Forum poll echoed the ARIS finding, reporting that the percentage of people who say they are unaffiliated with any particular faith has doubled in recent years, to 16 percent; in terms of voting, this group grew from 5 percent in 1988 to 12 percent in 2008—roughly the same percentage of the electorate as African-Americans. (Seventy-five percent of unaffiliated voters chose Barack Obama, a Christian.) Meanwhile, the number of people willing to describe themselves as atheist or agnostic has increased about fourfold from 1990 to 2009, from 1 million to about 3.6 million. (That is about double the number of, say, Episcopalians in the United States.)
While we remain a nation decisively shaped by religious faith, our politics and our culture are, in the main, less influenced by movements and arguments of an explicitly Christian character than they were even five years ago. […] As crucial as religion has been and is to the life of the nation, America’s unifying force has never been a specific faith, but a commitment to freedom—not least freedom of conscience. At our best, we single religion out for neither particular help nor particular harm; we have historically treated faith-based arguments as one element among many in the republican sphere of debate and decision. The decline and fall of the modern religious right’s notion of a Christian America creates a calmer political environment and, for many believers, may help open the way for a more theologically serious religious life.
Church leaders relax. It isn’t our fault. The problem is that the cows are out of the barn and we cannot put them back in.
Who is speaking for us? Crazy televangelists and talking vegetables (Veggie Tales). Hollywood, on the other hand is doing something differently.
As Hollywood finally put Charlton Heston to pasture and began making films about the true history of the church, people have become increasingly disgusted. The true stories of Joan of Arc, the Crusades, the treatment of the Indians, etc. won’t simply go away because we want them to.
Then there was Hollywood’s favorite Christian, Mel Gibson. The effectiveness of his personal spirituality is now well documented. His ‘Passion’ film was so outrageous to those on the fence that it did more harm than good. Next to the X-Men and Spiderman, Jesus’ powers look week. His subsequent drunken rant confirmed his critics’ assessment.
This Autumn there will be another assault on us in the form of the film “Agora.” A full screen blockbuster depiction of the rape of the last librarian of pagan Alexandria aught to help seal our downfall in the eyes of young people. We can look forward to the final scene where fourth century Bible wavers peel the skin off her living body with sea shells. Nothing like scenes of mobs of book burning Christian zealots to ring in the Christmas season… I mean Saturnalia.
Hollywood knows what they are doing.
We cannot say The TRUTH will set us free, then cherry pick or abandon it when it releases countless others. I think the church will be destroyed, and true Christians will return to small groups of Bible believing worshippers.
There is a lesson here for us.
#151–Fusion==it did look a bit manic, but your efforts finally bore fruit. Sad, rotten fruit but illustrative to us all: the religious mind at work. Some idea takes hold and no amount of evidence will shake it even when the truth is evident and not important to anyone.
Alfies “mind” set is what drives religious bigots. Its rarely demonstrated so convincingly. But how else can one describe belief based on faith rather than reason?
Yes, very instructive. Alfie: you made and continue to make a mountain out of a molehill, or even of the tunnel undeneath the molehill. FACTS vs OPINION. FAITH vs REASON. HUMILITY vs OPPRESSION.
Lots to learn.
the pastor of the church my wife and I attend gave a word on this awhile ago, and it really didn’t strike me as surprising, seeing as how most “Christians” call themselves “saved” because they attend church, but they don’t really maintain their salvation on a daily basis. what I mean is that they’re not taught that salvation is a DAILY choice. when I think about what that means, I automatically think about what God’s Word says, “choose you THIS DAY, who will you serve?” that tells me that we can CHOOSE to serve Jesus one day, and the next we can choose to serve our flesh. that tells me that too many Christians out there have done just that, and they feel ashamed about it, as if God will not accept them back because they’ve chosen to serve their flesh instead of Him. the REAL truth is that God will ALWAYS love us, no matter WHAT we have done, and no matter WHO we have become. God knows who we REALLY are, and He is the ONLY One who can make us that person. it’s not by our might, nor by our power, but by His Spirit, and it’s not by OUR works alone, lest we should boast.
#154, Bobbo,
#151–Fusion==it did look a bit manic, but your efforts finally bore fruit.
Call it a bug up my butt or a passion. One thing I can not tolerate is blatant slandering. There is currently another thread on Obama Derangement Syndrome. Alphie fits the definition of that exactly.
Calling people on a deranged, slandering, baseless statement is necessary in my opinion. If you notice Cow-Patty is a little more careful about what he posts. Not always, but a little. I only wish Alphie could see the errors of his ways and realize that pure hate and vitrol is not a substitute for a reasoned, rational, factual argument.
Keep the peace bro.
it scares the shit out of me that so many people are so easily blinded by an ideology that is clearly the script of man and using the oldest ideological method in the book…….. power by fear!!!! anyone who lives a certain way for honest fear of their soul burning in hell for eternity seems a bit retarded to me personally. get out from under your rocks, take one biology class, and hopefully you’ll make better use of your time on earth in realising what a beautiful and lucky thing life really is…. cause when you die it’s all over and there’s no way to say ‘i told you so’ cause you’ll just become part of the soil.
ISIAIh 41 BRING forth your IDOLS did they PREACH to you see they can’t speak they can’t DO ANYTHING all they do is cause confusion. spalms 115 and spalms 135 thier IDOLS are FALSE cant speak can’t hear cant smell and those that make them shall become like them. Jeremiah 10 they nail their IDOL down like a scarecrow it can’t move can’…t speak can’t move must be carried these are nothing but the WORK of CON men.john 10 jesus christ sais his sheep hear his voice and another voice thy will not follow and if another person tries to preach to them they WILL FLEE from him. jeremiah 5 the priests bear rule on their own authority what will you do when your judged my word is not inside them. Now here is the kicker john 5 son of man voice goes back in time mathew 16 jesus christ claims to be the son of man.1 cor2 mind of CHRIST preached internally and john 16 sais the spirit of truth comes in the future. Ezekiel 13 lying prophets of ISRAEL my word is not inside them saying god sais god sais god sais wrote hoping mankind would CONFIRM their WORDS. all of this is EASILY verifiable.