Monday, April 27, 2009

Post-Christian? Not even close.


From USA Today-

In the endless debate over whether the United States is a Christian nation, the "ayes" no longer seem to have it.

The "ayes" might have the 1892 Supreme Court ruling describing the United States as a "Christian nation," but the "nays" have the Treaty of Tripoli of 1797, which affirmed that "the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion."

Now comes President Obama, who in January in his inaugural address spoke of this country as "a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus — and non-believers." On April 6 in Turkey, Obama added that the United States "does not consider itself a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation" but "a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values."

One week later, in a mournful black-and-red cover reminiscent of Time magazine's 1966 "Is God Dead?" cover, Newsweek proclaimed "The Decline and Fall of Christian America." Setting off this alarm was the 2008 American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS), released in March by researchers at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn. This survey of more than 50,000 American adults contains all sorts of interesting tidbits about the rapid growth of Islam in America, and the relative strength of new religious movements such as Wicca. It tells us that Pentecostals are more likely to be divorced than the average American, and that Mormons are far more likely to be married. But almost all the news coverage this survey has garnered, both at home and abroad, speaks of the gains of the religiously unattached (or "nones" as they are often called) at the expense of Christianity.

More here-

http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/04/post-christian-not-even-close.html#more

1 comment:

PseudoPiskie said...

My entire family can't understand why I'm heavily involved with a church (TEC) that preaches love and hates people. They were all active in Episcopal and Presbyterian churches at one time. My niece's sister-in-law is a partnered lesbian. My brother and sil have many lgbt friends, partnered and single. Our parish is "integrated" so they understand why I like it. Not so the people who claim to be Christian but have no love.