Religion: Waning influence in the U.S.
Americans are losing their religion, said Amanda Marcotte in Salon.com. Over the past 22 years, a new Gallup poll found, the number of Americans who say they belong to a church, synagogue, or mosque has fallen to just 47 percent—down from 70 percent in 1999. Why the exodus? “Blame the religious right.” Evangelical leaders’ embrace of Republican politics and homophobia have turned many people off—particularly their hypocritical fawning over former President Trump, “a thricemarried chronic adulterer.” The nonaffiliated were “driven away,” said Leonard Pitts Jr. in the Miami Herald. The Catholic Church’s massive child-sex scandal deeply undermined its moral authority, and the religious right’s cynical decision to align itself with Trump—“a biblical illiterate” who “broke commandments like glass”—was the final straw. If you are seeking spiritual guidance and solace, are you going to be drawn to people who revere Trump like a golden idol? “Fat chance.”
“The collapse in church membership” is bad news for “liberal democracy, civility, and comity,” said Matt Lewis in TheDailyBeast.com. Every human being is hardwired with a “deep-seated impulse” to worship something and seek “transcendent purpose.” If organized religion is no longer filling that need, then people turn to politics—and, often, to demagogues like Trump. Philosophers have even argued that Nietzsche’s “God is dead” proclamation “abetted the rise of Hitler and other 20thcentury authoritarian regimes.”
On the contrary, “America’s record godlessness” should be “welcomed and embraced,” said Phil Zuckerman in the Los Angeles Times. Nations that have seen the most secularization, including Scandinavia, Australia, Canada, and Japan, are among “the healthiest, wealthiest, and safest in the world.” Secularization “highly correlates” with belief in science, increased vaccination rates, higher education levels, stronger safety nets, and greater support for gay rights, women’s reproductive rights, and universal health care. The decline of organized religion can be “a progressive force for good.” But don’t assume all secular people are progressives, said Henry Olsen in The Washington Post. Despite secular cultures in Western Europe, Canada, and Australia, conservative parties remain strong. In Australia, only 8 percent of the public is churchgoing, yet the conservative LiberalNational Coalition has won the last three national elections. That suggests that Republicans aren’t “doomed to political irrelevance” as U.S. religious affiliation wanes—“if they adapt to rather than resist the transformation.”