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.
Good thing God gives us a choice. He has outlined the result after death, and then, like the loving God he is, allowed you to decide your own fate. Thank you God.
The standard of living in the U.S. has gone way up since 1990. It seems like everyone has a new car and 1 or 2 flat screen HDTV’s. But now the economy is in such bad shape people will be scaling back their spending and worrying about more important things.
It’s like if you’re not sick, why go to the doctors? If your affluence can’t make you happy anymore, folks will look to the spiritual side. Which I think is a good thing.
I think we’ll see this trend reversed the further we plunge into recession.
Yep, we won’t be free until the response is: “God, who?”
#3 bobbo
With all your cries of tolerance for most any depraved action man can participate I guess it’s no surprise that you are destined to be a religious bigot to the end.
A bit of advise – enjoy ice and air conditioning while you can. 🙂
#4–contempt for religion==I am very little different than you. We both looked at the many and varied religions that have captured mans informed intelligence and rejected them all except for ONE. Then I rejected that ONE as well.
Why do you hate all religions except for the one you chose?
#6 bobbo
>>Why do you hate all religions except for the one you chose?
I reject all religions because religion is man’s attempt to please God through his own devises.
Christianity is a relationship with God not a religion.
I call BS. This Country would still never elect a President who claimed to be an atheist. Imagine if the Pres told disaster victims that he/she wouldn’t pray for them.
It is sad, since I am not a magical believer.
#7
>>Christianity is a relationship with God not a religion.
What???? That’s one of the more puzzling things I’ve read recently; it’s just a self-justification that your chosen belief is the “right” one that ignores the definition of “religion”. You could just as easily say that Buddhism is a relationship with Buddha, and is above the mere religion Christianity. They’re all religions.
Uh..I gave up religion for Lent.
#7–contempt for Christianity==a relationship with god is schizophrenia, Christianity is a religion. Hah, Hah. Can’t even follow the good book.
The GOP isn’t a political party, it’s a relationship with government.
The results of this poll aren’t too surprising given the cynical exploitation of the Christian faithful by the politicians and the mega church leaders. Rightly or wrongly man has an innate desire for spiritualism. Christianity when separated from the political and economic motives of it’s leaders is as good an outlet for that spirituality as any of the other of the world’s major religions and given it’s emphasis on empathy, charity and forgiveness it is maybe the best of all of them. It is an unfortunate coincidence that the most spiritual minded are often the easiest to exploit.
As a group, Christianity is out of touch as their leaders want to stick to old philosophies (usually grounded in hate). Look at this last Pope asserting a leap back in time.
I say, no bail out for Christianity. Like the GOP party, they can rot away or get their shit together.
#11 bobbo
I never tire of you mocking things you know nothing about, so being the good sport that I am I would like to suggest you go get a COOL glass of ICED tea. Maybe even Dallas could join you.
Oh, and don’t forget to lower the TEMPERATURE setting on your AIR CONDITIONER… it could be your last chance. 🙂
#5: “Scripture predicts the world will become deeply religious (antichrist) during a time of trouble and turmoil.”
We already had the antichrist–dubya. The asshole’s out of there.
If you religious people want to make the world a better place, I suggest you get your noses out of your sacred books. Go out and feed the hungry, clothe the needy, and hire the people that are out of work through no fault of their own. Those actions might just get us out of this recession. And–if you can–spend a little and keep good businesses from going under.
While we’re at it, do something about these evil people (Medoff, AIG, and the others) that wrecked the economy.
#10: That’s been my line since the early 70s.
#15–contempt for his own religion==I get your reference to my burning in hell for not submitting to gods mercy.
Did god tell you that directly or did you get that notion from the christian religion?
Just wondering, because I wouldn’t have a personal relationship with some asshole who would punish someone else for not believing in me when I kept myself hidden.
If there is a god in heaven worthy of the notion, all of us, including Hitler will be in heaven. What is this turmoil on earth compared to gods mercy and eternity?
Foolish contempt, you created a god you can’t lift. Silly.
Christians consistently show that they know the least about Christianity. And if they actually read the bible instead of just quoting the parts they like, they’d be realize how ridiculous and hypocritical they are.
Your laws ignore our deepest needs.
Your words are empty air.
You’ve stripped away our heritage.
You’ve outlawed simple prayer.
Now gunshots fill our classrooms.
And precious children die.
You seek for answers everywhere,
And ask the question, Why?
You regulate restrictive laws.
Through legislative creed.
And yet you fail to understand
That God is what we need
by Darrel Scott, father of Columbine victim
@scolfax
Don’t try to start a reasonable discussion on this thread. It is pointless.
#17 bobbo
>>I get your reference to my burning in hell for not submitting to gods mercy.
I’m surprised at your disdain with me using your most favorite tactic of fear-mongering.
You know, the old if we don’t ban SUV’s the world will end. You’re destroying the environment if you don’t use the approved light bulb… see right up your alley.
Certainly you can’t complain by me “borrowing” a presentation you embrace and constantly employ… if so then hypocrite is your name.
Average christrians are not that well enlightened but are the first to tell other people to open their minds.
I think it’s all a little Religulous.
Alfred…your post is at least part of the reason the numbers are dropping. How do you separate your religion and your politics? If the two are one in the same, Christianity is indeed doomed.
I don’t think we are giving up on religion. We are giving up on churches who are increasingly becoming more of a business and less on a local church with flexability in each persons beliefs. This us or the highway attitude is pushing people away. Its time for churches to get back to basics.
#23 Alfred1, you are the PERFECT representative of the broad, yet radical end of the Christian community today.
Welcome !!
While not ‘atheist’ by definition, I’m clearly on the other end of the spectrum but I do know all about you and qualified to comment not just by observation but by experience. I grew up catholic in Massachusetts. Went to Catholic school, baptized, did communion, went to sunday school (every Sunday, not just the Christian BBQ holidays) – the whole nine yards.
Today, the best summary I can make of “most” Christians is they are kind, tolerant people but embarrassed by the likes of you. They look the other way when wierdos like you raise their ugly heads as representatives only because they are ether cowards or apathetic – the description of sheep. What you’re seeing is more and more people are escaping the flock.
A strange contrast between the US and the UK then.
It seems widely agreed that nobody would be elected US President if they did not claim to be a comitted Christian. A widespread lie against BO last year was that he is a Moslem.
Tony Blair admitted that he didn’t want to tell anyone about his faith in case people felt he was a ‘nutter’.
Why the difference? In the US there is legal distiction between the church and the state. In the UK they are entwined thei a thousand years of linkage.
Odd how in both cases, it has the opposite effect to what was intended!
Don’t count out the upcoming conflict
People with views and morals don’t go away
Their morals and ethics pervail
Its no accident that Christianity and Christian values have persisted for 2 millenia – and on top of that grew out of historic Jewish sources and values – consistently a long longer and for more time in history than our current Obama saviour
#8
> Imagine if the Pres told disaster
> victims that he/she wouldn’t pray for them.
Indeed. Imagine a President that actually DID something for the victims rather than engaging in personal mental masturbation. That said, I must admit that telling the superstitious that he is going to pray for them is a far cheaper solution to making people feel better than actually doing something.
For the foreseeable future, I agree that an overt atheist could never get elected (President or to Congress) just as overt homosexual cannot get elected. By overt, I specifically mean someone that professes themselves to be an atheist or homosexual *prior* to getting elected and early in the campaign. However, that day is coming.
#23
I note that the Bible implies that the anti-Christ will be male. Wouldn’t that be a good reason to elect nothing but women to office?
BTW, your notions about what the Bible says about abortion are misplaced. If anything, the Bible supports abortion. See Numbers 3:15-16 or Leviticus 27:6.
#23, Alphie, the Quaalude Queen,
AND compare charitable giving of liberals and conservatives…the latter put their money with their mouth is…they really care about people
Conservatives consider all the money they give to a church “charitable”, even if it ends up in some Pastor’s pocket or some professional fundraiser’s bank account.
Liberal’s care about where their money goes.
AND I just did my part against evil in the world.
Hey Alphie, when are you going to quit with the claims of how good you are and actually post some evidence to back up that claim you made that Obama sold drugs? We all know how evil it is to lie, so please post that link.
Thank you
🙂
#29
Hinduism has been around three times longer than Christianity and nearly two thousand years longer than Judaism. Does that mean that Hindu values will be the dominant ones in the future?