Translated: I quote Karl Marx: "Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the opium of the people."
And I declare that religions are the vehicles we "humans" created to justify practicing our prejudices against other humans with impunity. If there were a true, one, benevolent god, do you think that she/he/it would allow the conditions on earth that we humans have created that will cause her/his/its creations to perish? Think about that. Carefully.
Remember those "religions" and their devout practitioners who have, for no real reasons, damaged people over the ages.
18
Translated: I quote Karl Marx: "Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the opium of the people."
And I declare that religions are the vehicles we "humans" created to justify practicing our prejudices against other humans with impunity. If there were a true, one, benevolent god, do you think that she/he/it would allow the conditions on earth that we humans have created that will cause her/his/its creations to perish? Think about that. Carefully.
Remember those "religions" and their devout practitioners who have, for no real reasons, damaged people over the ages.
No question that the intolerant conservative evangelicals are bad news. But this is hardly anything new. Christianity has been associated with more immoralities than morality.
Think of the Crusades from the past. Think of the Pogroms "done" in the name of Christianity. Think of the Vatican's stand during the Shoah.
There are GOOD people. Some happen to be Christian, some Jewish, some Buddhist, some Muslim and many atheists or agnostics. I have known Marxists who didn't believe in any religion but if you looked at the good works they did on a personal level for others in and outside their community you would call them saints.
Be good. Read Spinoza, and try to live by his Ethics. The best thing that happened to Philosophy is that excommunicated Jew who lived by grinding lenses.
75
Since the first European settlers arrived and began slaughtering the native peoples, Christianity has been a sham in this country, continuing up to the present period.
84
I've always said that the greatest cause of atheism is exposure to American "Christians."
146
So in the end what is religion good for? It doesn't make people better (although on balance it doesn't make them worse either). Whether its helping the poor or vilifying gays, you can base whatever you want on Scripture. It's all made up anyway.
All religion really does is pollute the general world-view by adding thousands of gods, Gods, demons, witches, imps and other useless, unnecessary and fictitious entities. It should all be tossed overboard.
48
I took my kids to Church for years, but they could never get past the people who used religion to divide people, to be self-righteous, even to condescend kindly to those who didn't follow their rules. For them, it was just another clique as in high school, and just as nasty.
90
You don't need to believe in a monotheistic deity to believe in honesty, ethical behavior, right vs. wrong, and the US Constitution. Our Founding Fathers knew that well.
86
Bravo! Could not agree more. Somehow I can find a way to forgive, rationalize, look past all the problems in my Church -- but that half of all Catholics support Trump ---- is almost too much. Something went really wrong with religious education when there is such support for everything that is directly Opposite to it in this President. Obsession with abortion -- time to start a new church then, the Anti-Abortion church, -- and give us back the richness, beauty, and profound depth, of Catholicism! And since when are Evangelical Christians "victims" who rationalize Trump as some kind of a savior figure. Would JC have hired him to be one of his Apostles? (Right,... too ridiculous to even contemplate.) Definitely the archetype of the one taking off with the bag of silver, at best.
Are such Christians simply tribal, group-think, obedient, almost cult-like, true believers vis a vis whatever they are told ---without doing Any kind of Real Thinking? The ultimate irony and tragedy are that the Brazen Hypocracy and utter Lunacy here has turned off thousands --to the very thing they all propose to be protecting. Beyond Sad.
35
You might want to add that, science and rational thought play a role in rejecting imaginary beings, and superstitious ideas.
57
Personally, as a practicing pagan, I cannot wait until we kill this notion that "America is a Christian country." America has no official religion, just blowhards trying to force their views on a reluctant larger population-- that's a legacy going all the way back to the Massachusetts Puritans.
If I ever became President, I'd attend the National Prayer Breakfast in my robes and make my offering to the goddess on the breakfast table while chanting "Change is everything she touches!" because that's how I pray, and it is as legitimate as a bowed head, clasped hands and Hail Mary. There's room for every kind of religion in this country, so long as we stay in our lanes and remain tolerant and respectful of everyone's right to choose how they worship and who/what they worship.
24
I generally enjoy Kristof's columns, but now and again he reminds us that, most likely due to his parents and childhood environment, he believes in an organization whose relevance is based on fantasies allegedly "documented" hundreds of years after the supposed events took place. I doubt that he ever wonders if the entire Christian edifice is based on nothing more than a set of childish myths, but IMHO he would benefit from exploring that possibility.
38
As GB Shaw said,
Christianity is a wonderful idea but it has never been tried.
51
Right on Nicholas.
7
Charity and good works -- things you do because you actually care -- have been replaced by government handouts, entitlements and the new form of "rights" that get you stuff and services paid for by others. Why be charitable when government force is the answer, not human beings being kind.
1
The least Christian, the least charitable, the least compassionate people I have ever met are Christians.
Religion isn’t just hypocrisy it’s also obsolete.
46
I have had this conversation with my pastor many times. He agrees with the perception in America about Evangelicals and Christianity, and wonders how this gets resolved for real Christians. Then 2 days ago, my former sister-in-law, a diehard Christian, whose brother was shot and killed 2 weeks ago. Three teens were arrested this week, 2 of them 14 and one 15. My heart broke again for these 3 boys. Her reaction? "I hope they all get the death penalty." I was so unhinged by this. My shock is that she sounds like a Trumper, not a Christian. I want to tell her that the death penalty is not used on teens anymore (thank God!), but mostly that these are boys and now 4 lives have been destroyed. What lives have they lived that this action turned into murder? Yep, my knee-jerk Christian response to this news was "what lives have these boys been forced to live?"
23
Mr Kristof,
No question that the intolerant conservative evangelicals are bad news. But this is hardly anything new. Christianity has been associated with immoralities more than morality.
Think of the Crusades from the past. Think of the Pogroms "done" in the name of Christianity. Think of the Vatican's stand during the Shoah.
The "good" Christian is a myth. There are good PERSONS. Some happen to be Christian, some Jewish, some Buddhist, some Muslim and many are atheists or agnostics. I have known Marxists who didn't believe in any religion but if you looked at the good works they did on a personal level for others in and outside their community, you would call them saints.
Be good. Read Spinoza, and try to live by his Ethics. The best thing that happened to Philosophy or Theology is the excommunicated Jew who supported himself by grinding lenses. The Lord that he really didn't believe in, didn't give him long to live. The dust from the glass from grinding his lenses did his lungs no favors.
15
American Christians who have thrown in their lot with Trump have made a Faustian bargain with an amoral degenerate of a president. They ignore his multiple adulterous affairs, his vulgarity and viciousness in the hope of imposing their religious fanaticism on the rest of us. Who doubts that if a woman in his family wanted an abortion she would go to the ends of the earth to get one. But none of that matters because they have it "all figured out", you see. To them Trump is like King David in the bible who seduced the wife of one his generals and had him sent to the front in the hope he would be killed - it worked. But, according to the story, God still favored his boy David like he favors Don - because sometimes "God needs imperfect men to do His perfect work." You can't make this stuff up. Let's see how those silver-haired bible thumpers react when and if Trump and the vultures around him start chiselling away at their social security and medicare.
35
Being "less of a Christian nation" is a GOOD thing, given how the branches of Christianity that have gained the most traction in government are about hate, bigotry, persecution of the LGBTQ community, punishing women for the sin of having sex, forced pregnancy, patriarchy, subjugation of women and those darker of skin, and hypocrisy about personal conduct.
Until Christianity can find room in its heart for people who believe differently, or who manage to live a moral life without needing a celestial Get Out of Jail free card, I'm going to applaud the de-Christianization of our nation.
36
All religions are particularly well-suited to motivating violence against outsiders however defined. This is no less true of Christianity than any other of the world's religions. The folks that Kristof castigates - with good reason - are not outliers. It's absurd to argue that today's violent, vicious, bigoted Christians are an historical novelty or an American specialty that's come from nowhere to give Christianity a bad name. And it a very grave error, one which finds little support in the historical record, to believe that "faith is supposed to provide moral guidance." Morality provides moral guidance.
17
Speaking as someone raised essentially as an atheist but who became a Christian after years of reading, thinking, life experience and exposure to some smart pastors, it seems to me that many otherwise-educated people unfortunately get their perceptions of religion from raving street preachers, smarmy televangelists and "dorm room" atheists such as Bill Maher, whose notions of faith are almost as primitive as those of the "Bible-thumpers" they assail.
21
When I was a child, my mother and her sisters were the most intelligent and clear-thinking people that I knew. At some point when I was growing up, I discovered that churches wouldn’t allow women to become priests, and that mosques, temples and synagogues didn’t either.
I remember thinking to myself: “well, that’s pretty stupid”. I could not imagine myself finding anything in common with people who held such beliefs.
Later, of course, I encountered people who had been raised in more religious families, and who had nonetheless emerged as intelligent and responsible adults. However, I soon realized that although they had often retained a religious vocabulary, their systems of belief were as agnostic as my own.
From what I observe these days, religious believers are mainly people who enjoy being told what to think and do. This strikes me as being uniquely un-American, and it’s encouraging to think that their numbers are in decline.
22
As a liberal, my question to my liberal friends is...can you express tolerance for someone who chooses to believe in God in the same way I can for my atheist friends?
18
Trump did not create the Deplorables who support him, he revealed them. One of the most significant of these revelations pertains to White Evangelicals. Far from being the “Values” voters they claimed to be, they turned out to be just another policy-driven special interest group. That they would embrace such a person as Trump as their leader just underscores the inherent hypocrisy of their lives.
51
and do not forget the mega churches that say this and that about Jesus while dressed in suits and wearing bling that costs more then the car I drive. Then drive away from the church in
eighty thousand dollar cars. That is the christen I want to be? I do not think so.
19
It is important to distinguish between adherence, nominal or otherwise, to a Christian denomination, versus actually practicing a Christian life.
As the article suggests, those who most loudly proclaim their Christianity, are often the biggest hypocrites. There was a reason the character of Elmer Gantry was created.
21
Nicholas Kristof, in his zeal to paint everything wrong with America on Conservatives leaves out one important and key element of this trend: when it began. It started in the late 60's and was fueled by those on the LEFT who were turned off by organized religion because it interfered with their looser lifestyles and it was and is easier to lead lives less based on moral and ethical restrictions because of the emphasis on "self" and whatever feels good. . .which correlates with the increase in narcissistic behavior over the last 30 years. It continued and continues to abate by those who lean left. Its in the research. Nicholas Kristof: You're as wrong as wrong can be. Your entitled to your own opinion but not your own facts.
8
Some on the religious right will thunder that this as a result of a secular “war on Christianity.”
Quite to the contrary, I see it as a result of the soi-disant "Christian" war on the secular society where most of us live.
13
My problem with most all organized religions is simple. If I don't join, I'm considered a heathen. Deep down inside there's an us vs them, you're for us or you're against us.
18
Christian nation? Does freedom of - or from - religion not actually require a secular nation? How can a Christian or any other identified religious nation not have its own set of rules, its one or several true god(s) which by definition take primacy over all others, including "nones"? The unmasked evangelicals would be the exhibit number one for why a Christian nation is a terrifying thought. Religion has cloaked many a misguided agenda with an ersatz authority. Perhaps religion should be practiced quietly, humbly, not as a national religion, not imposed on the rest of us.
15
What I cannot understand is why any church which openly advocates a particular candidate for President is allowed to keep a religious exemption from taxes.
52
SOME intolerant conservative evangelicals have tainted the faith?
Where are the TOLERANT conservative evangelicals? I've never encountered any. The words 'tolerant' and 'conservative' with regard to religion, seem to be quite diametrically opposed. The sooner this country STOPS being a 'Christian' Nation and becomes a TOLERANT nation, a HUMANIST nation, a love thy neighbors as thyself, and MYOB nation, the better off we will all be.
27
Its not just "blowhards," or some bad apples who have tainted Christianity's image. There has been systemic abuse of power going in many Christian denominations for centuries. As a survivor of clergy sexual abuse- having been sexually assaulted as a teen by my youth pastor- I have heard literally hundreds of stories similar to mine across all denominations, and those are just the people who have spoken out publicly. Apart from the intolerance, hate, and bigotry that many Christian churches promote either undercover or right out in the open, they have done a horrible job policing themselves of abuses of power like clergy sexual assault. Citing Jimmy Carter as a model Christian is all fine and well, but in my experience he is an outlier. In my 20 years as a practicing Christian I never met one like him.
16
Christianity, like most religions, is patriarchal and based on ancient fairy tales.
The current American version of Christianity seems the same as it as always been to me: intolerant, oppressive, and sexist.
Only the Quakers seem to push back against these patterns in a any way.
Maybe it's time we all recognize religion is outdated fiction and start believing in each other (and education and science) instead.
18
Private goodness of individual Christians aside, the institution of Christianity stands condemned by the teachings of its own founder. No sin made Jesus angrier than the sin of hypocrisy, which he condemned more than any other. Yet every major Christian denomination in its turn has been willing to countenance hypocrisy in order to protect the "greater good," i.e., the political welfare of the institution. Jesus knew that such hypocrisy is poison taken into the Christian body. If the body survives it will live a moral half-life, and its judgment will be corrupt.
This is exactly what has happened to Christianity as it has coveted political power to guarantee its survival and the triumph of its ideology. Better it would have been to risk martyrdom and annihilation at every point than to make a series of devil's bargains to survive. The thing that survives has become a monster, deformed, blind, and willing to use the Devil's tricks to advance God's work.
No wonder people no longer not want institutional Christian religion in their lives. Without it they can at least make the inside of the cup clean. They need not drink poison at the altar.
11
Must we ALWAYS talk about blame? This only increases our already abundant polarization.
3
I believe the number of Nones is greater than survey data suggests.
Publicly stating that you are a None can impact a career or social contacts. I believe that there are many closet Nones just as there were many closet gays in the past.
Now that it is acceptable to be gay, many are opening so. In time, it will be acceptable to be a None and then we will have a better idea what percentage of our population are Nones.
I am one of them and I'm 75 years old.
18
The impending disaster of climate change will render contemporary religions moot. All humans will be locked in intense struggle for survival and while we all suffer in reality the fate of the metaphorical biblical plagues, we will coalesce into one religion for all peoples . Humans will face a reckoning and emerge as better citizens of the earth .Only the sharing of burdens and resources will make us all better creatures , and insure survival, unmasked of cultural identity and superstition. Our 40 year sojourn through the desert may last 400 or 4000 years but we will emerge in a new just kingdom, as the old is immolated by towering fires and swept away in great floods.
2
We are all hypocrites, not just evangelicals. Human beings admire honesty, fidelity, compassion, fairness, generosity, etc. but most of us fall quite short of living up to those ideals. Evangelicals have committed to a specific mythology and worldview.
Ask any Evangelical why they believe in Jesus, they will tell you a personal and emotional story about being forgiven and accepted.
Religion is based on emotions, not evidence or logic. It's like falling in love. It is emotional and personal, and frequently, very illogical. But we commit and stand by those people and beliefs that we love.
I reject the Evangelical myths and origin stories. I also reject all God based mythology. I wish that humans would be more logical and scientific in their approach to solving the world's problems rather than being religiously tribal. It seems that the best I can do is listen, try to understand, educate, yet stand behind non-religious solutions for the challenges we face personally, nationally, and globally.
7
"But today’s prominent evangelical leaders are mostly conservatives."
They're not 'evangelicals'. They're End Times Second Coming fundamentalists for whom political ideology and theology are one.
It was a mini-scandal when George W. Bush went to Bob Jones University, a bastion of religious racism, in 2000. But, Bush knew who the Republican base was by then and so did they.
They're throughout the Republican caucus in Congress & in Republican state legislatures. And, they are all dangers to democracy & the republic because they are authoritarian by nature.
Maybe, if the MSM daily press covered The Family/The Fellowship/C Street/National Prayer Breakfast more & in more depth, more people would have a better grasp of what they're up to...and, it's nothing good.
13
I am grateful that through education, the use of mind altering substances, and a curiosity about that which is beyond Christianity I was able to break through the repression and oppression of the Catholic religion. World wide religion (except Wicca) is the number one subjugator of women. Why would I want to belong to any of them? One can live a principled life without the belief in some supernatural, make-believe entity or being.
11
Belief in spirits and life after death makes no sense. Kindness and generosity can not overcome this basic problem for religion.
8
While the populations of most Scandinavian countries are "Christian", they are not particularly religious, and common law marriage is quite common.
How then does one explain the fact that, relatively speaking, everyone has healthcare, and no one goes hungry or sleeps on the streets in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, or Iceland and all without the reliance on "charity" let alone religious charity? Perhaps because they have a functioning civil society, are literate, and relatively free of religious corruption and irrationality.
To say that religious people and Christians in particular give more in charity is pure bigotry.
A. Half the world lives on a dollar a day. Are you saying those people are incapable of being charitable without having money? I would say that the poor are the most charitable.
B. Charities are rackets that hoard billions and pay their executives fortunes. For example, the Red Cross kept most of the donations that were intended for the Haitian earthquake relief. Remember?
Ever hear of Christian evangelicals? You know, the ones that voted for Trump. Mindless religion got humanity into this mess, and it's are not going to get us out of it anytime soon.
14
Christianity is not furthered by those who consider the definition of "Christian" as those who have accepted the formula for salvation without any further consideration of the attitudes and actions conveyed by Christ himself. In that regard, it's more like a cult obsessed with what happens in the afterlife and not with their part in society while alive.
5
Christianity will endure—it is the most powerful force in human history. But as this article points out, many of our current "Christian" organized religions are in trouble. The reason these religions are not appealing to young people is simply that they have strayed away from the call of the Gospel, which is to love one another and minister to the poor and the outcasts. Instead, they are caught up in their rules and rituals, and they find themselves advancing some very un-Christian things, such as their hatred of gay people.
But don't be so quick to write off Christianity. The problem is not Jesus, it’s some misguided followers of his. Across the globe there are many millions of wonderful followers of Jesus adhering to his call, and Christianity will be OK.
8
There’s nothing about faith that necessarily makes it a bastion of conservatives. Martin Luther King Jr. and many other liberal civil rights leaders were shaped by their Christian beliefs, Jim Wallis is a liberal evangelical writer with a large following, and Jimmy Carter is truly the unTrump, at age 95 still building houses for the needy. But today’s prominent evangelical leaders are mostly conservatives.
My reply: A lot can be done within the ranks of journalists to improve this.
Columnists who write about religion don't seem to have a firm grounding in church history, and their editors seem no better. Thus, the media doesn't do much to broaden the narrative and discussion to demonstrate that liberal Progressive Christianity exists and that their goals often coincide with the goals of liberal Progressive trends in society: help for the poor and disfranchised; ending racial discrimination; and protection of women's rights, as examples.
Columnists report upon conservative evangelicals and Catholics while ignoring everyone else. When nuanced discussions might prove fruitful, these aren't even taking place.
15
This is the first time I've felt compelled to write a comment. Blaming *anything* for the country becoming less Christian implies that it's a bad thing the country is becoming "less Christian." Why again is it a bad thing? Because only Christians can do good? What does that say to people of other faiths and people of no faith? I was raised in a Christian faith and find this deeply offensive.
29
I think of Janis Joplin singing "Oh Lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz...." the new gospel is "prosperity consciousness" which has nothing to do with the teachings of Jesus. What would Jesus say about these people who pose as Christians and pervert his very simple and clear teachings? "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's"...get out of big $ politics or loose your tax exempt status.
15
"God should have sued Falwell and Robertson for defamation." You can say that again.
As the story has been passed down ... Jesus's parents were made homeless wanderers for years at the hands of the powerful who controlled the fate of the poor. His mother was reduced to giving birth in a barn, a story we sentimentalize but forget that it's a story of forced migration, occupation, desperation, dehumanization and squalor.
Jesus himself, it's said, was an outsider, a loudmouth, a challenger to the status quo who comforted the afflicted and afflicted the comfortable. He died a political prisoner, publicly executed in the cruelest and most humiliating way possible at the time.
The central message of these stories is one of turning the values of our power-obsessed human sensibilities on their head. I attended church this morning. The Gospel reading proclaimed: "all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted."
How did Christianity come to be the facade held up by these ignoble men, Falwell, Robertson, Trump & --let's face it-- just about everyone in a position of power in organized Christianity?
Only people still disregarded, forever belittled & mocked--like nuns, anti-war protestors & climate activists who invoke the teachings of mercy, of olive branches, of good stewardship of our precious earth, of ministry to the weak & sick--only these people still embody the stories told about "Jesus the loser" -- a weak guy by Trump standards.
26
At age 80, brought up in the Presbyterian faith, I've spent
my life watching American Christianity become hopelessly
mired in the right-wing politics of racism and hatred. I've
never abandoned my belief in Jesus' messages of love and
compassion, but it often seems that evangelicals either
ignore or repudiate those central messages.
If I were young today I would see Christianity as a brand
representing faith in guns, white racism and Donald Trump.
I know there are still good American Christians, just as there
ate still American Republicans who honor the law and the
Constitution, but they're silent, they way the Good Germans
were silent during the rise of Adolph Hitler.
Nothing should bring more shame to American Christians
than the Trump government's treatment of migrant children
at our southern border, but instead they're applauded for
helping to Make America White Again.
One consolation of being 80 is that I don't have long to
witness the way Christianity has become another religion
of war, conquest, greed and exclusion. Anyone looking
clearly at Jesus' life would see a socialist liberal preaching
peace and love--the opposite of evangelical Trumpism.
43
When, pray tell, was America ever supposed to be a "Christian nation"? I must have missed that period of American history in any of my classes.
Much to its detriment America has been hag-ridden by Christianity since The First Great Awakening.
A fascist, theocratic, reactionary autocracy, whatever the nomenclature or description, is easier to maintain and govern than is a liberal/progressive democracy. Neither thinking nor governance are required to maintain an autocracy/theocracy.
Is that, perhaps, the true aim of a "Christian nation"?
12
Who needs iron age myths?
17
It's all for the good to be a less religious nation.
17
What kind of a Christian nation would murder innocent indigenous women and children, enslave people based on their color and take manifest destiny to mean expropriating our neighbors lands was their white rightful destiny?
At least now, the citizens pray to the alter of professional sports instead of their hypocritical alter on Sundays. Besides, I thought we separated religion from state.
12
I'm surprised by the word "blame" in your headline but realize you likely didn't write it; its perspective is entitled, pejorative, presumptuous. What of the millions of faithful in other religions? I and plenty millions don't see the decline of Christian hegemony as a negative. You speak of our parents and grandparents? Pfft! That's nothing: Christianity has had far too much power and inflicted far too much damage on humanity for 1600 years; centuries of dictatorship and sadism, child rape, LGBTQ "conversion" and murders, lifelong punishment of unwed mothers, inquisitions' auto da fe, mass genocides... Seriously, it's been endless.
Nor do you mention the slow but steady rise of rationality, logic, and intuition as unquestionably contributing to the decline in Christian views - do they make you uncomfortable? The surveys you cite are of dubious value. I disbelieve that rightwing religious bigots volunteer to help others unless it's narrowly their own kind, and we must acknowledge that many answer "Yes" because they know they're supposed to.
While I have much respect for many aspects of religions, theology, scholarship and philosophies, because I recognize the human longings they represent, I do not personally believe in space fairies of any kind.
6
People can be Christian. But countries? Think again - Crusades, Jihad - not really something to grieve!
16
Instead of putting Christ back in Christmas they need to put Christ back in Christian. Hypocrites. We are called to walk in His footsteps. These ultra conservatives simply can't put their hate and bigotry aside in order to live in this way.
24
Evangelicals should take a hard look at their beliefs if it takes an amoral, destructive and hateful force like the president to make those beliefs come to fruition. They have done nothing but push us more and more toward evil.
15
It's not Christian faith, it's organized Christianity where mere mortals profess knowing God's will in all matters and believe they live a richieous life which we should follow.
5
The Catholic (and not only them) child abuse scandal couldn't have helped. Its never been a better time to be an atheist. Except maybe during the various genocides.
7
Just let it die already. Christianity is bad, and statistics like these are things to be happy about.
12
Exactly.
4
The cover up of the Catholic Church of sex crimes by the clergy also did not help.
6
Thank God!
2
We’re Less and Less a Christian Nation .....
We were NEVER a "christian" nation. thank god
American "christians" are hateful, intolerant, racist, sexist. The farther away we get from them, the better off America and Americans will be.
12
We are more of a Jewish state, starting from US Supreme Court to US Congress to 45th's daughter. They are 4% of US population but probably controls more than 50% of US wealth. Look they are in Wall Street to media, NY Times, you name it.
1
Insisting on your false beliefs without evidence, and -- even worse -- telling people who do not share your false beliefs that they are going to hell, all the while justifying societal practices that harm people, deserves mockery.
10
Today is my 1 year secular anniversary. After years as a devout Catholic--I almost became a nun--I finally called it quits and became....a none.
The reasons I eventually left are boring and utterly predictable. What surprised me was what happened after I left: I got more curious about other people's beliefs. I became a better listener. I stopped having panic attacks about going to hell. I realized my paralyzing fears about "doing womanhood wrong" because I have some "masculine" interests were silly. My Sundays no longer consisted of grumbling all afternoon because the priest's homily was hopelessly off-base and I had no voice to offer a counterpoint. I became a happier--and, dare I say, better--person. It felt like I stepped out of a stuffy room and the world opened up again.
I am a sample size of 1. I know many people have a healthy relationship with their faith. I am very happy for them! But, for this millennial, becoming less Christian was the right call.
23
I appreciate Kristof's article as an agnostic theist. It was only a couple months ago that I admitted this to myself. I haven't looked back. Kristof touches on several reasons why.
This past May, the Alabama abortion bill passed and every fibre of my being was both heartbroken and angry. I raised money for the Yellowhammer Fund (funding for anyone seeking care at one of Alabama's three abortion clinics and will help with other barriers to access). I feared going to Hell because of this. I hoped going to church would make up for my "sin" and whenever I could not make it one Sunday, I would be on the verge of a mental breakdown.
When Pride month (June) came around, I was ashamed to be associated with the Christian community. It is not in my heart to not be the best ally possible and it is not in my heart to tell a person that they are not accepted because of who they love.
After about a year and a half, it felt as though I had been brainwashed with these ideas of hate. Fear of going to Hell was the only thing that itched me to go every Sunday.
6
Anyone who believes in a supernatural state is an idiot. not a shred of evidence to support stupid ideas.
7
MLK was not a "liberal". His views outside of civil rights and racial injustice was pretty traditional, like most of the African American community, at the time. Does a desire to not be lynched, subjugated, or disenfranchised in and of itself constitute a liberal point of view?
7
Less Christian? We were never meant to be Christian. Secular, please. Do I need to remind you of all the damage done in the name of Christianity?
11
Historians of our founding generally agree the United States was not formulated as a Christian nation. Neither the Constitution nor the Bill of Rights make any reference to creating a
Christian nation. Nor did Lincoln in his major addresses. Since the Europeans were generally Christian its not surprising most Americans have been Christian. But that did not preclude virtual extermination of the Native Peoples, a Civil War with nearly a million casualties and nearly a decade of Jim Crow Laws throughout the South. Rather than bemoan the reduced numbers
of the faithful we ought celebrate that by most accounts America is viewed as the greatest nation anywhere. Just ask the millions of immigrants and illegals who seek our borders.
4
I agree with former President George W. Bush when asked if he is a Christian and his response is politically correct . He answered , " I think the Kingdom of Heaven should become a Republic ! "
1
What’s the problem? I consider this good news.
9
We are not a christian nation. Our constitution guarantees us religious freedom or none at all. Its about time we accept that decent human beings do not and should not need religion to be decent.
11
I question the use of the word "blame" in the title. Maybe we should thank the 'intolerant conservative evangelists'. Anything that discourages the scourge of religion is a good thing.
8
Religions are based on Faith. Religious folks believe in their prophets, their books and their gods. They believe in those things without benefit of any evidence to support their beliefs. In the United States, Christian beliefs corrupt our secular life including (but not limited to) our constitution, tax code, educational institutions, and entry into government service. An atheist has no chance to win a congressional seat unless they pretend to be religious. No wonder the younger generation are becoming 'nones'. If 'religions' were based on the 'worship' of relevant, provable aspects of life instead of superstitious beliefs of ancient cultures, I wouldn't have been a life-long (70 year) 'none'. So I say good for the vocal christian blowhards you write about. Something has to make the United States a minority religious country so it is governed as an evidence-based society.
8
tl'dr? Here's what it says: Jesus was all about love. Modern evangelicals are (mostly) about hate. The youngsters don't like it. I don't either, but I'm old.
6
Christians have basically kicked out anyone with different beliefs, most of whom are young people. Christianity in America will die with them as result.
My story is that I was raised Catholic, attended Catholic elementary and high schools. There were abusive clergy members at both levels. Later I went to law school.
After I passed the bar exam I was contacted by a childhood classmate who was the victim of a priest's sexual abuse. He filed suit against the church. They hired very expensive, very aggressive, scorched earth attorneys. They called my friend, who was 12 at the time a "willing participant" in a series of "consensual" sexual encounters.
They sent at least 2 attorneys to every meeting, deposition, hearing, etc. The combined billable rate was well over $1000/hour. Every time I saw the collection plate at church it sickened me to think that a large sum of money being donated was going to be used to stonewall, embarrass and accuse victims who were children at the time.
I turned away and never looked back and I consider anyone who can know of this abuse, yet continues to support the Catholic church, a sucker or co-conspirator, my own family included.
9
I was born and raised a "Cradle Catholic" but abandoned that sect at age 25, then rejected all religions shortly thereafter. Looking back at my life now at 76, I think one of the greatest gifts I gave to my two children was a free-thinking, secular upbringing, free from the guilt, oppression and shame inbred in religion. They were brought up with the Golden Rule as their "faith," and are better men for it.
11
It is also the preaching of hatred and intolerance by 'ministers' from their pulpits. This fear, hatred, ignorance, and intolerance is 100% antithetical to the teaching of Jesus Christ. All these Christians who are proselytizing the above need for the sake of their own souls and the preservation of Christianity need to go into solitude and immerse themselves with contemplation and prayer in the Beatitudes. I know there are devoted, generous, and compassionate Christians who do adhere to Christ's teachings but honestly you all made a great mistake by not reining in the aberrant belief and practices of your brothers and sisters who have and are following the teachings of satin, the anti-christ, whom? Certainly not Jesus Christ.
2
Christianity can either be a cult or a calling. It is distinguished by whether it is a guiding light or a cattle prod, whether it challenges your most base instincts or appeals to them.
Modern televised evangelicalism is a cult, plain and simple. Remove comfort, wealth, education and the rule of law and it has the potential to go full-on ISIS.
6
Christian nation....? First of all, we officially made that disclaimer 200 years ago when John Adams wrote to the Moors (Muslims) in the Middle East to reassure them that trading with us did not mean they would be overpowered by a "Christian nation"... he recalled to them even then (wink) that our Constitution and Bill of Rights guaranteed that we were a nation that believed in freedom of religion (the right to believe as each of us wishes) and, in essence, freedom from religion (the promise that our government would not force any religion upon any of us).
Given that, still too many WASPs, Evangelicals, blowhards believe in their ignorance and their arrogance that we are a Christian nation. As the Bible says, the truth lies in our DEEDS, not in our words. Far too many of our DEEDS, our acts, have betrayed the fact that at our core we are not Christians unless simply calling oneself a "Christian" makes it so.
I think Ghandi said it best when he said, "I like your Jesus. But I do not like your Christians. They are so unlike your Jesus." Jesus would be ashamed and disgusted at far too many of us and how we have acted as a nation to ever endorse using his name to represent our country.
9
These are dark days for faith. You have all the sexual exploitation of children ravaging Catholicism and you have evangelicals' hypocritical support of Trump, a man few would call in step with Christian values. So what are young people suppose to think? Why would they want to be a part of something that so blatantly supports cruelty and hate? Which is unfortunate. Humans, for reasons science has yet to uncover, have an impulse toward spirituality and religion helps them define that impulse. Christian leaders are effectively removing Christianity as a viable option for young people who seek the comfort and belonging of an organized religion. Unless that changes, and those who lead the religion evolve with the times, it is possible to see Christian influence in our country wane over the next couple generations.
6
Religion, like sex, is best practised in private. A great Canadian Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau, once declared that " there is no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation". I would add to that by saying that there is no place for religion in the government of the nation.
6
As a Jew raised in the Bronx, I got fed up years ago with those of any and all "religious" faiths spouting fear, hate, divisiveness and they are the "only truth". With more young people being educated, opening their eyes and minds to the real world, enabling them to see the utter hypocrisy and hatred of people like Jerry Falwell, jr, Franklin Graham. Critical thinking will overcome the evil that these false profits, including trump and his minions spout. Open minds, critical thinking, truth and trust will overcome liars and hubris. If not, we're all cooked.
11
Trust me, Mr. Kristoff, some intolerant conservative Catholics, have tainted the faith, also- liberal Catholics do not agree with these people!
2
When the faith of a great people dies and isn't replaced with anything, then the great people die.
It is a fact.
The rise of America can be directly tied to its faith. The decay and eventual ruin of America is also tied directly to its lack of faith.
Study all great civilizations...this is the course they follow. And it is the one America is on now.
So celebrate the end of your national religion of Christianity at your peril Americans.
4
Mr. Kristof- maybe we should thank the blow hards instead. As far as I can tell, I have seen more damage done over the years than good from so called Christians. I believe people who are compassionate, loving, honest and have strong ethics will practice any faith that appeals to them or they find valuable or none at all, it matters now. What matters is inside them, not any outward show. I believe young people are sick of hypocrites, and we still have just as many great compassionate, honest people! Actions, not words.
2
One of these days Trump will announce during a “prayer breakfast” that the sermon on the mount is fake news. And they will all be relieved.
5
Not sure we need to bemoan fewer people believing in something imaginary.
6
We aren’t founded on any one religion. And some Christians don’t act like Christians. What else is new?
1
"The Faith" has been tainted for millennia. "Do unto others as you would have done to you". Everything else is politics.
2
It's the Pat Robertsons who mock Christianity. Have we forgotten Martin Luther and the Reformation?
3
There is no consistency across religion. We don't argue and fight over invisible gravity, it just IS ..consistent.
When God's son was on earth he never wrote anything. The journalists of the time had no code of ethics. Some even added a paragraph to a work of Josephus about Christ which clearly didn't fit but was deemed "ethical".
Very high probability of Fake News from whoever professes to know the truth of what was said long ago. But then the value of truth was never high and still struggles.
Beware the man who claims to know the mind of God, that man is dangerous.
5
Given that the United States was never supposed to be a Christian Nation, if the "Blowhards" are responsible for the nation that is supposed to have Separation of Church and Sate becoming :"Less & Less of a Christian Nation." I would like to
extend my thanks to the "Blowhards".
6
Jimmy Carter is a true role model for Christians.
Falwell, Jr. and Franklin Graham? They dishonor the faith.
Trump's pastor? Whatever her name is - she is the opposite of a Christian.
And Trump HAS played them all like a fiddle.
Don't bother focussing on Trump's sexual immorality anymore.
His amoral presidency has more than enough to make us all step back in shock. THIS man is our president?
10
When you dance with the Devil you agree to pay the piper. The Devil doesn't change you do.
Evangelicals chose to dance with the Devil.
9
Personally, I would like all the religious types to stay out of my healthcare and all science. While we are at it, separate church and state at the Supreme Court and with the Opus Dei AG Barr or I will not abide by the rulings until there is balance.
5
Today’s evangelicals are like the Pharisees and Sadducees that Jesus denounced.
7
We never were a Christian nation.
The government of the United States is in no sense founded on the Christian religion . . .
- Treaty of Tripoli
2
The church has always been corrupt and immoral. That is not news.
4
Are you just now, Nick, smelling the coffee in regard to peoples' perceptions of so-called "evangelicals" in the U.S.? My first memories started with the Moral Majority and a Reagan administration that was wringing its hands over Billy Crystal playing a gay character in the 1970's sitcom Soap.
2
With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil—that takes religion.
-- Steven Weinberg
5
Don’t blame anyone, Nick. Turning away from superstition and ignorance is always a good thing.
8
I went to many different Protestant churches when I was young, because we moved a lot and my mother always picked the church which most of our neighbors attended....I didn't care for any of them, but remember the Episcopal Church as the most welcoming and entertaining. Became Catholic with my marriage and left that long ago. I am presently a Unitarian, a group which does much good because it's the right thing to do, not because some invisible being might punish them.
3
Dear Sir,
If your world view is materialist, you cannot judge what's happening in spiritual spheres. If your world view is spiritual, but all spiritual ideas are equally valid, then, again, you really cannot judge what's happening under the authority of Him Who said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. It may be messy from a worldly perspective, but God accomplishes His purposes.
2
@Robert Currie
What are spiritual spheres? Sphere is a geometric object. You can see it, touch it, calculate its surface area, volume etc. How can a sphere be spiritual if you cannot do any of that.
3
“’The U.S. is steadily becoming less Christian and less religiously observant.’”
Well, it’s about time! Or, as Lenny Bruce put it - perhaps “the people are leaving the Church and going back to God.”
Kristoff ‘s examples of religion’s hypocrisy and lust for power indicate a few of the many reasons why religion has shot itself in the foot. As an accompanying editorial points out, Bill Barr and other fundamentalists want lower barriers between church and state, and to enforce their view of morality on the whole country.
But there is a more fundamental reason underlying the decline of religion. It has outlived its usefulness. Religion has clearly demonstrated that it is a flimsy, abstract foundation on which to build a complex social order, an order that is composed of concrete, material reality rather than abstract and abstruse forces.
People are beginning to recognize that our fate is not in the hands of some Big Daddy in the sky, but in our human hands. We are faced with huge challenges globally, not the least of which is climate change. We can either make a decision to force governments and corporations to do something, and we can make changes in our personal behavior – or we can wait for some god to sweep down from the heavens in a fiery chariot and smite our enemy.
We need to ACT. But when you give up your power to superstition, NOTHING CHANGES. And it takes all the courage out of it, the courage to admit this stark reality: that people are all we have.
5
My DAR background identified me as Christian. My attendance spotty and the church varied. Aging, the churches disappointed, offered less and asked for more. Periodically I would go searching for a church to join, visiting different denominations. I just wanted spiritual support and a place to make new friends. One Sunday a couple from the church I had attended that morning beat me home - introducing themselves, welcoming me and, frankly, urging me to join and make my annual pledge. One church had a reportedly very popular singles group - most of the women attending their gathering were new; most of the men had been in the group for a couple of decades. The women I met were often distressed through loss of their spouse - divorce or widowhood - and inexperienced in the simple functions of life - managing a checking account. I had merely been single all of my life, handled it well and just wanted to meet people in a new City. My hopes of finding a fit dwindled. I was very uncomfortable meeting people who were very rude to me and critical of others, and then calling them on the phone to hear their voicemail messsage say, "Have a blessed day." In sales, I was frustrated by customers saying, "I'll pray on it." Such hypocrisy. I was far more "Christian" despite the lack of regular attendance. Now in my senior years, I'll still respond "Protestant", but actually evolved my own beliefs. I care much more about morality and honesty than I do attending a Bible class.
7
Christian nation? I thought we were a nation of laws.
Christianity is merely a gloss for evangelicals whose true religion is extractive capitalism. They use the Bible as confirmation of their strongly held beliefs rather than as a means of transformation into more christ like people.
3
@Rebecca Sharad
We are not a Christian Nation. I am Jewish and as far as I know I am an American.
Now, where we disagree is that we are a nation of laws. Either or laws are not worth much or we are not a nation of laws. Otherwise, how could a person like Donald Trump be still President of the United States of America, having lied through his teeth every hour of his life as President, committed crimes in the past against his wives, tax authorities, business partners, employees and contractors?
3
@Rebecca Sharad I was thinking of a response, but you said it. Organized religion has been the source of the world's most debilitating maladies since day one. If christianity means treating other people with nicety and dignity, I'm all for it. When I asked the nun how could Jesus, recently dead, push the rock aside and float into heaven, a fantastical myth if ever there was one, she said "Shut up! He did!" My motto is listen to the person, respect, imagine the shoes he walks in and try to help. It's personal, not organized.
Today’s gospel portion of the lectionary was Luke 18:9-14. It concerns humility. Our preacher, Jeff, delivered a clear, effective message on the topic, and quoted a survey concerning the decline in Christianity in our country. After the service, I asked Jeff if he had read this column while preparing his sermon, which he had not. The message should be clear; followers of Jesus leave judgement to God.
4
As your science writers often make clear, correlation is not causation. Older Americans are more likely to identify as Christian and to donate and volunteer. As I have aged, I have donated and volunteered more - post-mortgage I have the money and in retirement I have the time.
As someone who identifies as a follower of Christ, but is not a Christian (his words and deeds speak for themselves and require no descent from a god), I can attest that what keeps me from attending church is the arrogance and denial of Christ's teachings by his so-called followers. Evangelicals and Roman Catholic Church leaders have done more to harm Christianity than all other forces.
5
It has been at least 50 years since I entered a church for any service beyond weddings or funerals. Does that mean I don't lead a moral life or feel it is my duty as a human being to help others without proviso? I can't imagine life any other way.
I'm proud of the work done by non-religious organizations in our community especially when I note the requirements attached to help from some of the "churches" in our area.
4
Our Lutheran church- a relatively small congregation- is active in service for homeless families, after school parent assistance,overseas mission work, local outreach to the needy and we are now a sanctuary domain .We have a message of inclusivity, faith and humility, not the values promoted by many "big-box" churches in our community. It is unclear what will transpire in the next few years regarding our membership, but our church community is committed to core Christian values, not overtly political ones.
8
I was raised Catholic and socialist. I learned the Bible well and entered the Society of Jesus. I eventually realized that there was absolutely no evidence for God and there was no need to be Christian or religious at all to do good works in the world, so I let it go. There have been a thousand gods in the history of humankind; there is nothing special about Christianity except that it grew through an extraordinarily good hierarchical structure and then partnered with government for 1600 years.
A lot of "nones," I'm sure, are reacting to the evangelical monster that brings to mind Moloch rather than Jesus. But others have simply chosen thought as a superior way of dealing with the world than faith in something eternally unprovable.
8
It's not about "laws" and "doctrine", what matters is things like character, integrity, faithfulness, kindness, genuineness, etc.
5
"Surveys find that religious Americans donate more to charity than secular Americans and are substantially more likely to volunteer. "
Only if you include money and time given to the churches. This is as much charity as a bowling league. The money and time is used for marketing.
11
What these evangelical types are seeing isn't a war on Christianity; it's a backlash against their brand of that faith. Not content to just practice their religion, they want to make everyone else practice it, too.
They've become so accustomed to forcing their beliefs into secular life and law, that anything less feels like persecution to them.
The pews are being emptied with a quickness, and younger people want nothing to do with them, as the article states. If they can't find a way to reform themselves after hitching their wagon to Trumpism, they'll become increasingly irrelevant to American life and values.
14
The agnostics/atheists are increasing in number. ¿Why does this concern Nicholas Kristoff? This is not necessarily bad. Religion has been responsible for wars, intolerance … And religions engage in group think. Some even reject other religions and believe that only their religion expresses the true word of god[s] and that they are the chosen.
Yes they may give more to charity. ¿Which ones? ¿Do the charities actually give a large percentage of their funds to charity? ¿Or are they vehicles for proselytizing?¿Or are they religious institutions?
¿Do we really need charity or social change?
¿Are agnostics and atheists are not as "moral" as the believers?
5
Talk to any survivor of abuse within a church environment- and this includes religions other than Christianity- about how glad we are that attendance at churches is down. Abuse- sexual, financial, emotional- is rampant in the church environment because churches have very little accountability or oversight. Society gives churches the benefit of the doubt because churches are supposed to be places where morality and ethics are taught and practiced. As we saw with the discovery and subsequent cover ups of sexual abuse within the Catholic church, churches are not any more ethical than civil institutions, and crimes are often not reported outside of the church to civil authorities. Religious people are often not prosecuted for crimes within the church and go on to commit more. We must as a society stop thinking that clergy and church attendees are any more ethical than secular society, because it just isn't true. When we get rid of this pervasive false belief, it is only then that church people can be held accountable for crimes they commit and abuse they perpetuate.
3
I’m sympathetic to Kristof and those Christians, Evangelical and otherwise, who want to make the world better. Yet as a Jew, I have reservations about Evangelical Christianity’s view that one only gets to heaven through acceptance of Jesus. It’s not that I care about the afterlife portrayed in contemporary American Christian culture, but there is something fundamentally wrong with the exclusionary attitude and pretentiousness of those who feel that they have an exclusive right to being rewarded by G-d. Implicit in this belief is the unjustified certainty that Christians are somehow better than anyone else. In addition, some Evangelical leaders suggest that the seconds it takes to affirm one’s faith in Jesus is more important than a lifetime spent in work that benefits the world or one’s own spiritual improvement. I have little doubt that lives may be transformed by a momentary experience whether it be religious or other revelation; however, religious leaders of any faith who claim to provide unique access to this transformation have more in common with snake oil salesmen, cult leaders, and tyrants than to the historical Jesus. I agree with Kristof that the threat to Christianity is not from secularists but would suggest that the main threats are both the false path provided by the blowhards among Evangelical leaders and the Evangelicals' belief in their moral superiority over others. Sadly, religious justifications for intolerance of the other is not unique to Christianity.
11
Why should the US be a Christian nation? What does that mean to Jews, Muslims, Hindus, etc. Are these people not Americans, too? I deplore the breakdown of the separation of church and state that was stipulated by the founding fathers. A big problem is that the preservation of the institutions of organized religion has become far more important to religious leaders than the message that religion was supposed to communicate.
10
It hurts my heart to see how many people have been wounded by other people’s’ attempts at the spirit.
All the sophisticated post modernist texts that I have read, and all of the mystical reflections from multiple traditions, cannot give an adequate answer to this suffering.
My tradition, which I left for many years, like most world traditions, simply affirms that what many of us called God, dwells with us in this suffering. And it affirms that the weirdo that created this mess, is with us — and also prevails. Only the good, love, truth really count in the end.
2
By cherry-picking a given verse in the Bible one can support any view they wish to espouse, be it love or hate or anything inbetween. When one believes another person is more expert at knowing and understanding the bible, it creates a path for using religion to control others. When the concept of faith is applied, it tells the followers that they must believe without questioning. Many young people understand this and see the conservative right exploiting religion for their own social agenda, and that is what turns them off to it. I prefer to cherry-pick on my own, and Matthew 7:15-20 is a good place to start it, is low hanging fruit and it is the sweetest.
2
I have a theory that, among a number of traits, people are either generally compassionate or they are punishers. A punisher is a person whose first response when confronted with others in need is to blame those people for not leading a good life. I think that's what a large segment of evangelicals share with a large segment of Republicans. This is one reason I would never join either of those two groups. I really can't believe the punishers consider themselves Christians. Maybe it's time to create a new religion that the punishers can join and start up their own Inquisition?
12
When the priest teaching our moral theology class in college said that people did not have a moral obligation to call the police as they listened to Kitty Genovese being murdered in NYC, I was done with that particular organized religion. We did file a complaint with the dean, and he did not return. The more I reflect on all this, the more organized religion seems to be all about power, particularly over women. I don't think that's what its founder had in mind.
7
As a gay person and a woman, I have been on the receiving end of “weaponized religion”my entire life. I have also realized that there is a vast difference between spiritual practice and religion that only rarely intersects.
9
This is good news. Christians aren't on average very nice people. The tiny minority that is nice is in denial about it. Christians never have been nice. The separation of church and state was solely to contain them. Sadly it didn't work.
13
It seems to me that the author's logic here is perfectly backwards: the shift in mainstream vs evangelical church adherence was the cause of these now-devastating political associations, not the effect of them. Catholic and mainstream Protestant church attendance has been declining since the early 20th century, and rabid evangelicalism has been experiencing a corresponding rise in popularity since the 60s. So while an association with hard-line conservatism may have accelerated the rate of abandonment of the church, It isn't the underlying cause.
I'm one of the atheist Gen-Z types being spoken for here, and I can definitely say that these issues with gay marriage, etc., did play a part of my early disinclination towards Christianity, but that they never formed the basis for my wholesale abandonment of religion. Upon reflection, those reasons were/are twofold: First, there is the philosophical point that, theologically speaking, the evangelicals aren't wrong: the Bible has nothing flattering to say about gays; The point is, who cares? The dialectical upshot is all too clear: anyone who would take the Bible as a definitive source of morality is just insane. Second is the related point that any church willing to openly pipe in its own morality would seem to defeat the purpose.
7
Just curious, Mr. Kristof, what evidence do you have that any Christian organization, Catholic or otherwise, ever went to a non-Christian country “to make the world a better place”? From where I sit, ever foreign enterprise ever engaged in by any religious organization was specifically and exclusively performed to further the power and influence of that religion.
No doubt, there may be counter examples of which I am not aware. However, by far, the majority of Christian incursions into non-Christian countries have resulted in the destruction of existing cultures and the deaths of thousands of indigenous peoples and in no way made the world “a better place”.
13
Civilization can only advance when people abandon faith in favor of reason. Religion, all religion, is steeped in archaic beliefs in the supernatural that have no place in the modern world. Critical thinking and the use of reason is far stronger foundation on which to base a society than blind faith in the preposterous. If you want to see the consequences of religion, look at the history of the world. No thanks. I'll take the uncertain future with the use of reason to solve societal problems rather than more of the same.
Come on Nicholas, do you really believe in a divine creator and all that superstitious, supernatural bunk that comes along with Christianity and all the other major religions? How many angels can we actually stand on the head of pin? Let's move away from absurd beliefs into the realm of empiricism and rationalism. We stand a far better chance of getting things right if we do.
15
I love Kristoff's opinion columns, but I don't think "The central issue is that faith is supposed to provide moral guidance."
Inside the Christian tradition, the orthodox meaning of "faith" is the belief that the adherent cannot be separated from God. While the exact nature of this connection between humans and God has been the subject of controversy -- and indeed is part of the reason Jesus is said to have been killed -- all forms of Christianity do hold to the idea that trust in a relationship with God with Jesus functioning as a specialized locus of attention is at the heart of the religion.
There is simply no guarantee that moral guidance -- and proper moral action -- will necessarily flow from this metaphysical assertion. Statements of fidelity to beliefs and other theological propositions are just that -- statements -- not actions.
Young people are not deceived. The majority of Americans have historical been Christians. The same is also true of Europe and Russia. Yet over the last century it is these nations which have plunged the world twice into global wars with immense destruction and loss of life. So, clearly a self-proclaimed fidelity to Christianity is no guarantor of moral behavior. Christians have not stopped the modification of climate whose severe effects are beginning to sprout everywhere (California now has more than 1,000 ongoing wildfires, large and small.)
That allegiance to Christianity is falling should not seem suprising.
9
Wow, you struck a gold mine, Nicholas. I was going to write a comment about the disconnect between morality and formulized religion, but I read many of the readers' comments first and am amazed at the quality of thought that went into so many of them. And such a similarity of experience and values with my own. I'm 72 and I'll daresay many people who wrote comments are also in my age group. I would only add one thing: blowhard evangelicals are not at all new but mass media and the political power they have gained has drawn attention to their misvalues. Every religion seems to have thrown up its own version of real versus fake moral values. I certainly believe in the centrality of Jesus's teachings. And I think it is correct to say that Christianity was the predominant religion in North America, at least for some centuries. But it was around 150 years ago that Ralph Waldo Emerson lamented "2000 years of Christianity and not a Christian in sight". This split between the real and the false goes back about 2000 years and is rooted in the splits in human nature.
9
this is a good thing. There is no need to call America a Christian nation. There is separation of church and state for good reason.. Religious doctrine tends to be intolerant and myopic. It is based upon fantasy mostly. A secular, more scientifically driven country will take us into the 21st century. I have no problem with people believing in their faith, but do not decry the rest of us throwing off the chains of antiquity.
12
Thank "God" the young are increasingly rejecting the phony branches of Christianity, but I fear that they are awash in
a sea of meaningless sensory overload with not much to believe in or give them "strength for the journey."
At best, organized religions provide cultural continuity, moral guidance, reliable social connections, and charity. But they also can and do manifest the worst of human nature. It will be interesting to see what upcoming generations come up with to replace what church has historically offered. Social media and computer technology may provide infinite distractions, but these do not answer the big questions of why we are here and how we should live.
As a long time seeker of spiritual truth, I find that I can count on the laws of nature and the practice of love. How will you make sense of this life, dear young ones?
4
It's a mystery to me what " Evangelical Christians" think they are evangelizing, because it is certainly not the Gospels written for us by the Four Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, or the Epistles written mostly by Paul. At most, "Evangelical" doctrine, if one can even call it that, consists mainly of a handful of very selective readings from the Old Testament chosen to buttress essentially political arguments about contemporary society. It is no mistake that this phony "Christianity" emerged from the deeply conservative white South during the first half of the 20th century and became explicitly political with the founding of the so-called Moral Majority in reaction to the sweeping social changes of the 1960s and 1970s. This political movement now has it's own political party -- the Republican party. Seen in this true light, the movement's fervent embrace of Donald Trump, public sinner who had not seen the inside of a church in 50 years, as its political leader is not surprising.
Though I myself am a Christian who attends Mass every Sunday, I would consider it difficult to argue to any of these millions of youthful skeptics that they are wrong -- not when this is the face of "Christianity" they see.
9
Mr. Kristof, if I'm not mistaken, the Founding Fathers considered themselves deists, not Christians. And they made it clear in our Constitution that there is separation between church and state, something too many so called Christians seems to want to forget until tax time.
8
The seeds for what Mr. Kristof describes, intolerance, sexism and all the rest, were present at the very beginning of what became Christianity. Let me suggest two books, written by authors coming from very different starting points, that illustrate that point. (There is a full literature on this topic. These two are very reader friendly as well as rigorous.)
"Zealot", by Reza Aslan, makes the point that there were many "Jesuses" in Palestine at the time of Jesus. They all had strong messages and they all met equally grisly ends. How Jesus Jesus' message prevailed is the meat of the book.
"The Darkening Age", by Catherine Nixey, tells the story of the near complete destruction of Classical (read Roman) civilization by the ascending movement of Christians. What is interesting here is the tropes we hear today, the persecution rhetoric, the messianic drive, have been present from the beginning. Today's blowhards are part of a "tradition" that goes back to the beginning.
Today's adherents and apologists, eloquent though they may be, rarely, if ever, acknowledge that there are tainted roots among the flowers of heaven, but their bitter fruit is abundantly present. Maybe it has taken 2000 years for the internal contradictions to play out for all to see, if not acknowledge.
8
If I believed in a God I would assume that the dreadful weather on the east coast and the fires on the west coast and the melting of the ice caps were punishments meted out to humanity for our evil ways. But as a rational scientifically minded person I see this as the consequence of putting too much CO2 into the atmosphere and warming it beyond what it can absorb and adjust to. And yet, when I step back both views come to similar ends.
The difference is that the God belief allows humanity to continue to poison the only planet it has evolved to live on and , of course, ultimately destroy itself; while the scientific view leaves humanity room to change behavior and save itself and its progeny.
So will humanity be too superstitious and passive to save itself?
7
Whatever Christian happened to godly behavior and saving souls?
Built Graham spoke to two audiences. His purpose was saving souls. He called Christians to confess and repent. He called the rest to accept Jesus. Everything he said led up to the final moment's alter-call to renew the relationship with Christ or accept it. Those who have experienced it know it matters above all else.
I'm not saying abortion is wrong or right. All the attention the politics of abortion is the Devil's distraction. God will punish. It's not the fight Christians need to appear to be in first, exclusively, and unquestionably. By idolizing politics, they place their hopes on government and its regulatory processes.
The goal of evangelicals is no longer saving each person's soul, but to win the battle against moral failings and to gain control of the culture.
4
Excellent article! It describes one of the reasons I left the Catholic Church 40 years ago at 18: the hypocrisy of too many practitioners, who viewed themselves as better then me only because they went to church, nevertheless married , divorced and re-married, finding loopholes to have a Catholic wedding each time. In the meantime, I never divorced (same wonderful husband after 30 years, two caring sons). But I also know many wonderful Catholics, including laypeople, priests, and nuns, who truly help the needy and espouse the classical doctrine of the Catholic Church, which is based on the ideal of social justice, although I strongly diverge with them regarding abortion and LGBT rights. These admirable Catholics do not trump their religion, they live it quietly day-by-day, doing good deeds, and earning everybody's respect, no fear of being ridiculed!! But I have two additional comments on the article: 1) I ultimately stayed out of the Church because I simply do not believe in God; 2) Moral values are not the prerogative of religious people. In fact, sometimes it is the non-religious people who live by higher moral standards than the religious ones (see my example above). So I think it is crucial that people stop equating religiosity with morality and atheism with immorality (example: the Catholic Church's history is full of bishops who had children NOT by immaculate conception). People are simply people, and should be judged by their behaviour, not by their ideology.
13
The U.S. is a 'Christian Nation'? This is a deeply retrograde statement.
Religion thrives in the country and is welcomes, but isn't this country founded on separation of church and state?
There's a great bit of confusion embodied in your column. Remember, the in the so-called Pedge of Allegiance, the phrase "one nation, under God," was inserted in the 1950s—where are the 'originalists' on that act of aggression and intolerance?
11
Why I left the church? As a child, I saw through the phony sermons. I read myths and the bible just seemed like a less entertaining version. I watched people look down on others to "lessen" their sins. I saw religion used as a smothering sheet of plastic instead of a warm blanket. I heard plenty of hellfire and brimstone but heard little of helping those in need. I saw millions of little crosses to commemorate the aborted but no effort to help the ostracized pregnant or provide free childcare. I am secular and my volunteer work is not traceable by most standards. I cut grass, do home repair and mentor kids for free.
20
To say that one is a Christian in a religiously diverse nation that also includes the non-religious is not the same thing as saying that one is a Hindu, a Jew, a Muslim, or an atheist in a Christian nation. Kristof appears to be saying (and praising) the latter about the United States. That’s an idea that fuels the very intolerance that he is otherwise attempting to criticize.
13
As an atheist, I assure you that the few Christians out there who practice empathy, humility and kindness like their prophet are REFRESHING. I'm thankful for them.
15
@Ally Agree, but I find there are a LOT of them...although they are quiet and speak with their social justice actions and you'll rarely see them written about in the media like the "blow hards" Kristof writes about.
I was raised in a first testament version of Catholicism. It never made much sense to me as a child. As I grew into adulthood and learned more about science, it became clear that there is no basis in evidence for any of the world's religions. As I've gotten older, and learned more of the large and small harmful effects it has had and continues to have on our planet, I have come to see faith-based reasoning as one of the most dangerous and evil forces on the planet. Belief without evidence, no matter its source, makes little sense. Combine that with religious absolutes that require one to never question the source of the rules and you have a recipe for disaster. Families, societies, and our planet get torn apart for views that have no basis in evidence or logic. Great harms are justified because they address a "higher good" that is completely fabricated. A minister once told me that "Religion clouds morality" and that he had seen more moral people outside the church than inside. The many examples that you cite in this article nicely illustrate his points.
10
“The U.S. is steadily becoming less Christian and less religiously observant,” the Pew study concluded.
That is fantastic news, thank you. There is hope! An entire world without religion would be so much better off.
Also, if a religion wants to assure its decline, just continue cozying up to this president. All who do, end up regretting it and much worse for it.
24
@SalinasPhil
Nothing to kill or die for
and no religion too,
John Lennon, 1971
4
America's majority version of Christianity is the true culprit, even though we came by it legitimately, bit by bit as the nation's history unfolded. Without going through that historical roadmap, most Christians in America today are Bible literalists who hold to a dispensational millennial worldview and focus on the sins of humankind more than on God's love. This version of Christianity extinguishes the gospel message of God's love, grace, mercy, forgiveness and inclusion of all people in God's ordering of the world. These core values are replaced by hatred of the various sins that America's "Christians" believe will cause God to remove his hand of blessing from the nation. These include the full spread of sexual sins, all the non-heterosexual identities, abortion and methods of birth control that can be viewed as abortion, science, higher education, democracy, secular law, etc. A majority of America's Christians are waiting impatiently for the endow time rapture in which the entire Jewish community and every other human bing not chosen according their definition of righteousness will be gathered together and destroyed along with the planet while they watch from the clouds. It doesn't take a blow-hard to create today's problems with Christianity. It only takes an average pastor living and preaching this twisted version of Christianity in tens of thousands of small church communities all across the nation.
10
@Jack
I love it, thank you for this --
"Human bings"
The phrase is priceless. The point is how worthless we become when we don't reflect on the meaning of our own lives.
Mass Production. Mass Reproduction.
1
Christianity, Islam, Judaism all believe in an apocalyptic "end of the world" .. What a downer way to live life.
15
Very good news! The faster the hypocritical evangelicals lose power, the better. They sold their souls to back a man who cheerfully and routinely breaks all of the commandments. They don't care.
How long did they think that would last? Did they think they'd add new members by abandoning all of the principles they claim to live by and lying about it?
They're just as disgusting as the man they claim was sent to them by God and they will regret their blind support. They're an ongoing disgrace.
14
The tragedy is that the world desperately needs ethical leadership. But not on issues of sexuality. The human race needs to face climate change and environmental collapse. We needs a new ethics that values nature over convenience and greed, and we need it now.
We also need to address the existential threat of humanity-changing technologies such crispr and brain implants. These technologies are not democratic choices. They threaten to become social and economic necessities driven by rampant control capitalism. They will, when commercially introduced, change humanity.
We need ethical leadership, and I would welcome religious discourse that looked to the future rather than fearfully idealized an imaginary past where people only had heterosexual relations in the bounds of marriage and for procreation.
We have far greater problems than who loves who.
5
no, there is not much more need for ethical leadership than say thirty years ago. newsflash: the western societys are far safer, less criminal, less violent, more diverse and yes more just than in the famous good ol' days. why? probably free porn and Video Games, Internet (Gate to the hole World!) and better education for more People. is all well? no, but it is much better as hysterical Media want you to believe. we don't need religions from the Bronze age. we are better of without religious bigots of any nonexistent fairy tale goddess.
"Surveys find that religious Americans donate more to charity than secular Americans..."
This may be factually correct on a superficial level, but if you were to strip out donations made by religious Americans to their own religion (clearly not real charity, but rather self-serving donations) and then compare their generosity to that of secular Americans I strongly suspect that secular Americans are substantially more charitable.
16
After spending the first five decades of my life as a very devout Mormon, yes and Mormons are Christians, I started investigating the origins of my church. I discovered that it was founded by a man who was a fraud, a philanderer, an individual who should never be considered to be a prophet of any God. When I realized my religion was not true, I started investigating Christianity and all other world religions. Now that I'm on this side of the fence looking at the believers from a rational and non-believing point of view, I am amazed that so many put so much faith in a book which has so little foundation to support it's adherent's claims of infallibility. What we call Christianity today, comes from a tortured beginning. There were various sects of Christianity, that arose in the 1st and 2nd centuries , such as Ebionites, gnostics, adoptionists, docetists, some which survived for several centuries, before they lost out to Catholicism. The books of the New Testament are based upon manuscripts or oral Tales of which we have no evidence. The earliest transcripts of the Gospels did not surface until some time between the 2nd and 3rd centuries C.E. these gospels were changed by scribes at different times to fit different philosophical viewpoints of Jesus and his teachings. I do not believe we should be lamenting the diminution of Christianity, but asking ourselves, why it took so long.
20
@Kjensen Beautifully stated.
2
I read this entire -well written, thought provoking- piece, waiting for the author to explain why America is different than Europe.
That distinction never materialized. But they are secularizing faster than Americans, and it's nothing to do with the kind of hate-mongering evangelicalism that is so common here.
And what of the Muslims that are beginning to question their own faith? Israel is increasingly secular as well.
It paints a picture that is scary to some, and rosy to others: the scene is clearly one of conventional religious sentiment withering on the vine.
I don't claim to understand why it's happening, but it's not something I could begin to explore in this comment.
And I simply ain't got the time for my own byline, thank you.
5
Sorry, but there has always been an amoral tendency at the root of Christianity, or at least the kind that has become Evangelicalism. The idea that the consequences all bad behavior can be washed away simply by accepting Christ as your savior implicitly permits all such behavior during this life. The acts of current right-wing evangelicals are not really hypocritical from that perspective. Apparently, Christ will forgive everything that Jesus forbade. That's not a recipe for generating a moral and ethical culture; indeed, it's something of a prescription for the selfishness and malevolence that we see Evangelicals promoting. Trumpism flows very naturally from that spring.
12
What I would to see on this Opinion page is an Op-Ed written by US religious leaders - priests, pastors, imams, rabbis, etc. We need them to speak out on the division that is being driven by politics in this country.
6
Nicholas:
I think that we tend to fall in a common error: to confuse "religion" with "faith"... I am not a religious person, nonetheless, I have faith and I pray daily.
Us believers, do not need to have "intermediaries" between us and God: it is biblical.
9
Thank you, Nick, for articulating my observations about today's "evangelical" right-wingers and their support of Trump. When my husband and I have this conversation, we invariably bring up Jimmy Carter as a beacon of what real Christianity looks like. Trump is the Anti-Christ in both word and deed, and anyone who supports him while claiming to be a Christian is either delusional or hypocritical in the extreme: they should turn off FOX News and pick up a bible.
14
How can the corrupt hierarchy of the Catholic Church provide moral guidance? How can Evangelicals who preach racism, misogyny, homophobia,anti science and xenophobia provide moral guidance?
My wife and I were raised in our faiths but have made the rational judgement that we were better persons than the people speaking anger, intolerance and misogyny from the pulpits. We do not go to church.
Our children do not go to church and I doubt that our grandchildren even think about religion and find being around clerics awkward and troubling given what they read about the scandals and homophobia of religions.
Even Barr cannot push back time. In a generation or two the US will resemble Western Europe.
5
I read this before going to Mass this morning. I agreed with your excellent column. The readings today were in sync with your column.
Sirach 35: “the Lord is not deaf to wail of the orphan, nor the widow. The Psalm 34: The Lord hears the cry of the poor, and the Gospel is Luke 18:9-14 , The Pharisee and the Tax Collector.
“whoever exalts himself will be humbled “ I truly wonder if these Christians ever read the Bible, or do they cherrypick the verse that they want. I live by the word of the Good News, all of it.
6
Mr Kristoff, you seem to be lamenting the loss of our collective moral compass because fewer people believe in a particular brand of religion. As if religion creates “morality”! Religion is just one way for humans to define (and enforce) a moral code, a code which naturally works to the benefit of those who invent it, like any other social structure.
What I find most appalling about your complaint here is that you fail to mention the egregious failure of religions, and often the religious, to live up to their own moral code. In particular, the Catholic Church is a study in hypocrisy of the most reprehensible kind. By its very design, it has ensured the continued sexual predation of young people, and has compounded that trauma over lifetimes by enabling, denying, hiding, and colluding in it. The same type of flaws are inherent in any self-serving, self-protective institution. That’s particularly true when the institution is “accountable” only to a super-natural being who’s intentions can only be magically interpreted by a self-serving priesthood.
You question why people are failing to believe in religion’s moral authority. I question why anyone continues to believe. It’s not “moral” to just take the parts that make one feel good (and self-righteous), and ignore the evil parts that don’t fit the comfortable narrative. That just makes one a collaborator.
13
I’m replying to my own comment to correct my grammar—who’s should be whose. Doh!
@Kelly It sounds like you did not even read the column before complaining. The whole point is not a defense of Christianity, as you seem to think, but an indictment of many of its adherents.
1
I find that talking to someone under 35 about religion seems to them no different than engaging in conversation about the Easter Bunny. It's a patently absurd conversation in which something so preposterous can be taken so seriously.
GOOD!
The absence of religion and its destructive side effects is our only hope of salvation. Ironically.
13
The central tenet of of Christianity is personal salvation contingent upon the suffering, torture, and death of another, "son of God" notwithstanding. There is nothing more selfish and cruel than that. No wonder that "surveys say" that Christianity, and religion in general, has done enormous damage to society.
A real Christian would renounce their personal salvation as contingent upon the suffering of anyone. It's a bad idea.
Judging by the cruelty recorded in American history: yeah, we're definitely A "Christian Nation". Too bad the Christians never take any responsibility.
10
I've never understood why so called adults need to believe in an invisible man in the sky in order to obtain moral guidance.
14
This characterizes no one.
My religion does not take money from the poor, let alone build fancy palaces with it, or decorate Rabbis. Women's rights have always come before the rights of the unborn in Judaism if the life of the mother in in danger. I am a Yeshiva graduate.
Science was not taken out of the curriculum of the Yeshiva from which I graduated. In fact, that school turns out more Siemens-Westinghouse Scholars than do the local public schools, year after year, while the graduating class is far smaller than the graduating classes of the public schools.
Maimonides was a physician, as were a number of other notable Jewish Scholars,and as are many Orthodox Jews.You can't walk into a hospital in New York without bumping into Orthodox Jewish physicians, medical students & residents.
In fact, there is a joke in the Orthodox Jewish community.
"When is a fetus viable ?"
Answer :"When it graduates from medical school."
Obviously , one can not become a doctor if science has been excluded from the school curriculum.
9
“For some young people, Christianity is associated less with love than with hate.”
I’m 57, but delighted to be called “young”.
8
"But a far bigger threat to the “brand” of Christianity comes, I think, from religious blowhards who have entangled faith with bigotry, sexism, homophobia and xenophobia. For some young people, Christianity is associated less with love than with hate."
Very well said! This is the exact problem. And it isn't just young people who believe that "Christianity is associated less with love than with hate". A lot of older folks (like me) think the same way.
Live and let live. And remember Lincoln's words: with malice toward none, with charity for all.
5
You use the word "blame" as if the country becoming less religious is a bad thing. Religion has always been a source of division and strife and based on superstitious beliefs that have not kept pace with what we've learned over the past two millennia. You also seem to endorse one of the great fallacies of religion, that religion makes people more "moral". I think that is utter nonsense and empirically disprovable.
8
@dreamer94 I see no evidence in the column for what you think he is saying. If anything, he is focusing on the immorality of many Christians.
@Bill I'm referring to this quote from the article: "The central issue is that faith is supposed to provide moral guidance — and many moralizing figures on the evangelical right don’t impress young people as moral at all."
I agree with the second part of his sentence but disagree with the first part.
Why do people here judge Christianity based not on the Bible and those who follow it (nick gives examples)? Why do they judge Christianity based on the people who go against the Bible?
1
In Dostoyevsky’s, the Brothers Karamazov, one brother dreams Jesus comes back during the Spanish Inquisition and stands on the street preaching to the crowd. The Grand Inquisitor rides by in his coach and spots Jesus and immediately recognizes who he is. He has Jesus arrested. He taunts Jesus in jail asking “why have you come back espousing messages of love?” This is all about controlling mankind and we have them in control, I paraphrase. This passage is prophetic.
When I hear conservatives and evangelicals whine about a loss of religious freedom I feel they lament the loss of control over the rest of us. They desire to control who we love, how many children we should have and how we live our lives. They don’t condemn children in cages, mass shootings, destruction of the planet, the rich looting the middle class and poor, or a absolutely immoral and unfit president. Control yes, love, not so much.
13
@Redone yes, you are exactly right. You've hit the nail on the head about what is happening here
1
I'm sure the writer is familiar with the oft quoted passage from the Treaty of Tripoli, "the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion." Would this were literally the case. It is long past time that we disavow insistence that supernatural belief is required to live up to the ideas of the United States Constitution. We have seen Christian leaders in this country endorse the worst impulses of a decidedly unchristian president for their own sectarian aims.
6
I left the Church not because of blowhard hypocrisy, but because of the very concrete black and white view of the issues at stake, when the issues at stake have a beautiful and painful complexity to them that can’t be addressed with such black and white concrete thinking. For me, moral reasoning requires us to think in these complexities. And yet, I remain very much a spiritual being, not in a religious way, but in the sense that I value the earth and the people around me in all their complex multifaceted glory.
Looking at charitable giving (time or goods) as discrete and separate from the rest of one’s life is perhaps problematic. Perhaps, when charity is performed as if it is separate from us, and, perhaps, viewed *for* “those people” with no recognition that we are all in this soup together, it produces these blowhard leaders.
When our idea of charitable giving is so narrow in this way, I don't believe we get the full picture. For example, while I do give money personally because I can afford to, I also chose a profession where *all* of my work life is in service to others. I don’t think of it as separate, it’s woven into the fabric of my being and my life. If I were to be asked if I volunteered or donated goods or services, I might have answered “no” or “not in the last seven days” for this very reason. And, I don't believe that I'm an anomaly among the "none" category.
7
Why on earth would this be a bad thing?
9
We are not a Christian nation. Because we aren’t a theocracy. I wish people would stop showing their religion down our throats.
16
I know plenty of “nones” who are both spiritual and charitable. Belief in god doesn’t need to be tied to an institution, especially one that is just as well known for misogyny, racism, child abuse, and hate as it is for its public service.
9
Christianity is no longer the evil it was until the middle of the 20th century. It has been defanged by European Christians. The current evils are Islam and communism, communism in China.
Muslims owe it to humanity to defang Islam by telling the truth: there never was a Muhammad. There is hope that many europeans are Muslims and they will start the process of exposing Islam.
Communism will evaporate because it is a failure. Even China, the last evil communist state, no longer practices true communism.
What is said in the column, and many-most of the comments, could just as easily apply to other major movements, including communism. The foundations were fine, but the deviations, perhaps necessary, from the ideal belief system [religion, philosophy, or tradition] to further the power of those in power is what breaks down. Christianity - I have to kill you to save you, Islam - your beliefs are wrong, so I am going to kill you, Communism - you own so you must die. All kill, directly and individually or in massive scale. The GOOD people will do good to help the space we live in, the BAD will hide behind their faith-tradition and keep extracting power.
2
A reward for a good Christian life is eternity in heaven but who in their right mind would want that if the likes of Falwell, Robertson, Ralph Reed, Phyllis Schlafly, and that ilk, are prowling the grounds and trying to control everything.
11
Why does being identified as a "Christian Nation" matter at all?
7
I too left the Church around the age of 40. I decided that I do not need organized religion to be a decent human being. I believe there was a historical figure named Jesus of Nazareth, yet I have doubts about his divinity,but I try to live by what he stood for, the golden rule. I do not call myself an atheist because I don't know and frankly I don't care. My parents raised me to be a good person, I strive to be honest, kind, loyal and faithful. I have been told that I am a good father and husband. Never cheated on my wife in a 34 year marriage. Since I am human and not perfect, I right any wrongs or slights that I might cause. I say these things, not to pat myself on the back, but to say that at the time of my death, if there is judgement, I cannot believe that I would be "damned" eternally just because I didn't fall to my knees. Thank you for the article.
10
Nick, when Andrew Sullivan was writing his blog, he referred to hate-preaching evangelicals as "christianists" as in the way the news used to refer to radical fundamentalist followers of Mohammed as "Islamists". The way this Episcopalian views the message of Jesus is to love God and to love my neighbor, both core beliefs of the Hebrew scriptures. Jesus radicalized his culture by answering the question, "who is my neighbor?", with the answer being someone not of my tribe, someone whose beliefs I may consider heretical, and always, always, the dispossessed. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, it is the religious man who walks by the wounded man, so that he not risk becoming ritually unclean. The Samaritan--the unclean, the unorthodox man-- shows kindness and mercy without fear of the Law. I sometimes wonder what the man who taught this parable would think if faced with christianists.
9
Maybe less people are Christian because people have realized that religion provides a false explanation of the world. For instance - the world was not created in 6 days and even more importantly there is clearly no god.
One thing organized religion does very well is create a sense of belonging and community. Something extremely important for one’s well being.
We need to do better at creating community.
9
@Alex
You are so correct.
2
I was accused of being a Christian recently. I am not a believer, but have found great meaning in the Gospels. I find myself spreading the words of Jesus to all the people I meet. I am trying to become less attached to my possessions.
When the rich man asks Jesus how to get to heaven, he proclaims to follow the commandments. Jesus says that's all well and good, but to get to heaven, the man must give away his possessions and spend his days spreading the peaceful message of Jesus.
So I am not a believer, but I follow the commandments the rich man mentions. I do not anticipate heaven, but I know that peace and love are the only ways to achieve a better world. They are the only tools that have worked against racism and apartheid.
Am I a Christian? Perhaps a follower of Christ would be a better term for me.
4
Although I agree with the premise that the establishment types who typify contemporary Christian religion turn off thinking young people, I disagree with the author on the reason that America is turning away from religion.
If you look at Western Europe it turned away from religion almost completely in the last 50 years. It wasn't because of some evangelical Christian, it was because religion is a myth and intelligent people really don't need a myth to be moral once they are educated. As education increases in the United States the more nonbelief will become more popular. The great majority of Nobel laureates are atheists. The most intelligent people in the world usually don't need a belief in the supernatural to be moral. As we become more educated will become less superstitious. We will need the crutch of religion less and less to be moral responsible individuals.
The young people who are leading the way in gun control and environmental action are not doing it for Jesus. They're doing it because there are intelligent and have figured out that that's a moral and responsible way to lead. I'd like to blame the evangelicals for everything in the world but it isn't true. They're just the usual sellouts who brought us, Trump.
8
Very large institutions, whether religious, commercial, national governments, etc. tend to be self-perpetuating entities whatever their philosophical bent might be. For a religious institution this poses a problem of how to self-perpetuate (raise money) and be be spiritual all at the same time. This conundrum presents the element of disingenuousness that drives people of spirituality away from organized religious institutions and into more private spiritual disciplines. Probably a good thing for true spiritualness, not so good for established religious institutions trying to meet a bottom line or conjure up new members using political topicality as an incentive to join their "church".
1
I always considered myself to be a Christian until my born-again Evangelical sister explained to me over and over that I'm not really a Christian unless I believe in her version of things -- the Apocalypse and the Second Coming are very real for her, and she knows that I'm going to be left. . . So I decided, yes, you're right, sis. I'm not a Christian.
8
@SharonS I experienced a very similar thing with a Christian co-worker, though the requirements he presented included many largely political positions. "How can you support and still call yourself "Christian'?, he asked. I thought for a moment, declared his point taken, and thanked him for providing me clarity. In that moment, I rejected any connection I might have felt to religion of any sort and all manner of magical thinking.
3
This nation was a majority christian nation in terms of it's population however, the ideological framework of the nation was always intended to be a bastion of secular ideals. It seems to me that a shift away from religion is just a cultural change and I agree with Nicholas as part of the root cause. The shift away from the religious norms of the past is being spurred on be the new christian obsession with being vehemently against people who do not fit into their narrow moralistic perspective of present day evangelicals. However, I wonder if this trend also has to do with not just the modern face of religion but possibly a cultural shift away from identification with the prominent organizations that people in the past used to form their identities. Possibly this is just part of the shift of people trying to form a more independent way of understanding themselves rather than relying on the large cultural organizations that past groups have used to formulate their identities.
4
Well, this is the first time I disagree with you that I can remember. I definitely disagree with the implication that religion is the source of morality. I also think that the reasoning in the article misses the point. My education in science is what resulted in me being an atheist. The idea of any god, let alone one like the Abrahamic God makes no sense in light of what we know about the physical universe. Love reading your articles in general though, and I think you do a great job.
7
As a Huxleyan agnostic who sees ample evidence that religious faith fulfills a real constructive need for many people, I am frustrated by the growth of hate faith in Abrahamic and other major religions. As a scientist aware of the evidence from evolutionary psychology, I am not surprised that the "third chimpanzee" easily generates such hate. Imagine how a swell of Jimmy Carters could bring religion and science together to channel our natural drives and create a truly educated democracy. Being a scientist, I have too much uncertainty to see a path to achieving such a goal. But I am convinced that a wise leader could put us on the path.
4
I agree with Deirdre from New Jersey----- religious organizations need to be taxed. Too many bad things are being done in the name of religion, and much of it has strong political support.
15
Yes, tax them. After all, didn't Jesus say, "Render unto Caesar"?
3
Geesh what a clueless article. The reason people are becoming less religious has nothing to do the attributes of any particular religion.
People are becoming less religious because they are becoming more educated. Not only are they becoming more educated but they are finding that there are many other people who have the same beliefs or lack of beliefs that they have. The Internet has accelerated this trend.
People either believe something or they don't. Period. That's it. And less and less people are believing in ancient religious doctrines. That's it. Plain and simple.
10
@Walt
Great point.
So many organized religions that claim to be Christian, have moved far away from the teachings and life examples of Jesus Christ. The Roman Catholic Church not the least of them.
Though having spent 12 years in Catholic schools, and perhaps in part because of that, I am no fan of the RC Church. The Church's history of pedophilia, in America and globally, and the coverup by the hierarchy going right up to the Pope himself is another reason to reject the RC Church, which I do. It's made the Church into an international criminal organization, quite frankly.
But it's Evangelicals that wield political power in America. You can read their own statements about their ambitious and dastardly goals of making discrimination legal (Mike Pence tried it as governor of Indiana and nearly succeeded, but other are succeeding all over America), taking away women's reproductive rights (even birth control), packing the courts with pro-Christian judges (not just judges in favor of religious freedom in general, but pro-Christian!), etc.
Because of their enormous political power and substantial wealth, Evangelicals scare me more than the RC Catholic Church does. Contrasted with booming Evangelical Mega-Churches, most RC Churches in the NE USA at least are closing down and literally collapsing from neglect. Evangelicalism is on the rise and it's taking over our government: all 3 branches!
7
@NY Times Fan Actually, the SCOTUS is overwhelmingly dominated by catholics.
2
@MarcS
Of the Christians in the course, I believe ALL are Catholic. There rest are Jews.
1
@MarcS
Of the Christians in the current SCOTUS, I believe ALL are Catholic. There rest are Jews.
1
Having a secular humanist point of view, I don't believe anything supernatural has ever happened in the universe. But I have no proof; it's a faith-based belief.
4
I am a church going Christian Catholic, but believe the drop in faith and attendance is largely a self inflicted wound. We have closed most of the Catholic schools, while maintaining the bishops in luxury in many places. The Church did not adequately address the sex abuse scandal, and still harbors those at the top who protected these criminals, yes, criminals. It has hid behind Civil statutes of limitation to deny recompense to victims. It refuses to admit women to the priesthood and the deaconate.
Why do I continue to attend weekly mass? Because of the desire to worship in a community. But I understand fully why three of my 4 children fall into the category of people who do not identify with any faith. It breaks my heart that some of my grandchildren will not grow up with any faith or sense that there is something far bigger and more important than ourselves. As David Foster Wallace observed, we all worship something, but everything other than worshipping a loving God will destroy you:
[I]n the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship…is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive.
2
There is something far larger than ourselves, but it is not god. It is society. Our devotion should be working with others to craft a world that is safe, egalitarian and worthy of the sacrifice many make to keep it that way. Do we really need religion to tell us that?
9
@Larry
Thanks, Larry. Lovely comment.
3
You state that we are less and less a Christina Nation like that is a bad thing?! A mass delusion of people pretending to know what they can not know is of no help to a flourishing society. Help does not come from outside it is within us all. Let's not hand over our destiny to smoke and mirrors.
3
A relationship to god (however one understands it) is very personal. There is no one right or wrong way to pursue it. It is not about Sunday dress up, license plates, bumper stickers and the like. It is about coming to grip with the ultimate reality that we are an insignificant part of the cosmos, only here for a short time and part of something much larger than ourselves.
For some, churches are an essential part of their quest for the Divine. And those that lead them should totally devote their efforts to helping their congregants on their journey. But, sadly, that is often not the case, as pastors devote their energies to political and social issues, thereby usurping the Devine to promote their own political and social agenda and in many cases their own power and wealth.
Religion should be the great uniter. We are all on the same journey, just on different paths. Religious leaders who sow discord in pursuit of their own agenda are very evil people. There is little difference between the Muslim mullah who teaches hate for the infidels and the evangelical preacher who teaches hate for the LBGT community or Muslims. Until religious leaders around the world reform their ways we will continue to see the hate, violence and rancor that plagues the world today.
5
This whole Trump era is the last peak and final hurrah of the white Republican establishment and the white evangelical movement. Through Trump, they've chosen hate, isolationism, unethical behavior and immorality. They've doomed their religion by making it unfathomable to anyone who actually wants to live by its teachings. The hypocrisy is more than any thinking person (with "thinking" being the operative word) can stomach. The die-hards are more interested in telling everyone else what to do than any god or his/her teachings.
12
All of this takes me back 30-40 years ago about the question of “school prayer” in our public schools. The “religious” were up in arms about not starting the day with a prayer.
Of course there was no rule or restrictions on THEIR kid saying a prayer walking down the hall, or in a gym class, or eating lunch or while sitting in a math class trying to understand solid geometry. That was all absolutely permissible.
What these protesting parents were all about was that they were worried that OTHER PROPLES’ kids weren’t saying prayers!! That frightened them. It was a threat to their ways!
Conformity and obedience is the life blood of ORGANIZED religion. Non conformity is a dire threat and must be stamped out early lest it catch on ( like it seems to be doing now!)
8
@SAH Going to elementary school in NJ in the '50s, I remember the bizarre scene that played out every morning. A Psalm would be read out loud by a student, then the class would recite "the lord's prayer" (except for the half of the class who were Jewish), and then the Catholics would drop out, leaving the last line ("for ever and ever") for only the Protestants.
4
I frankly believe this "Christian Nation" headline is simply the NY Times at one of its favorite pastimes - baiting readers. They do it all the time. Maybe that's why it is call the "Times". Sometimes with headlines like "Christian Nation", and other times with photos of AOC, Trump or others- held us as saviors or destroyers of our nation (if not the world and the known universe. if not multi universes yet unknown). Well, all media does it. Perhaps the Times does it with a bit more finesse, but not always subtlety. It must be a fun to sit back and wait for the obvious reader reactions (mine pervious ones included...if they did include them). I feel for it as well, sucker that I am.
2
Stage one Souls reflects the inner chaotic and anti-social, unregenerate soul that is interested only in its own self-satisfaction and ego, much like the stereotypical spoiled child.
Stage one people may claim to love others, but their behavior reflects they love their own pleasure, money, power, prestige, and security above any other. For stage one people, it really is all about them.
Stage Two souls seek to “let their light shine” and will live virtuous lives and do many good works. They also can be judgmental, self-righteous, rigid of thought, cold of heart, legalistic concrete literal thinkers/fundamentalists.
Jesus said, “You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free.” -John 8:32
Stage Two's have not yet been set fully free and prefer the security of a higher human authority than themselves for guidance. They submit to institutions, scripture, dogma, ritual, ministers, or gurus.
Most theologians would agree that the opposite of faith is not disbelief: the opposite of faith is fear.
Stage Three souls have not just fearlessly awoken, they have evolved into the realization of what Jesus was really talking about in the Sermon of the Mount, which sound like crazy promises, but are all about waking people up to The Divine within themselves and ALL others.
A stage three soul may well reject Jesus as God, but will often agree with the philosophy and ethics of Jesus as clarified by President Thomas Jefferson in "THE LIFE AND MORALS of JESUS of NAZARETH"!
3
The rest of the planet, with the exception of South America and Africa - which had Catholicism imposed on them by colonialism - are living in a post-faith world. Join us in it.
8
What is a Christian? I have never been one, but from the outside, the most chest-thumping of them are people who are an inflated sense of their own rightness, an abiding belief in mythology and superstition, and, most of all, a compulsion to force everyone else to abide by their beliefs. Or as Mel Brooks has it, you can Torquemada anything.
5
I blame Muslim terrorism that taints all religion, the spread of the idea that a two-parent family is not any better than a one-parent family, and a left-wing narcissism that believes humanity can make its own values, ignoring the murderous outcomes of the atheistic movements of the 20th century. Oh yes. Catholic priests who are pedophiles didn't help.
1
@Snowball Humanity has no choice but to make its own values. The thousands and thousands of denominations each have their own interpretations of morality. You may think that your religion has clear guidelines for what is right and wrong but others think their interpretation is correct, not yours.
Unless a supernatural being makes an appearance, demonstrates that it is worth following, and lays down rules that cover every situation, we are on our own.
3
Count me, 69 year old former Christian as a “none.” Once I saw how viciously so-called Christian leaders attacked Obama, I started to re-evaluate whether I wanted to be associated with that. And once I started questioning, it snowballed from there. Now I see all those hate raging, race bating hypocrites for what they are. Count me out.
16
Morals and religion are not corelated.
10
I was raised by a parent who recognized that religion is the opiate of the masses (in the 60s, 70s, and 80s). I always felt left out because everyone around me was going to CCD or having bat mitzvahs—basically they were the “in” crowd, and I always wondered what went on at Sunday school. I think that’s what religion is actually—a club where people can smugly feel chosen or strong in numbers. The coolest people belong to a certain church... like that. My daughter is harassed by her supposed friends that she needs to go to church with them or go to hell. So if other people are getting the message that church doesn’t equal morality, cool. But I think it’s still about brainwashing and spread through the religious equivalent of the Communist youth league.
7
The secularization of USA will improve our country, make us more caring and humane. Rational scientifically driven nations and societies are more equitable, caring towards those less fortunate, and better functioning than religious society’s by huge margins.
17
It's simple. When you're young you tend to sniff out hypocrisy and lack of fairness wisping up like a foul incense from not only the adults in your life but from those in the pulpit as well. Today's religious leaders too often simply do not pass the smell test for young people or their older parishioners who have not yet died inside. Incredibly sad that there are--at the same time STILL churches and church leaders in this country who do not discriminate, do not seek to control and do not like what is going on in the name of the God they worship. What will follow in the wake of this? I would guess that institutions such as family and perhaps marriage will be the next things that young people in this country question deeply. "If my parents and grandparents can support hatred, division and white superiority are they really the family I want my kids to grow up around or learn from?"
5
Let's face it. "The faith" is also tainted by the fact that it remains a Bronze Age, irrelevant, irrational belief system. Its most fundamental tenets are antithetical to human flourishing. Living this life for a non-existent next life is wrong.
13
It is very simple. Our youth is better schooled today than it was several decades ago. In schools people learn the meaning of the word hypocrisy and to avoid being a hypocrite. They learn to be open-minded. They learn critical thinking. They learn to respect other cultures and see the limitations and flaws of their own. They read about the actions of the Christian church and they make a choice.
So no Christian church for them.
But if you'd ask them whether there is valuable advice in the bible they would probably name some.
3
Religion can indeed be a power of light and positivity. However, too many see the hypocrisy practiced by religious followers and denounce it all. Many religious institutions in this country have lost the moral high ground, and I for one believe when they choose to meddle in politics they should lose their tax free status.
7
@Valerie Wells , religion , with its claim that there is a God, is a lie. Lies can never be powers of light and positivity.
Time to move on.
Christian's donate more to the poor than secularists? Weigh in the impact of Christian voters who elect the conservative politicians that cut taxes for the wealthy and then cut programs for the poor and you will find that secularists come out way on top as to who benefits the poor. I would argue that if secularists had had their way there would not be poor Americans today.
14
You can find a million reasons to abandon religion. You can also find a million reasons to leave the US (racism, inequality, inequity, homophobia, etc.). Many said they will leave the US if Trump wins, but after Trump won, they decided to stay and work hard to make sure the US made it through these hard times. It is a hard work but if you have a sense of belonging, you will not abandon the institution.
2
We are also less and less a "Christian" nation because more and more of us are atheists, agnostics, Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims and other non-Christian beliefs. It's not just Christian intolerance; Christianity less and less is seen as offering a relevant world view, and explanation of our cosmic order. Of course, if you really want to believe that the world is 6,000 years old ....
9
There is a reason why indoctrination begins before critical thinking skills are developed. Teach children how to think, not what to think.
4
Does Kristof believe the U.S. was and should be a "Christian country"? That's the same ignorant fallacy that the evangelicals have. This is a country where religion has no constitutional standing -- pro or con. By constitutional definition the state has nothing to do with religion. There are numerous non-Christians in this country who do not appreciate the historic or current institutional association between U.S. identity and Christian identity.
4
@Joe What is your evidence that he thinks that way? I see no evidence for that in any of his writings.
Mr. Kristoff might add that Evangelicals claimed that Hurricane Katrina was God's way of punishing New Orleans for being insufficiently homophobic. I notice that they don't say that tornados in Oklahoma or Alabama are God's punishment for being obsessed with the barbaric justice code of Leviticus (carefully cherry-picked, of course), while ignoring the teachings of Jesus.
I know many Christians who are wonderful people, who have read Matthew 25:35-36 (thanks, Craig from Winthrop, MA!) and believed it. Too many others would gladly burn people at the stake to "save" their souls.
8
Given their history of colonial exploitation, Christians have no claim to a monopoly on moral behavior. Good that younger people can see Christianity for what it is: 10% morality and 90% crowd control.
7
We should be talking about that sacred separation of church and state that the evangelicals have no respect for. They want their beliefs made into laws.
7
The United States of America was indeed founded mainly by Christians, and Christianity (in its diverse subdenominations) remains the dominant religion today. But the USA was never a "Christian Nation."
You will not find the "Jesus Christ" in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution or the most famous speeches of the most famous leaders (Washington's farewell address, Lincoln's Gettysburg address, etc.). What you can find, of course, is the First Amendment right to freedom of and freedom from religion.
Valid and relevant points are made here about the positive impact which Christian faith has had, and can continue to have, on behalf of the whole nation, and how outrageously fake Christian hypocrites of the phony conservative variety tarnish and undermine those positive impacts.
But, please no more ahistorical remarks about the USA being a "Christian nation."
8
Back in the 70s, when I was 7, I realized how religions marginalized me as a female. They also made no logical sense to me. Traditions that might have made sense hundreds of years ago but don't know are followed, often to the detriment of people. I was in a catholic school where the nuns would use leather straps to beat my hands for 'talking too much'. They even beat me over the PA system once. Later, when I realized that there were many parts of the world I could never travel to because of their religion and the fact I was a woman, I became even angrier at religions. Faith? I think not. The violence, injustice and sheer insanity of all religions is horrifying to me. Stoning women to death, multiple wives when the population is 50-50 by gender, priests raping children, women not being allowed to be religious leaders.... The death of religion cannot possibly come too soon.
7
The hypocrisy of the conservative evangelicals can be summarized by Voltaire when he wrote "Of all religions, the Christian should of course inspire the most tolerance, but until now Christians have been the most intolerant of all men."
2
I fell out of the Catholic church as a teenager 60 years ago. Authoritarians always want to control what we do with our bodies and the Catholic church even wanted to control our sexual thoughts and what movies we saw. The Catholic church lacks the big mouths of the evangelicals but isn't really that much different in their church hierarchy's beliefs.
6
Ideologies create division, and division is the root of violence. You're better off with the original equipment you were born into this world with simply being human, the common ground we all share. When you start investing identity into an ideology you are abstracted from reality. You no longer are silly 'us', you've now created and 'us vs. them' fantasy from ideology, and that split is the source of violence.
And 'belief'' is an odd litmus test to try to apply to reality. If something is true, it's going to be true whether I believe in it or not.
The 'Christian' question boils down to this: Do you 'believe' that the ghost of a Galilean politician from 40 AD is in charge of the universe?
The burden of proof falls on the shoulders of the ones making extraordinary claims, and that requires extraordinary evidence.
That's not to say that some psychological nuggets of wisdom cannot be extracted from the mythology, that's what makes myths meaningful. But that requires taking a step back from literalism, and fundamentalism.
Christianity and the other big monistic religions have been a plague on humanity because they create artificial divisions in humanity that is the source of tremendous violence in our world. They create a paradox, and it's my contention that we al deserve a paradox-free ontology. And the way to get there is to resolve the paradox at a lower level of simply being human as opposed to investing some component of identity into a divisive ideology.
3
I love it! Finally, a growing number of members of society shedding the control of religion. And who is to blame? None other than the zealots . There ain't nothin' Christian about the Christians in this country. Love isn't their mantra, it's hate. Narrow minded bigots whose end days are coming. Evangelicals are no different from Scientology. Love H.L. Mencken who said, "The trouble with Christianity, is the Christians", and that was over 60+ years ago. As someone recently said: "Get over it!"
In my view, Christianity is used as means to divide people.
6
I was about to take umbrage at Kristof for proclaiming this as a Christian Nation. Then remembered that Christmas is a Federal Holiday. No other faith has its own Federal Holiday.
4
The sooner this country purges "religious" charlatans from the halls of government the better. Their ultimate goal in my opinion, is the opening of a Constitutional Convention to usher in a king-like "christian" monarch to rule over the country. It is Dominionist theology plain as day.
3
@Rob Walker , nothing wrong with that.
@Indian Diner; What? Purging religious fanatics or opening a Constitutional convention.
1
Fundamentalist christianity is not Christian let alone a religion. It is political zealotry, plain and simple…Full Stop.
8
Current Evangelicals are revealing the true nature of Biblical religions: They are by nature divisive and tribal. They always have been but I think we've reached a tipping point of active and prominent nonbelievers that have consistently pointed this out which has lifted the fog off of a generation and allowed them the freedom to leave. Not only that but I think they also are doing good deeds, not from obligations to an invisible deity, but because it's the right thing to do. As the Tao Te Ching says: Righteous activity is not righteous. This is great news for the planet.
6
The hearts of people are evidenced by how they lead their lives. While religious teach a set of moral values, so do atheists. In Evangelicalism in particular, ethics seem nowhere to be found.
It's the values that count not the deity.
Givens the numbers of people slain in the name of a deity, it's past time for religion to be cast aside in favor of universal moral values and ethics.
4
Mr K— I have not seen a response from you to the numerous comments regarding your description of the US as a Christian nation. As others noted, it is extremely offensive to non-Christians. If we are less and less a Christian nation, and more a moral nation, then I am perfectly fine on that. ([BTW, within the last month, I volunteered at the community food bank with my Christian and Hindu co-workers and at my temple’s kosher food bank with fellow congregants.)
6
@Weinssh Don't assume that he made up the headline (because headlines are often created by other people) or that he thinks we are a "Christian nation" as you seem to define it.
A person does not need morals to be ethical since morals are religious based and ethics are not. For whatever good religions may have played throughout history, more often than not, they have been a destructive force, making spirituality into dogma, into fanaticism, and eventual extinction. Religions are ultimately their own worst enemy, and I'd rather today's youth be conscientious and ethical than fanatical and "moral."
3
Nick, I think you may be missing a major reason for the difference in numbers between generations. Younger adults now feel free to identify as non-religious or atheist. In the past, that would have been shocking.
I'm 57, and was raised Catholic. As a young adult (and after reading the Bible carefully), I realized that I did not believe in the god described by my church. I simply stopped going to church.
However, for many years, if asked my religion, I still responded that I was Catholic. It was only long afterward that I realized I didn't have to do that. Now, I usually answer, "I'm not religious." That seems to be less offensive to some than the term "atheist," but is still truthful.
Just as there are probably no more gay or transgender people around now than there were in generations past, atheists have always been among us. There may be a few more due to better science education, but many just feel more able to be public about their beliefs. Atheism is now an option.
11
A big problem Christianity has is the inability to reconcile the actions of its adherents with the teachings of the church.
A philosophy is only as good as the good it does. I would approve more of the church's charitable activities if they were not so exclusive of those who do not share conservative social thought.
I guess it comes down to, Physician, heal thyself.
3
Organized religion -- whether sects of Christianity, Judaism or Islam--are invariably hypocritical. They exist as pressures for a subset of society to conform.That's it. Organized Christianity, after all, was a calculated ploy by Constantine to have his own religion to regain allegiance in the military against Maxentius, who was part of the Mithraic sun-god cult favored by the Roman army prior to Constantine's defeat of Maxentius. Organized christianity has been a political tool ever since. It's important to voice the distinction between organized religion and having a conscience that leads you toward the highest worthiness a human can and should reach for.
5
To get a measure of Christianity today you simply have to listen to their own words. He compares Trump to Jesus and says not pledging loyalty to him is immoral in the eyes of God. I don’t dare quote Westboro Baptist. And Christians are shocked that young people are soured????? I’m shocked it’s 49%.
8
Evangelicals are no more than the derelicts in the play "The Iceman Cometh." Secular society is no different. Maybe Trump's grandmother took him to see the play. Maybe Trump sees himself as Hickey (the reformed drunk who returns to the bar to save his friends), the savior with his own dark secrets. In the end the drunks either kill themselves or return to the safety of their illusions (the "Last Chance" bar). Maybe Trump is just another illusion that can only survive as long as he is locked inside the "End Of The Line" café. Yes, locked inside that café of illusions with the rest of us. And how and why did such a depressing play win so many awards?
3
No surprise.
"Christians" in this country took the Christ out of Christianity a long time ago. They rail against not saying Merry Christmas and in the same breath they do things or support things (or people) that would make Jesus cry.
9
A “Christian nation” is something the framers took decisive steps to avoid. Anyone who cares about our democracy should shudder at the very utterance.
9
I grew up in a Hindu family. I do not practice Hinduism. I will never become a Christian either.
I have no objection to calling the USA as a Christian nation as long as Christianity is not part of statecraft. I find many things about Christianity quite beautiful. Compared to our Hindu temples, the churches in the US are more aesthetic than our Hindu temples, the architecture that is although using the cross as symbol is bizzare.
I have attended a few sermons in church and they were disturbing. The claim that Jesus' way is the only way and the obligation to convert non-Christians to Christianity. Very offensive.
It is this frenzy to convert others because of the claim it is the only way has made Christianity rank as the most brutal of systems along with Islam and communism that also claim to be the only way and try to convert others. These three systems have been responsible for over a billion deaths, the most notable being the murder of 6 million Jews in Europe by people that came from a Christian background.
Mao killed millions in China.
Muhammad wiped out the Jews from Arabia. Jews were nearly 40% of Arabia's population when Muhammad began his mission from Madina, then called Yathrib. Today Jews cannot even enter Madina and Mecca.
What the European Christian settlers did to Native Americans and to Mexicans I need not repeat.
10
You don't need religion to be a good, honest, moral, humble, honorable, supportive, generous, kind, loving human being.
20
Wow. That’s great news; not something to gripe about. America is starting to catch up to the rest of the developped world.
16
Trump and his 'Christian' followers have sized the branding of Christianity - the brand name and mission has grown into a Frankenstein phantom of corrupted self serving preaching the sermon of hate your neighbor unless you neighbor is white and believes as they believe -
They have killed the branding in their own image.
Mike Pence is the top self anointed Christian who is on a mission to SAVE the USA. Pence believes in Inquisition Christianity, if left to his true nature - he would be the modern day version of Rev Cotton Mather - who led the Witch Trials in Salem, Ma.
Those who believe in Jesus - need to rename themselves.
Quite frankly, it would be wonderful to dissolve all tribal religion's names - and - challenge everyone to live a life of love thy self as one loves another - as neighbors - as beautiful 'imperfectly' blessed children of God. Our imperfections are our blessings - our places to learn to become the better or lesser parts of ourselves.
My church is the world filled with amazing different people with different points of views, colors, heritages, genders - we each hold a piece of truth - once we place all our pieces together - we can see - and share the whole picture.
The branding of Christianity is dead.
3
Nick, why, exactly, is it "wrong" to mock Christians? Should there be a law against it?
6
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven."
In other words: it is those who know their own spiritual poverty, their own limitations and 'sins' honestly and trust God loves them in spite of themselves who already live in the Kingdom of God.
How comforted we will all be, when we see, we haven't got a clue, as to the depth and breadth of pure love and mercy of The Divine Mystery of The Universe.
God's name in ancient Aramaic is Abba which means Daddy as much as Mommy and He/She: The Lord has said, "My ways are not your ways. My thoughts are not yours." -Isaiah 55:8
"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."
In other words: how comforted you will be when you also know humility; when you know yourself, the good and the bad, for both cut through every human heart.
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, they will be filled."
In other words: how comforted you will be when your greatest desire is to do what "God requires, and he has already told you what that is; BE JUST, BE MERCIFUL and walk humbly with your Lord."-Micah 6:8
"Blessed are the merciful, they will be shown mercy."
In other words: how comforted you will all be when you choose to return only kindness to your 'enemy.'
"For with the measure you measure against another, it will be measured back to you" Christ warns his disciples as he explains the law of karma in Luke 6:27-38
2
There is nothing more hypocritical and corrupt than multi millionaire church leaders flying around in personal private jets, while asking their poor and lower middle class congregations to tithe. God has a punishment waiting for these charlatans.
4
Wow. Where to begin.
1. There is a “supreme being”
2. There is only 1 “real” one (intolerance?)
3. It’s male (if you can’t produce a human being as women can, just make up a male deity who not only gives birth to the first human, but that male human gives birth to the first woman. Taking even original motherhood away from women (shame!)
4. Child sacrifice- a practice that is old, pagan, and appalling in any culture except this belief system (readers gasp and wince when archeologists dig up proof of it)
5. Eternal Debt of the Sinful Follower-anything you do that is “good” is because of the deity, anything you do “bad” is your own fault and given that the deity sacrificed his kid for you, the more bad you do the more in debt you are for that “sacrifice.”
6. In the pagan old days, gods came down to earth, had their way with mortal women, impregnated them (without the women’s consent (a deity-coerced “yes” is not consent)), and the mortal woman gave birth to demi-gods.Sound familiar?
7. And the best part (borrowing from the old myth of Pandora amongst others), everything bad is ultimately...yes, you guessed it ... Woman’s fault! Go Eve!
Mr. Kristof, though I admire your work tremendously, this article is shallow. The devastation that has been caused, esp. to women, by these Man-God; Woman-Scapegoat belief systems is unconscionable. These belief systems suck the humanity out of the world and leave little room for belief in humanity itself. We can do so much better.
6
I was born into the Navy during WW II. Later, I saw the world through the eyes of a Navy wife. Without question, in my youth I followed the Christian traditions of my parents. Everywhere I lived the military chapel served all faiths with servicemen changing the religious symbols inside chapels, service after service to reflect attendent beliefs. This practice of embracing multiple religions under the same roof, went on around the world and it changed my world.
From the doors of military chaples, quanset huts to formal churches, I passed through what America truly is, people of diverse beliefs. In God we trusted and prayed in a place dedicated to freedom and tolerance.
I no longer follow the religious mandates of my upbringing. I look now through a broader lens. My spirituality is still a part of my life, but I will not impose my beliefs or fail to respect those who differ from me. Many it seems have moved away from religions that no longer tolerate more inclusive or informed mindsets, but many still look for a safe place to kneel or sit and reflect on the spiritual while finding intolerance.
7
@Manaone I also grew up (in the military) with the revolving church symbols. Discovered this when I went to church with my Protestant boyfriend’s family and heard the creaking of the pulley that removed the cross with Jesus and saw the plain cross swing a bit before settling into place. Eye-opening. Even though it was difficult and meant constant disruption the military was a wonderful place to grow up in. I feel like I met most of America while in it before being jettisoned into a less democratic socioeconomic category.
1
"The central issue is that faith is supposed to provide moral guidance" But that isn't its main purpose. Christianity's main purpose is to spread the word and enforce adherence to very real beliefs about the origin of humanity, the existence of God, and of Jesus, his son born of a virgin, as the savior of mankind.
I do think society is fraying, as more and more people are isolated from their communities - there is less and less to bring people together in their neighborhood, with the Internet and without church. But there are other ways we can tie communities together, and other ways to teach morals, than to hold true to the Bible.
2
If we could all try to live by the principles taught by Jesus, life would be much better than it is now. This goal is unattainable but does provide a very good framework for living together in peace. I am an atheist because I know from science that we are organic entities. There is no evidence for spiritual afterlife in a heaven but I do think Christianity provides
an excellent path to a better life and society (as do many other religions).
4
I can’t take anything the author says as serious after his “Seattle Has Solved the Drug Problem” piece last month. But I’m not shocked that he has somehow linked a broad secular trend rooted in exposure to the sciences, the internet, and general social acceptance of non-religious thought to Trump.
4
My wife and I raised two boys in the Catholic religion. We raised them within a moral and ethical framework and the Catholic way of life that we follow (not easy in the era of materialism) with community support (our local Parish). They left to college and we expected them to drift away from religion, as many of the commenters in the forum and young people today. They are free to choose their own path, but at least we gave them a good foundation to discern good from bad, and live a good life respecting and loving other people, those you like and specially those you do not like (as Jesus said, love your enemies, there is no hardship in loving your friends). To our surprise, they did not drift away, go to church on their own, join the local Catholic community and help. Not sure how or why it happened, just that it is possible.
1
@3Rs
The Gates Foundation probably wouldn’t be doing so much good in the world if Melissa Gates hadn’t grown up taking to heart ethics of her Catholic teachers.
1
What a great article. Those with progressive views have to reclaim what it means to be a patriot and a Christian. It is time to amplify the voices of true men of God like Cizik and the author of this article
Mr. Kristoff, the USA was NEVER "a Christian nation".
At times, most of its citizens might have identified as "Christian", but that is an entirely different reality.
8
@LEFisher , if the Europeans who settled in America and their descendants were true Christians then they would return all the land they stole to the native Americans and Mexicans and return to Europe.
1
@Indian Diner : No argument from me. Practically speaking, I would fully support a large-scale Reparations Act to benefit Native Amerucans.
(Full disclosure: I have some skin in such a deal: nephew-in-law, nephew, & niece are partly Native American.)
2
The claims of a War on Religion are laughable. I sometimes feel we are positively suffocating in Christianity in this country. It's everywhere. You can't escape it. Christians dictate what text books schools will use. Christians decide what laws they will obey and which medical procedures they will perform, based on their beliefs. Judges allow their religious beliefs to influence their legal decisions. Our public spaces are permitted to display Christian symbols. Christian student groups meet on public school property, and public schools refuse to teach ideas in conflict with their beliefs. Christians influence what kind of medical insurance companies will offer employees. Merchants can use their religious beliefs to not serve customers. Books, movies and television shows are all influenced by what will be accepted by Christians. Churches that bring in millions of dollars every year do not pay income tax. Christian churches dominate in every town and city in the US, and Christian television and radio is broadcast over public airwaves, under the guise that it is "educational". There may be fewer people in churches, but Christianity dominates our lives. Still it's not enough, and Christians claim there is a "war" against them.
16
The cogent arguments of prominent atheists, like Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, and the late Christopher Hitchens, presented in videos on the Internet are influential as well.
2
How does religious faith provide any more moral guidance than reading Kurt Vonnegut? Faith can only exist in the absence of knowledge, and increases as ignorance increases.
7
Thank you so much for this! I have been a Christian all my life despite not being raised in a particularly religious home, and the faith has brought a lot of healing and goodness into my life. However, the hateful rhetoric I have heard from many evangelicals (I am not an evangelical, to clarify) is appalling. These crude, judgmental people are destroying the faith of many and eroding all confidence in religion writ large. Christians have a duty to condemn them, including defending atheists and people of other faiths from their attacks. I am so thankful for progressive Christian leaders that still preach humility and service to ALL.
6
@Grace , Christians also have an obligation to face the truth and propagate it, especially to minors and Children: that Jesus is not a historical figure. He was invented using persons mentioned books such as by the historian Josephus,
1
Mr. Kristof, given time, might be well served by reading The Founding Myth by Andrew L. Seidel. The United States was not founded as a "Christian" nation. In fact, the founders were careful to assure that it would not be by clearly separating church and state in the Constitution. He cites the good done by religious groups and I agree. However, morality and good deeds are not exclusive to any religion. Atheists, as a group, are far more knowledgeable about the Bible than most Christians. Mr. Kristof and I further agree that the likes of Jerry Falwell and other right wing evangelicals have done far more damage to the faithful than any group of "nones."
8
@Ed …. I agree. You do not have to believe in god or be a Christian to live an ethical life.
1
Give me a break. This article is just a cover to find another way to bash Trump. The decline of Christianity in the US is a long term prospect. It's more easily traced to the pervasive effects of Hollywood.
We base everything that is Christian upon the Bible.
How many translations were there? How many versions of stories of the time were left out? Were the authors any less willing and capable of framing the story they wanted to tell than our Trump supporters (Lindsay, I'm looking at you) are of The Donald's triumphs?
The part I like is what Jesus did. Most of the old testament was let go by his teachings (as they are reported). With very few exceptions, he, if he existed, sounded like a very good person, even in dire circumstances.
If we practiced the golden rule, try to leave bigotry behind and turn the other cheek, we'd do well. Our local church had a bigot extreme for a pastor and quickly found who in the membership thought (wrongly) like him. Too bad it happened but it did and both splinters are closer than ever to closing their doors.
When there is little to hope for otherwise, smile at someone you don't know, occasionally pay for someone's groceries in line ahead of you, and stop to offer assistance if someone seems in need.
And don't elect Trumpster again.
8
'The central issue is that faith is supposed to provide moral guidance ...'
Not so. In every organised religion since the dawn of time, the primary role of faith has been to provide comfort and solace to the fearful through their darkest hours.
Jesus was a conservative Jew, a compassionate yet strict shepherd who came to return to the fold the lost sheep of his flock, by promising those who had wandered that their father in heaven would take care of their earthly needs and their spiritual needs both on earth and in the hereafter, if only the lost sheep would heed his message, his call to repentance, and put their trust not in riches and in earthly power but in divine love.
Jesus was not the Son of God nor did he himself ever claim to be. Only his fervid disciples, and then the so-called Christian Churches that hijacked Jesus, made that claim.
Jesus was the Son of Man, just as his forebear David had been, but because he lacked the greed and the lust that had proved the downfall of both David and Solomon, Jesus like Socrates before him was able to transcend that which limits almost all other humans.
4
@Colenso , Good comment. I think, however, that religions are also mechanisms of social control. This is especially true of the three Abrahamic religions.
3
My parents raised me in the Southern Baptist church. I found the sermons banal and obvious, the people simple-minded in their faith, the atmosphere stifling. When my father allowed me, at sixteen, to choose, I stopped attending. Now sixty-five, it's one decision I do not regret.
19
I think it is fair to say that religion is a mixed bag. Sometimes it motivates people for good; other times for evil. It is not, however, required for ethical living or a good society, despite what Kristof suggests. The happiest, healthiest, and most progressive societies on Earth are primarily secular, as demonstrated by Scandinavian countries. But for me, the most significant question is, is religion true? And if it is, which one? After careful thinking and reflection, I think there is virtually no compelling evidence that an all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-loving God exists. So, as far as I am concerned, the growing secularization of the United States is a very good thing.
11
I am not an historian but I recall learning some years ago that around 1790 one of our diplomats—and he may have been a Founding Father — explicitly conveyed, in a written and official US Government communique concerning its presence in the Barbary Coast, stating that: “The United States is not and has never been a Christian nation”, in line with our constitutional separation of church and state. But that was back in the days when we were a great nation ---
5
"For some young people, Christianity is associated less with love than with hate." I assume there were also some young people in 1432, when Joan of Arc was burned alive, who thought that too. Or between February 1692 and May 1693 in Salem Massachusetts when other young women were burned alive.
"The upshot is that a majority of white adults now attend church just a few times a year at most. Blacks and Hispanics are more likely to attend, although their attendance is dropping, too."
We no longer think the earth is flat. We now know that the sun does not revolve around the earth. We can also fly as well as talk to someone on the other side of the world as easily as if they were on the other side of a coffee table. Humanity seems to learn over time. Perhaps humanity is slowly learning that organized religions are institutions that sell faith to get power.
10
I welcome this broader embrace of rationality over mythology. As a baby boomer who never bought it and opted out of church at 6 years old, I’m pleased that my 4 children have followed suit after their own journeys.
6
My experience over the years (I'm 66) has been that the more loudly and vehemently someone claims to be Christian, the more likely that they aren't Christian at all in their behaviour. Given the actions of the "Christians" in the US who have the pulpits, the microphones and Trump's ear... I'd be ashamed to call myself Christian.
This is not to say that other religions don't have the same problem in some form or another - they do. Over the years I had come to the decision that the only religion that seemed to behave according to their beliefs was Buddhism. After the actions of monks in Myanmar attacking the Rohingya people, I'm not so sure of that anymore.
10
Every time religion mixes with politics, it doesn't end well. As long as religion delves liberally into morality, it will end up having to deal in politics. So long as you have a clergy (or onlookers) who are concerned with the statistics of salvation, you will have commentary of the like. Plus, the bonds that keeps societies together, small towns and communities, are being torn apart by large corporatist economic structures.
Attending church is as much an expression of social cohesion as is anything else. To compare, consider the number of people attending gyms and meditation lessons; the need for people for peace, calm and reflection in the 21st century has not dimmed one bit; it is simply the avenues have changed. If the gyms start having a clergy, they are looking at a similar fate.
4
I disagree with the premise of this article. Who says that being a Christian nation is a good thing? All mainstream religions promote good morals, and for that matter so does Humanism which doesn't recognize a God at all, and morality is what we are missing right now. It is offensive to bemoan the diminishing of this one religion, when it has brought its downfall upon itself. All I care about is that people behave well, and many of the most vocal Christians I know aren't doing that.
13
The Western World is in a secular transition which is a typical change with time as all countries grow and undergo modernization. Modernization of course has different speeds in different parts of our Country. Older, rural agricultural areas are slower.
Plenty of data has been collected on this topic and can be seen summarized here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtAR_OGzlcg
This secular transition away from religion works by generational replacement and there is “no way back.”
An interesting correlation is that countries with a high Human Development Index (high life expectancy, high educational levels, high per capital income, etc.) are the least religious. You can imagine how factors associated with a high Human Development Index (HDI) could cause a drop in religious belief and activity as generations proceed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Development_Index
Of Interest, the “top ten” countries with the highest HDI, in order, are Norway, Australia, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Singapore, Netherlands, Ireland, Iceland and Canada.
No one can stop this transition; the United States is in this transition now and it causes this anxiety and insecurity among many persons. Politicians can not stop itas they pander to their constituents who are in denial. We wish them all the best of luck in adjusting to this large-scale secular transition.
4
We have much bigger problems requiring immediate attention - getting rid of Trump for one.
In my humble opinion, restaurants and bars add more to a community than a Christian, or any other church. I'm with Bill Maher on this issue.
How many people have been killed because of the bible in history - millions?
9
The one true answer: never enough, so the carnage goes on, with all sides confident they alone hold the ultimate truth and are the blessed and beloved, the rest being infidels.
3
Organized religion was an evolutionary necessity that is no longer needed. It really is that simple. All it remains is mind control for the weak and a playground for the con men and hucksters.
10
Oh come on! We have never been a "Christian" nation but a conservative Protestant one. For decades, we refused entry by catholic immigrants. I remember the uproar about JFK being Catholic. Conservative Protestants are not, in my view "Christians" since they twist Jesus' message into a exclusive upper-class, white megachurch businesses instead of a religion. Trump's "Christian followers" follow him because he is the King of Hate, not the Prince of Peace.
10
I have met a Christian before. Like any extremely rare breed the meeting was surprising and over quickly. Too often the Christian sighting proves to just be a cuckoo that has substituted their egg of hatefulness into the church nest of that rarer variety.
2
I thought this country was founded on the basis of religious freedom?
6
The Pilgrims fled England where they were persecuted... only to set up a colony where they could persecute others, as well as their own not sufficiently whipped into line.
2
I don't mourn this turning-away from religion. During the past two thousand years religion has been the cloak for devastating wars, both between religious sects, and between religions. There has been no more destructive force in the world. The good of church-based charity is far overshadowed by the many millions of people such wars have dispossessed. And it seems that every religion has its pedophile priests. Religions are power structures, and power corrupts. Look no further than the evangelists who collect mansions and private jets. I'm with John Lennon on this one, let's Imagine a world without religion, a better world as far as I'm concerned.
5
I am not religious, but now what scares me the most is the nihilists, which find their roots in atheism. It is simply impossible for people of any faith to be completely nihilist if they have any kind of true faith. The nihilists, sometimes rooted in humanism, and equality, like the communists of the 20th century, killed a staggering 100 million people then. Add that to the other types that did their acts believing "they were not seen by God", the Nazis, and we get another 20 million people murdered in the name of atheism, for certainly these people were not religious. The people of faith are nowhere near these horrific numbers in the last century. No, what is coming to us once any distorted woke-movements or other extremes start to grip the atheists is quite terrifying. There is a staggering naïveté that comes from a lot of these also. Let's hope the good atheists at least will stem the floods of murder once more and more people subscribe to the idea that life is largely pointless. I have had this discussion with so many of my atheist friends, and when they are intimately honest, they admit that they are nihilist often, don't feel the point of anything. So many of them are secretly depressed, and when I speak with my spiritual friends, they are so often living happier lives, based on higher moral principles and some hope. It is unwise to promote thought patterns, even for the sake of ego, in which the main benefit is at best "I am right" or "I am not deluded".
Editor’s note: This comment has been anonymized in accordance with applicable law(s).
How absurd to believe that finding worth in your life and in the lives of others is impossible without the belief in some mythical “higher power”. I actually feel kind of sorry for you.
3
@John .... Maybe you need some new friends.
“Tainted the faith” is putting it mildly... if these ‘ministers ‘ are truly claiming to represent Jesus on earth, they have failed miserably thanks in part to Donald Trump . They have turned into Pharisees , hypocrites, becoming the very thing that Jesus was dealing with in his lifetime .
And if Jesus came back to see all of this deplorable mess , he would probably die again , this time of a broken heart .
And although it would be easy to pin the entire blame on Donald Trump this one is actually not entirely his fault ( although he has completely soiled the presidency). The fault lies here with those who should know better.
2
As a 60 year old gay man I grew up under the persecution of "christians". From Anita Bryant, Fred Phelps, Falwell Senior and now the Junior, the lesson of American Christianity is one of hatred. The harm they cause to young boys and girls struggling with sexual identity throughout America is immeasurable. Thousands of young gay children thrown away by parents whose hateful beliefs are stronger than love of their own child end up living on the streets. 40% of homeless youth of San Francisco are discarded gay children.
There was never a chorus of the loving kindness which Christ taught from the faithful. The leaders made devils bargain for power, they use cynical ploys of fear of gays and abortion to keep their flock in submission while their leaders have money and power.
The worst thing is - during the worst of the AIDS crisis when I cared for hundreds of dying men as an RN, I needed some faith. Christianity is not a faith that was allowed to me, and it now seems like more feel the same, because of the mean spirited teachings of the cynical christian leaders.
You reap what you sow? Did I read that somewhere?
12
@Chris
The ability of hell-fire-brimstone believers to discard some people is appalling.
I am sorry you and others suffered from this. I hope you have found some source of comfort and healing, and a kinder community of people who embrace you.
4
The main reason Christianity is shrinking is its doctrines are absurd and inconsistent with science. God becoming man,virgin birth,unique creation of humans,personal attributes to a divine figure.
3
Yes, evangelicals, with their somewhat limited interpretation of Christianity, are annoying & have alienated some of their own adherents, but is the Christianity that you wish you saw more in our nation the same white, patriarchal evil that many, in the press, academia, etc. claim is responsible for almost all of the world's ills? Is that the Christianity you wish to see more in evidence?
1
"But a far bigger threat to the “brand” of Christianity comes, I think, from religious blowhards who have entangled faith with bigotry, sexism, homophobia and xenophobia"
Bigotry - I sure see an awful lot of that around these pages against conservatives and/or Republicans.
Sexism - These days, holding a door open for a woman has been called sexist by the likes of Cosmopolitan.
Homophobia - I know someone who won't eat at a Chick-fil-A due to owner Dan Cathy's belief in traditional marriage. Of course, that's the same view that Hillary and Obama ran on in 2008, but guess who she voted for?
Xenophobia - This word sometimes gets thrown at people who simply want secure borders to help protect against illegal immigration.
So for me, I see these words get misused all too often by folks trying to redefine the terms. Because of this, they have become more and more meaningless (unfortunately).
Good luck with your revolutionary Christianity. I hope you are correct, but I just don't see it happening. Christianity has been usurped by right wing bigots, and besmirched by sexual misconduct, much like the republican party has been taken over by Trump with his bigotry and dalliances. It will be a long slog back to anything recognizable as Christ's message.
2
Well the good news is that we all die and so we will all know the truth some day. Death is very egalitarian that way.
1
When you die, you won’t know anything.
2
You can be a Christian if you want, you can be an evangelical (or evilgelical) if you want. You just can’t be both.
3
I’m sure even Jesus is baffled by what he now sees as “Christianity” on Earth.
1
@Nigel
He would be appalled by the claims about him.
1
If being a Christian requires believing in Christian mythology, Jesus was son on God and turned water to wine etc, born of a virgin, then it is good that the US is becoming less Christian.
2
The U.S. is steadily becoming less Christian and less religiously observant,” the Pew study concluded.
My observation would be that one needs to look at these two conclusions as separate and not necessarily related. Many of those older people that identify as Christian spend a lot of time going to church but seem to have been deaf their entire lives as to the supposed meaning of being a Christian as is evidenced by their intolerance of anything outside their own narrow little definitions and their continuing support for the GOP . Going to church does not, and never has, determined if one was a "Christian".
And while I believe that those who travel the world to genuinely give aid to those in need are providing a valuable service, I don't believe that traveling the world with the intent of forcing the tenets of Christianity upon a vulnerable population in exchange for food and medicine is an honorable undertaking.
We need to stop thinking Christian = good and anything else = bad.
3
There are two fairly simple reasons why identification with organized religion is decreasing. The first is education. Much religious dogma doesn’t jive very well with established scientific facts, making resolution between the two often difficult. The second, as Nicholas points out, is the fault of the religious themselves. The behavior of the most visible of them is making religion very unpalatable for a lot of people who can’t identify with a faith that is contrary to what they believe to be right. Much of Christianity’s “public persona” has been taken over by people who are very, very far from Christian, and those actually doing God’s work end up tarred with the same brush. Until religious leaders address these two problems in some effective way, organized religion as we know it is probably going to fade into history.
3
I am a Christian. I remember Dr. James Cone teaching that Christian identifies a person and is not an adjective describing one behavior or object as being more right or sacred than another. The writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer led me too better appreciate the words of the Apostle Paul, "We walk by faith and not by sight." I do not attend worship regularly because the up and down of worship is too difficult for me now. I am able to watch worship online. Today's worship focused on Jesus' words "I came not to be served, but to serve." And Jesus augmented his mission with the words and his life living without fear. His call to "fear not!" radically challenged the tyrannical rule of Rome to fear Caesar. Like Bonhoeffer and MLK, Christians do not fear tyrants, but rather live a life of hope, grace, and love. While Christianity today maybe losing devout adherents, their witness of service is all around us; e.g. schools, hospitals, food pantries, missions to the homeless, the refugee, the orphan, and the elderly.
1
@craig80st
Good comment.
Yes, one source of such ministries and services.
2
Evangelical Christian leaders such as Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell have demeaned Christianity to the point that few people of conscience and goodwill could accept their guidance or leadership. The fact that people like this still have millions of supporters in the evangelical community, and that they associate their religious beliefs with political figures such as Donald Trump have only dragged their standing lower in the eyes of most. Perhaps Christians of goodwill could wrestle their faith away from the influence these people and reform it but there is no sign that this is happening.
6
@Dooglas
The followers of Falwell, Robertson, Osteen, Jeffress, J.Swigert and J. Baker are sheep. Without the flock, they are nothing. We give charlatans like them underserved power over us.
1
@Dooglas … The evangelicals are scolds. The are not interested in ethics and morality, they are interested in obedience and conformity.
I’ve always believed that a separation of church and politics protected the church as much as it protected the polity.
The more specifically the politics and a denomination identify with one another, the more they bring each other down.
4
It is not a problem that young people are less Christian. The founders created a country that was not based on Christian values other than those that are universal to essentially all religions. But what does matter is that younger people are moral and ethical. In other words, the opposite of Trump. It doesn't matter whether or not they go to church but it does matter whether or not that believe in the US ideals and strive to be good human beings and not just dedicate their lives to accumulating wealth and power..
8
I've always found Journalist Kristof's column a boost to my belief in humanism and morality. The study of religion teaches us how to live with our fellow man. How to understand our place in the world and show respect and allowances for people of all faiths. The Evangelicals seem to believe that Trump is their new savior. They treat him as if his spoken word and actions are part of the Gospel according to Trump. It's unfortunate that they don't realize the amount of damage that Trump is perpetuating on Christianity. He's hammering a nail right into the heart of the Evangelical movement. To place this in more perspective, instead of building walls of exclusion we should be constructing bridges of friendship. Instead of taking children away from their parents we should be doing everything in our power to help these immigrant families stay together and become citizens of the United States of America. Trump is tarnishing the soul of America. I'm of the Jewish persuasion but believe that, if their is such a thing as the anti-Christ, he's sitting in the oval office. Excuse me, he's probably outside, playing golf on a course in one of his golf clubs. One of the clubs that employees illegal immigrants and pays them as little as possible.
6
@Richard : The Evangelicals seem to believe that Trump is their new savior. They treat him as if his spoken word and actions are part of the Gospel according to Trump. It's unfortunate that they don't realize the amount of damage that Trump is perpetuating on Christianity." So aptly put. This should be widely shared, because I don't know if it is realized. I have been for so long in unbelieving of some very close people in my life to find they support(ed)? him and could not figure why since to me he seemed the opposite of everything "we" believed in, assuming I was like them. I am confused by labels.
1
You can't blame the decline in religious affiliation on the Evangelicals. Look around the world. Protestantism and Catholicism are equally on the decline in Germany. Italians are less church-going than ever. The growth in Christianity comes from SE Asia, Africa and LA. Christianity is failing in wealthy countries, booming in developing ones.
2
@CJ
Religions can promote certain values. Shinto values certainly shape many of the Japanese values of respect for environment. Buddhism has helped the Cambodians as they recover from the Killing Fields era.
Religions can offer hope to many people who live in desperate circumstances, such as the poverty, malnutrition and warfare of parts of the Third World.
But as we become more educated and live in the First World, attendance at churches and synagogues seems to decline. We often don’t take the texts as literally as ancestors did. We know more of the history of how religions evolved.
In some religions, it is no problem for agnostics or atheists to still belong to the congregation, financially support it and its pastoral functions, and share in some of the major traditional holidays.
1
"Surveys find that religious Americans donate more to charity than secular Americans and are substantially more likely to volunteer."
It is unclear what point Mr. Kristoff is trying to make with this factoid. That said, what is not broken out in the survey he cites is the degree to which the charitable donations and volunteer efforts of the people who identify as religious are directed inwardly, back to the church they belong to, as opposed to outwardly, to the community at large. Simply stating that people who identify as religious are more likely to donate money and volunteer is meaningless if the purpose of the statement is to show how much more socially valuable they are than people who do not.
12
Thank you. I don't know why others left the Catholic Church, i left over fifty years ago, when I was 16 because their theology was at odds with the reality of my life. I was angry for years and felt lost. Now, i've come to the conclusion that religion is a figment of human imagination and much of it was used to control behavior. I believe in some form of Creator, my life flows better when I pray. But I am not sure I will ever fully understand him/her/their/it. My sense it that the Creator is akin to what Native American and other indigenous people practice and intrinsically tied in with nature.
I know of no Church the offers me those options. So, I look for kindred spirits who share my view.
10
The storyline of “Christianity is good, only this extreme minority is misinterpreting and harming it” is fundamentally flawed.
Christianity is and has been open to interpretation. Who is the author to denounce a part of the bible (“eye for an eye”) as not reflective of it? Does he not know that Christianity has been used for evil for two millennia? Why does the author think that the Vatican, for example, is full of gold and treasure? Projecting your own morals onto widely interpretable bible text simply proves that the bible, and with it religion, is irrelevant to morality.
There is a giant upside in today’s situation. The United States can free their society from the grip of religion. Time to celebrate the good news!
7
When a group of pompous, moralistic blowhards hold center stage in Washington, young people rightfully reject them and their hate filled version of Christianity. Jesus pointed out several times that the rules needed to change. Yes, you do pull the ox out of the ditch, even if it's the Sabbath. Yes, you do throw the money changers out of the temple. No, you don't put new wine into old wineskins. If the Church is to survive, the Old Testament has to be given less importance. Keep it as a history lesson, not as "an eye for an eye" guide for behavior.
8
The one overwhelming reason young people are turning away from religion: The obvious hypocrisy of those who claim to be Christians.
Their unfailing and illogical support of Trump, the least Christian president ever, will be seen as the turning point.
11
Not a Christian nation? Hardly. Do you know the history of Christianity? Do you know why people fled from religious persecution in Europe? They were being persecuted by other Christians. Ever hear of the war between the Protestants and Catholics in Ireland? Ever hear of the Spanish missionaries in Latin America and the brutality and slavery of the natives, justified by Christianity? Ever hear of the Spanish Inquisition? The Thirty Years War? The colonization of Africa? The slave trade? I mean, be real. To suggest Christianity has ever been a "religion of peace" defies the historical record. That does not even include the repression of women and sexual violation of children. I am not saying there are not peaceful Christians, but violence, torture and hatred of the "other" are hardly outside the mainstream of Christian actions for the last 500 years. And actions speak louder than words. Christianity and violence have gone hand in hand....
13
@Joe
Very true history.
Other religions also have been responsible for warfare.
2
Mr Kristoff, of all people, should know that many Founding Fathers were deists who rejected the concept of a savior or establishing a Christian nation. In any case, calling oneself a Christian (or a Jew, Muslim, Buddhist, Atheist, etc.) is not what makes us decent human beings. Practicing the principles in each philosophy of empathy and self-improvement is what can sustain a society.
Yesterday I had a conversation with a Charlotte policeman who moved here from New Jersey. He told me emphatically that Trump is a deeply religious Christian who knows what’s best for our country! He absolutely believed what he was saying.
Today this “deeply religious” man describes the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as that of a coward who was whimpering as he was set on fire. Trump says this without disgust or any discernible emotion. He describes it as if it were a reasonable death.
It is clear to me, as I imagine it is to Mr. Kristoff, that we are led by a man who is devoid of empathy: at best a disgusting megalomaniac and at worst a sadist with the personality of a mobster. He thinks he’s the Teflon Don. But Mr. Gotti died in prison. Trump will end sensationally, too, through his own lack of empathy. I sincerely hope he doesn’t end as ignominiously as Qaddafi, Mussolini, Hitler and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. But his outrageous behavior and leadership style only stirs up the anxiety that leads to anti-social behavior from all sides.
7
Religion is source of lot of conflicts and is used as a tool to control and victimize people. I am glad the young generation is wiser.
10
The evidence to indicate the existence of a causal relationship of the following type seems overwhelming.
Greater the self-proclaimed religiosity of people . . .
. . . the more backward the society (compare Alabama with Sweden).
. . . the more intolerant the state (see Saudi Arabia)
If we are less christian, as in less overtly thumping the bible and beating our chest about religiosity, I guess we are better off. Being more christian is decidedly like approaching the times of inquisition.
5
"To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary.
To one without faith, no explanation is possible."
- Thomas Aquinas
"A man’s reach should exceed his grasp, or what’s a heaven for?"
- Robert Browning
and...
"I’m still an atheist, thank God."
- Luis Bunuel [Portoles]
2
@Cheryl another quote: "A man with an experience is not at the mercy of a man with an argument." I think this is from A Course in Miracles, but am not sure.
If highly visible Christian religious leaders were more Christ-like — love God and love your neighbor as yourself—things might be different. They seem so focused on the Old Testament, oblivious to Jesus’s revolutionary encouragement to love EVERYBODY. They have driven people away using Old Testament doctrine as a cudgel. It reminds me of “the beatings will continue until morale improves.” It’s an enormous contradiction and doesn’t seem very Christ-ian.
6
@ Samantha, wise words my friend. Yes the reason the Jews turned over Jesus to the Romans was because of his kindness to the Gentiles. You have to understand, that was revolutionary then and even now, especially among the Orthodox Jews.
1
If the rightwing blowhards are helping their own demise, so much the better.
And seriously, the RCC hierarchy hasn't helped itself in the slightest with it's non-handling of the pedophilia curse.
The more organized and politically weaponized religion fades and becomes irrelevant the better.
6
Unlike being female, male, black, hispanic, white, LGBTQ, straight, etc. being Christian is a choice. When I question someone's Christian beliefs (or any other organized religious beliefs), I am questioning their thinking and decision making.
I am flawed and make many stupid decisions, and I recognize that if I get righteously indignant, under scrutiny, it's almost always a defense mechanism. Something to keep in mind the next time you feel assailed "as a Christian."
9
At its very best, religion is a way to waste endless irreplaceable hours listening to some righteous male drone on about unintersting fairy tales. At worst it is an instrument and reason for coercion, torture, murder, war, and often genocide.
Humanity has no need for religion. It dulls the mind because it encourages and even forces people to succumb to blind allegiance instead of reason.
I am sure the religious think "faith" is their strength. It is not. It is their weakness. It is an abdication of their personal agency to charlatans who exploit the intellectual laziness of their followers.
If their is an afterlife, the supreme fairytale thing in the sky will punish intellectual laziness with everlasting humiliation. The Mockening has already begun as the religious have taken the most unholy among them as their leader.
9
Maybe Fox News should have an essay from an immigrant “How long will I be separated from my family”
6
It takes only two generations for religion to die. Our children we're brought up nonreligious. Their children are almost completely ignorant of Christianity and its beliefs. Good riddance.
10
When I think of a true Christian I think of Jimmy Carter, who didn't cash in on his post-presidential life the way Reagan, the Bushes, most especially the Clintons, and yes even Obama has done. Trump started cashing in as soon as he got into office.
Our real national religion is Capitalism, and has long been so. How can we deny it?
15
This article touches only the surface of the issue. With advancing science ,especially cosmology, people realize that not only Christianity but all religions are invented by humans and that there is no God that interferes in this world and punishes evil. Especially young people realize the profound contradictions in all religious books within and with reality. How morality will be defined in a world without God will be a problem of the future.
6
While I am not a Christian, I have a great deal of respect for the humanistic teachings of Christianity. Often we hear the question” what would Jesus say “ with respect to a given situation. Perhaps the question that should be asked is” were Jesus to fulfill Christian belief and return to Earth, what would he make of our current way of life” a mon Avis ( as I see it ) He would be ashamed of the actions of the numbers of Christian Evangelicals( so called) who in the name of Christianity applaud and support the actions of our executive branch of government, even to the point of invoking scripture to label Mr.Trump as anointed by G-d.
Conservative fiscal and foreign policy does not demand cruelty toward humans,the castigation of the poor ,and the destruction of our planet based resources such as we see supported by the Evangelical movement in their support of Trumpism. These people should keep in mind the famous lines of Martin Niemoller” first they came for the Socialists and I did not speak out .........then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me”. Trumps quest for dictatorship will bring us to that.
It behooves all of us especially those who carry the banner of Christianity to follow the principles of our religious beliefs. Be role models for the young and I predict they will return the effort by embracing their respective faiths.
Thanks Mr. Kristof , I have followed you for years and I know you live by the principles of your faith.
2
If there existed a strong God we wouldn’t argue over what it stood for. The fact that people do wonderful and detestable things in the name of God suggests more strongly that there isn’t a God than it suggests that there is one.
Moving away from looking to a mythical being for guidance and inspiration is one of the healthiest aspects of society today.
Even if Christianity sometimes produces awesome people, it has many times, and is currently producing despicable people in great numbers in the United States.
We are better off with science and a commitment to work with, not against, our fellow earthlings.
9
Not a religious person, but one who carries the crux of Christianity everyday in my dealings with by following the golden rule: do unto others as you would like them to do unto you. Simple but so telling. Sadly the golden rule for the Televangelist and Evangelicals is: He who has the most gold rules! Hence Trump is their new savior and the person they let rule.
3
I was raised in a Protestant family, and a conservative one at that. 50 years ago, I was already skeptical about the doctrine, and the polemical political message was abhorrent. Anti-evolution was the watchword, and my parents’ church was opposed to social movements, including Medicare, and were outraged by the Supreme Court decision on prayer in schools. As I went to college, then graduate school, I could find no reason why the same critical techniques I was applying to secular texts like the Iliad shouldn’t be used on the Bible. More to the point, while these Christians had read Greek literature and its discussions of the gods, they never saw the absurdity of elevating a contemporary text written by Hebrews above one written by Greeks, making the former infallible and a guide for their lives 3000 years later and in a culture very different from the modern one, but the latter was simply an interesting story.
But the final straw was, as Mr Kristof recounts, the steady association of Christianity with the Republican Party, as it grew more and more intolerant. I spent many years sitting in the pew thinking about other things, but finally decided that I might as well use my Sunday mornings more productively. I don’t regret leaving the church, but I do wonder why it took me so long.
8
@Ockham9. Another misgiving that I did not mention, for lack of space: the missionary movement. I could never accept the idea that churches should sent people to other parts of the world, in my name, to convince them that their culture was wrong and that they should adopt mine. That seemed profoundly narcissistic and imperialistic. And of course among fundamentalists, it sets up the dynamic with which we are living today: terrorists who are Islamic fundamentalists confronting our own Christian fundamentalist terrorists, both trying to establish their brand on the whole world.
2
Some of the most altruistic humans that I’ve ever met are nones. We don’t need religion to be kind, just or moral. In fact, some of the worst kind of authoritarian personalities are drawn to religion, particularly the punitive belief systems that attempt to force people to live within anachronistic hierarchies. No thanks. I retain the mystery of the unknown for my family while religiously demonstrating the innate human value within us all. My children are generous, loving, and inspiring advocates for people in need. The Jesus in the Bible I read would be proud of the way they care for those around them. Don’t be afraid of nones; this generation might just be our nation’s salvation.
12
Love thy neighbor and intolerance never go hand in hand.
The rise of con men (and women) like Falwell, Graham, Murdoch and Osteen who scam people with "seed faith" ministries while flying in private jets. All tax free. Of course if people are gullible enough to vote for Trump, then giving money to fund a lavish lifestyle in the name of the lord is not a reach. "Never trust a preacher with more than two suits" - Lenny Bruce.
The only positive thing that Trumps has accomplished is exposing the hypocrisy of evangelicals to a wider audience.
22
I always find these polls interesting and misleading. A distinction needs to be made between those who identify as Christian from those who are Christian. When that distinction is made, we see that probably only 20% of the country is truly Christian. Here is a simple test of Christianity: If you support the separation of children from their parents, holding them in cages, letting them sleep on concrete floors, and denying them basic toiletries. Then, you are not a Christian. If you support guns in church, you are not a Christian. Jesus, was against all forms of violence. But, these truths are inconvenient to those who make millions off pretending to be Christian.
18
Will there be a new Calvinist Reform revolution in the 21st century? The reform was necessary because the church and the political leadership had become entangled.
History does not repeat but it does rhyme.
4
The most powerful and influential religion in our country, and the one which twists Evangelicals into the antithesis of Christianity is the worship of Mammon -- of wealth and power. The irony is that the one non-Christian candidate in the race for President is philosophically the most Christian.
5
Or! Maybe it’s the televangelist who fly around in private jets pretending to be a religion but really just in it for the tax breaks. Or! People realized that If they spent less time hoping and praying, they have more time to actually get stuff done
8
For another view of the same phenomenon that intersects with this one, see the review of a Christianity Today article which uses a false equivalence between secular and evangelical groups. https://www.patheos.com/blogs/divergence/2019/10/26/poor-analysis-false-equivalence-bad-outcome/
"an eye for an eye". yeah, sums it up very nicely.
I don't want to be a Christian nation. I don't want to be an anything nation. I don't mind being a nation mostly populated by Christians.
I would object to being guided by the Christian Bible. How do we feel about the Bible's passages dealing with how we need to treat our slaves or how we ought to deal with homosexuality?
6
"We’re Less and Less a Christian Nation, and I Blame Some Blowhards."
This is not supposed to be a Christian Nation, Mr. Kristof.
Given that this country is supposed to have Separation of Church and State, why have you written an Opinion Piece in the NTY lamenting this nation being "Less of a Christian Nation"?
How did you come to believe that your God has the right to renounce passages of my God's Old Testament ?
.
You wrote :"Surveys find that religious Americans donate more to charity than secular Americans and are substantially more likely to volunteer. "Every example that you used is of Christians. How did you come to believe that all religious Americans are Christian ?
I am Jewish. I am the granddaughter and daughter of individuals who have dedicated their lives to volunteering and to philanthropy. My grandfather was written up in the Encyclopedia of American Biography . My mother was honored at the New York Hilton for her philanthropy. The guest speak was Senator Moynihan.
I feel erased by you . I feel that you have erased Judaism, Jews , members of all faiths other than Christianity , and those who do not believe in God.
This is the New York Times, not a Christian Newspaper. Many of the readers are not Christian.
Volunteering and Philanthropy are alive and well in the Jewish Community.
I would appreciate if you would consider following this column up with one that includes Americans of other faiths, and of no faith
15
Kriistof blames them? Most of us thank them!
Who needs this life-loathing anti-communitarian nihilism?
Luke 14:25-27
25 Many people were traveling with Jesus. He said to them, 26 “If you come to me but will not leave your family, you cannot be my follower. You must love me more than your father, mother, wife, children, brothers, and sisters—even more than your own life!
Not us. There is a reason that priests accompanied conquistadors, and Kristof should know better than side with darkness. But doesn't :(
1
Would doubt the value of any research on millenials taken from their use of social media. These cosseted little twerps will vote (and scream) SOCIALISM or LBGT RIGHTS as long as some "influencer" supports it--even if they have no idea what it really entails. To trust these people to make any valid statement on what Americans really believe is stupid. But...the most important thing is to be able to slag off Trump, isn't it, Kristof? It is how you make your money, and why you write these columns.
It could be the blowhards. Or the "Christian" leadership that stood by while thousands of children were and continue to be abused. Or the "Christians" who persecute women for becoming pregnant when they don't want to be, but are supposed to take on the responsibility for it. Or the "Christian" leaders who denigrate others who don't conform to the approved gender scenario for mass reproduction to fill the pews. Or the "Christian" leaders who stand by while bigots in positions of political leadership endorse racial intolerance and persecution. Or the "Christian" leaders who run cons to grab vast sums of money to enrich themselves at the expense of the credulous. Or....
Well, never mind. It must just be the blowhards.
5
You reap what you sow..,
3
I don’t believe in fairy stories, and you shouldn’t either.
6
I am Jewish. In the 1950s, 60s and 70s I knew without question that America was indeed a Christian nation. Yes we are polyglot of other religions but I always understood that the dominant religion, in fact the most tyrannical and threatening religious organizations were deeply conservative Christian factions. Good Christians learned in church that Jews killed Jesus and it was unforgivable. Despite the telling that G-d sacrificed his own son, it was blamed on the Jews. In 1965 the Pope finally declared that collective guilt was wrong and the Jews were not accountable. It only took 2000 years. Conservative Christians opposed women's rights in the church, and in private life too. Abortion is vehemently opposed by conservative Christians. They also opposed civil rights of lesbians, gays, homosexual and transgender people. The violence perpetrated on gays and others was a direct result of the hatred and venom of good Christians who dishonestly claimed that their religion was under attack by liberals. Having Aids was viewed as a mortal sin.
So, I'm not unhappy to see less Christianity. I remember being compelled to say the Lord's Prayer in school and read from the Bible. I remember being compelled to bow my head in prayer in public meetings. I remember being accused of being G-d's murderer. I remember being called "Jew" and "Kike" or hearing "I'm going to Jew him down" and a host of other slurs.
Less Christianity is not bad. Maybe a more tolerant Christianity will be born.
11
Nick, organized religions exist for the purpose of self perpetuation. To allow their leaders to continue in their careers gathering wealth and power. To lay all the hate and corruption at Trump's feet is absurd because Trump is just a Republican. To believe Trump is the/a cause is akin to believing Hitler did not have millions of people that agreed with him. No one person can do all that they did. The humanistic care providing missionaries Nick mentions have their counterparts in secular organizations and individuals. Young people turn their backs on conservatives not out of religious considerations , rather the young reject conservatives' hate/fear of the "other". And Nick your last statement, at least until today I thought would have been beneath you, "...that gays and lesbians have higher public approval than evangelicals...", is that your homophobia seeping out? What a telling statement, eh Nick! Yeah who would have thought that "those people", Gays and Lesbians, would be held in any esteem at all, they are certainly at least a notch or two below heterosexuals. Quite an ugly column today Nick.
3
I have more or less returned to the church after a number of years. My kids find it rather funny. I have to spend way to much time saying i am not like pat robertson and his cadre of morons to make my living example of living my faith relevant to them.
1
If Evangelicals taint your view of mainstream Christianity, it is your fault, not theirs. No one in the Muslim world thinks that extremist Shiites taint moderate Sunnis. Extremists are a thing apart. If you can’t make the distinction, shame on you.
Those who turn away from blacks because of those who spew hatred are racists. Those who turn away from all Christians because of Evangelicals are bigots.
How do you get to speak for all Muslims. I have plenty of Muslim friends that do indeed believe that fundamentalists of the Islamic faith taint their religion.
2
@michjas,
Many of us dislike all religions.
That doesn't mean that we turn away from individuals who practice them.
2
@michjas maybe the fact that evangelicals have tainted my view of mainstream Christianity is because mainstream Christians have failed to object to the extremists! Also, the Catholic Church is pretty darned mainstream, and from where I'm sitting ("reformed" Catholic), it looks like it views me as a second-class human. I refuse to be labeled a "bigot" for objecting to being treated like a second-class citizen.
Maybe your conscience needs examining as well before you start calling everybody names.
2
Before you bemoan the "changing" of America, consider Cotton Mather. America has always had plenty of religious blowhards and the sheep who follow them. Good riddance.
8
Archeological data exists that there probably was a “Christ” who existed.
But how did he become the leader of a new religion? Frankly this man has no place in a logical arena where 100 billion galaxies exist (possibly up to 200 billion.)
Humans created a god in their own image...how else to explain all the paintings of a blue eyed blonde Western European that adorns churches and homes.
We don’t need a religion to tell us how to live morally. That comes with socialization and evolution. Of COURSE our global community is better without killing, thievery, jealousy, and seeking to be wealthy as an end in itself.
I don’t need a male religious leader “mansplaining” what is moral or not...esp with abortion.
How many indigenous populations have been killed off by Christians going out to convert every human being on earth to this specific religion?
Any ideology that proclaims to have all the answers reminds me of Mao’s Little Red Book. How many humans have been slaughtered in the name of some idiotic made up religion! Today we call it “ethnic cleansing!” As if we are ridding the earth of vermin.
The Rohingya people have faced decades of systematic discrimination, statelessness and targeted violence in Myanmar. ... They found temporary shelter in the world’s largest refugee camp.
Ask Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad about the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict.
Homo Sapiens are ONE race--not 1000s of divisive tribes.
We simply do NOT need religion!
6
Growing up in the shiniest buckle of the Bible Belt mere miles from Bob Jones University, I saw religion weaponized. I remember being told that because I was Episcopalian that I was going to hell. To question a “Christian’s” hatred of LGBTQ people, immigrants, women, or other religions was to quickly be labeled as a satanist in my hometown.
When you’re in middle and high school trying to navigate who you are while also being pressured to join a certain church or to hold certain hatreds, you swallow a lot of trauma. I considered myself Christian for most of my young adult life but it was those hypocritical purity police Christians that drove me away.
I have to say, I am happier without Christianity. I have a high moral compass, I treat people with kindness and compassion, and I fight for the marginalized in our society. If I’d fallen for the version of Christianity I grew up surrounded by, I believe I’d only spew hate and hypocrisy. I can easily qualify that belief simply by looking at the Facebook posts of people I grew up with. In an odd way, I’m grateful for my experience because in the end it made me more moral and empathetic than those who are “good people of faith.” Perhaps Millennials and “nones” are actually reshaping society in Christ’s image by turning away from the Jesus Industrial Complex.
7
@Another Smith
“Religion weaponized”. What an apt description of our politics.
1
As someone I respect stated: "Organized religion is the root of all evil." Not too far from the truth in too many respects! In my long experience, the most-virulent, vocal Bible-Thumpers and Holy Rollers are the worst of the judgmental lot. They mistakenly think they and their version of religion are superior to others: the "I'm-chosen" delusion. They truly believe they have the right to ascend to the Throne of Judgment: "My moral compass is the only true one. Everyone else is going to Hell." And the sickening "Prosperity Gospel" practiced by far TOO many pseudo-religious figures who use it to buy their politicians figures prominently into this toxic, greedy religious brew. Paul Ryan and his Ayn Rand sycophants come to mind! IF these so-called "Christians" really understood the meaning of the acronym, "WWJD," they'd be ashamed of themselves. But I won't hold my breath!
6
When did YOUR faith provide moral guidance? When was this mythical time of love and charity? Sure, Christianity (like all faiths!!) professes kindness and charity at the best of times. I’m sorry, though, it can be nothing but a good thing for Christians to cease being the majority here. On a minor level, I’ve had a lot less people telling me I’m headed for hell these days. On a major level, maybe less Christianity means less bigotry against those who believe something other than you do. Few of us need history books to remind us of atrocities committed in the name of your deity. By all means, go on and spread the love your faith professes. Maybe if you’re quieter about it instead of shouting from the rooftops about how great your religion is, maybe we saw deeds instead of words, we would actually believe you. Meanwhile, others of us will continue to love others our own (and equally valid) ways.
4
I am a Christian and a proud American. Both have been stolen from me by the right wing so I no longer fly an American flag, tell people I am American when traveling without a humble apology, nor use the word Christian to describe myself. The things I stand for are actions opposite of these labels.
4
As a retired English teacher I have decades of insight into the thoughts and beliefs of young Americans, specifically in California. I have watched the changing attitudes towards established religion and it is true that young people have clearly moved away from these structured systems of belief. It must be said that these are very thoughtful, moral and ethical people for the most part and their rejection is overwhelming based on one thing. Hypocrisy. They can smell it a mile away.
9
Before people have any faith in any religion we are human beings and as human beings we are the only species with the ability to reason.
I will make no friends saying that religious belief is not reasonable, but it is not.
The idea that there is a god of any sort who created man is antithetical to any sense of reason and so long as we accept the premise of an afterlife we will eliminate the possibility of "peace on earth"
Believe what one will with regard to a "supreme being" and an afterlife, but don't for a moment consider that these thoughts are reasonable.
If anything religions were invented by men to further their control and have thusfar done little more than spill humanity's blood.
Religious belief is not reasonable.
5
Raised Catholic and open enough to Christianity as a young person that I took several classes on the New Testament in college, it took me a few decades of living in America to get to where I am now: reflexively repulsed by Christian terminology. Patriarchalism and tribalism are all that the right-wing evangelical Republican "Christian" minority that is tyrannizing our national politics seem to get from their religion; all those beautiful words that Jesus spoke in the Sermon on the Mount, for example, are daily violated by these "Christians" who don't seem to be about anything except excoriating those of different religions, races, countries of origin and sexual preferences. As if Jesus would countenance the mistreatment of migrants. As if Jesus cared more about making sure women don't have access to birth control and abortion than about virtually anything else. As if Jesus had weird fantasies about the Middle East, the end of the world, and the rapture. I'm ashamed of these people and angry that they dominate our government despite their being in a minority and their ardor for doing harm to others.
6
Nicholas Kristof conspicuously missed a big piece of the puzzle, and that is the sexual abuse of minor children by Catholic clergy. Surely Mr. Kristof knows that Catholics also identify as Christians, and many Catholics have been repelled by that ongoing stream of revelations. Why he has turned a blind eye to that fact in framing this editorial is something that he should think about, as an honest broker of social commentary. Moreover, the fierce assault on women’s reproductive rights in America has come as much from the Catholic side as it has from the Evangelical Side. You have only to look at the religious makeup of the Supreme Court to see that. Surely, many women have seen that as well, since his issue affects their lives so profoundly.
8
@FreeDem: Exactly. Although Jewish clergy has rarely been implicated in sexual abuse of minor children, it has happened. For a non-believer like myself it taints and negates all the "good" in my religion. Kristof certainly omits that great horror of Christianity, and especially of Catholicism, in his op-ed. Why am I not surprised that Evangelicals and Catholics like William Barr support and enable wrongdoers like Trump?
1
@FreeDem Not just the Catholics. I exited (parental forced) organized religion at age 15 after being sexually assaulted by my Methodist youth minister. I’ve been reading about women assaulted by Baptist clergy over the years as well. There’s no need for religion.
Pope Francis, F. Jim Martin, and the Rt. Rev Michael Curry are also faith leaders worth listening to. Locally in Boston Liz Walker went from one of the most recognized faces on the evening news to a humble pastor serving in one of our poorest neighborhoods.
I have taught in two inner city districts and can confirm that religious and faith based organizations are lifelines for kids in trouble. Whether it’s the visible Muslim Student Association at my school raising funds for kids displaced by local fires or the old school legacy Irish and Italian Catholic parishes that now have predominately Hispanic and Brazilian congregations. Faith connects people. It can also divide people. Speaking as a late millennial teaching teenagers-they want something authentic and inclusive. The places that do both will thrive. When it comes to faith, Americans are voting with their feet. That’s the marketplace of ideas the founders wanted when the made our nation both protect the right to worship and endorse no particular place to do so.
3
Christians seem to feel they have an exclusive insight into right and wrong. It seems disingenuous for a group that spent the majority of its history trying to force others to embrace its dogma at the point of a knife or at the stake to now feel persecuted themselves. Christianity offers many worthy values including the social aspect. But in my sphere, the atheists I know are just as moral as the believers of any faith, if not more so. If Christians (and other faiths that do so) would kindly stop trying to proselytize and accept that an understanding of right and wrong is not unique to them, it might be a step in the right direction. I am heartened that many are leaving the fold. We have tried the domination of Christianity for 2000 odd years, with decidedly mixed results. Why not give agnosticism, atheism, and rationalism a try?
5
Here's a suggestion: treat religion as a co-equal in the marketplace of ideas. Don't treat it as "rude" to question religion or its tenets. Let's not let religion off the hook for some rigorous thinking. Let's debate its merits and flaws, openly and fairly, like we do almost everything else.
Why does this not happen? Because most of us were brainwashed with primitive (and comforting) notions when we were young and impressionable. We end up believing in (or passively accepting) rather ridiculous ideas, and would be embarrassed to have them challenged, because of how patently childish and indulgent they are. Our self-esteem requires the censorship inherent in a "politeness" code of silence as to any real philosophical and ethical analysis.
My own view is that we can do all the good things (that religionists do) - and more - without religion. We need new organizing principles for that, but they're easy to find. Let's not let our shame over believing in fairy tales impede our slow, steady progress toward true moral conduct.
Let's have that honest and ennobling debate. Those who believe in supernatural forces will be heard too, although not, as has been mostly the case for centuries, to have the only voice heard in polite society.
7
...but every single Democratic candidate for President is a self-professed person of faith. It’ll be a longtime until an atheist can run for high office.
4
This interesting piece makes a lot of good points about the contributing factors to our becoming a less Christian nation.
1
Christianity in the US has become like Islam in Saudi or some other backward place. Extreme. In your face. My way or the highway. Bigoted.
As Gandhi is supposed to have said ‘I like your Christ but I am not sure about his followers’.
And we are surprised that a majority don’t want to follow it? Kudos to the millennials.
8
Just because somebody is religious doesn’t make them spiritual or moral which are independent of religious faith.
6
So are we ready for a reformation? A blend of empirical science and spirituality? The bottom line of this column is hateful judgement plus a poor working moral compass or worse, no compass at all.
Right now we need Christian moral leaders who remember the commandments, since most fail to practice them. For instance, denying or changing the facts is lying. Killing is killing no matter if you are standing your ground.
A quiet place where we can speak deeply with our god is needed. Where no judgement is made about our person but a place where we can be guided by a sense of moral goodness.
2
Jesus would be run out of Washington if he were living today.
He's a socialist.
6
And a Jew!
2
He would vote for Bernie. A fellow Jewish Democratic Socialist!
5
@Eileen Paroff
So is Bernie Sanders. Go, Bernie!
3
Religion is a vestige of medieval times and even before that. No more place for religion on this day and age when it’s clear beyond a doubt that mankind is ruled not an imaginary bearded man in the sky but by mankind’s own greed and actions.
3
Like a mosquito in a nudist camp, I hardly know where to start.
First, Christians now make up only 31% of the planet's population of 7.6 billion. (CIA World fact book)
So let's string out the logic.
Christians claim in order to get to their (imaginary) heaven, one must profess that Jesus is one's savior. Over 5 billion of us completely reject that claim.
Therefore, 4 out of 6 of us who reject Jesus are destined for an eternity of unimaginable torture. Forever and ever and ever. And of course the Christian god, who is omniscient, knew this was going to happen.
What parent in their right mind would bring forth 6 children in the world knowing in advance that 4 of them would spend their lives in unbearable pain?
Religions (all of them) are so delusional.
Delusion: "A persistent false belief held in the face of strong contradictory evidence, especially as a sign of a psychiatric condition."
8
@Charlie --Well. I started out laughing.
My reasons for leaving Christianity behind:
Catholic Priests
West Virginia Bishop Michael J. Bransfield
Joel Osteens net worth
Kenneth Copeland’s jet
What a bunch of hypocrites.
As a wise poster here once said:
“Whether or not a god exists is unknown, but one can believe in a supreme being without following the nonsense known as religion “
5
If Jesus returned today, not only would the Xtianists not recognize him, they would have him arrested as a terrorist! The right wing christians are those that believe that Jesus looked more like Charlton Heston or Jim Caveziel than the short dark skinned arab that he was. That is if he existed as one man, versus many good men of the time.
5
A Christian nation??? Silly me, somehow I had learned that one of the founding principles of this country was the separation of church and state!!!
7
Religious fanaticism of any stripe is always ugly, especially when it allies itself with the kind of power at the disposal of the Republicans today.
4
You can be non believing but still see the Bible as part of the world”s wisdom traditions.
1
Why is being a "Christian" nation so important to you that you must write about this? Do you not see this adds to the religious intolerance that needs to end?
Please let go of your personal ideology and write as a journalist.
5
So "(o)nly 49% of the millennials consider themselves Christian", what is wrong with that? Well, there is nothing wrong with that. When you considered the history of religion which was used to justify slavery, apartheid in South Africa, racial segregation in the USA, the forced assimilation of the Amerindians in the schools ran by the Churches in Canada, the support of Nazism in Germany and Fascism in Italy, the war on science by the Churches, the anti-Semitism of the Churches,... this is one of the best news I ever read this year.
5
The problem is that the USA is only less Christian. Better: zero Christian.
2
By “Nones,” do you mean Atheists? Why not use the word Atheists?
2
Secular progressives can't wait to get their hands on power. Freedom of religion is just one of those old ideas like the First Amendment and Second Amendment that can get tossed. Right? Nothing more fun for a leftist than to blame old white guys and religious Americans for the world's problems.
extreme religion is bad for humankind.
we have enough Talibans as is, with the extremist Muslims in parts of the middle East,, crazy conservative Christians who back trump at all costs (hypocrites), and murderous Buddhist monks in Myanmar who give Buddhism a bad name etc
so it's good Americans are becoming less religious as the big bang exists and evolution made us humans. religion has its place in small doses but not in science.
am shocked and surprised to learn that n parts of America, child brides are allowed, so what make the Taliban any worst than we are?
3
A country founded on a stolen land and by mass killing the natives could never be a Christian nation.
“Thou shall not kill “
Thou shall not steal”
6
With due respect Mr. Kristof, the Bible and the Quran ,the backbone of Christianity and Islam, are in fact entangled with bigotry, sexism, homophobia, murder and more. Bible vividly orders the killing of homosexuals. In Islam, homosexual are thrown from the top of a cliff. I rest my case.
6
The "faith" has been tainted for centuries. Blood shed in battle after battle and murder after murder. Persecution of Jews and on and on. Imagine a wonderful world without religion.
6
Mr. Kristoff,
The United States is not and never has been a "Christian country". Surely, you know your history, as I do.
I cannot imagine you have no awareness of "The Family", a documentary which exposes the group of Evangelical leaders who "whisper" into to the ears of presidents and senators and congressmen and have since 1953. They have an agenda for power and control.
I think it is good that young people are "thinking for themselves" and not accepting everything said in the pulpit. (I am 74 yrs and was raised in the Episcopal Church, a user friendly approach to the spirit.)
2
Either you know Jesus are you dont. Either you do good works as a child and as an adult or you dont. Either you pass bills that injury other people deliberately or you vote against them
God will always love you and it is up to us to walk , live in the manner that Jesus would. We have never been on the path to heaven because America is founded on white superiority, and greed. Lynching Mr. Trumps issue of last week was committed by God fearing church going white people, dressed in their Sunday best and smiling. Presidents supported slavery, Wilson supported every bill that harmed minorities, and proud of it
Yes, Trump may have pushed some white people away from religion, but religions fall off didnt happen with him, as the white churches became more hateful to anyone who didnt look like them, they have suffocated themselves with bigotry, they laughed at Jimmy Carter because he is a God fearing man
Religion is in your heart, its not found in a building nor by the words of a religious spokesperson. Spokespeople can inspire but its up to you to be a better person.
As long as people are consumed by politics doing harm to others in the name of religions it doesnt matter because there will always be hell on earth
Interesting piece, for a Sunday morning
3
@Tony Tony, in New York City. You rock! I finally got my Sunday Morning Churrch! Thank you.
Morality should come from within each person based on ethical principles. Religion or belief in God have nothing to do with it.
History shows that religion usually divides much more than it unites. Belief in an unseen, all knowing and to my mind invented god has been the root cause of much of the horror throughout history.
4
Kristof’s argument has one major flaw: he never makes a convincing case for Christianity.
Why should young people care about an apocalyptic, cultic offshoot of Judaism that solely rose to prominence because of Ancient Roman politics?
4
The founders did not intend for the United States to be a Christian nation. Citizens have the right to be Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Native beliefs, etc. etc. etc. The importance is ethics and morals, and those do not require membership in a church, or belief in a deity.
As a Jew, I find it offensive to call any country a "Christian nation."
5
Thank you for this great article. This has probably been said already, but the Treaty of Tripoli clearly states America was not a Christian Nation. Additionally, Freedom of Religion was always meant to be equal to Freedom FROM Religion. After all, the Colonialists wanted to move away from the Monarchy's dictates, especially in regards to religious practices. And lastly, Americans see how detrimental and abusive some religious organizations are, and can be, to societies as a whole. Faith is a personal choice that should not be mixed in politics or business practices. America was intended to be made up of people from all over the world, aka melting pot, and with all those people came many differences and similarities. We need to continue to build on the similarities, and respect the differences as well.
5
What in the world does institutionalized religion (ANY religion) and doctrine have to do with faith and the individual's relationship to whatever one considers the divine? Religion is what separates us from God. Even Jesus (who was NOT a Christian, and really not much of a Jew, it would seem) said it pretty clearly:
"Woe unto you, lawyers (meaning, the interpreters of "religious law")! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered."
A church, temple, synagogue, what-have-you might be a nice place to sit and collect oneself in a peaceful, non-secular environment, but that's not where you need to be in order to be with God.
Why should we think that any human (including me) can tell us more about what God is or is not than we can find out for ourselves, and why do we give anyone else the authority to instruct us on how we should live?
Be kind to everyone and everything. Give to those who have little. Just love, and be quiet.
3
@NGB --- Amen.
1
Mr. Kristof's phraseology implies that it would be good, and even essential, for the United States to be a Christian nation. The United States certainly should be a nation where people can openly be Christian, but why must it be a "Christian nation" or any other kind of "nation" in that apparent sense of the word. Freedom of religion is meaningless unless people truly are free to practice whatever religion they want, including non-Christian religions, or no religion whatever. Might it not be a better idea to criticize "blowhards" who state that they are Christians for moving away from the teachings of Jesus, without bringing the non-Christian population into it? Might it not be a better idea to criticize the country's political culture for ethical rather than specifically religious shortcomings?
3
We are not, and have never been, "a Christian nation." In the Treaty of Tripoli approved unanimously by Congress in 1797 originating in President George Washington's term, Article 11 unambiguously states, "...As the government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion..."
What the author of this piece is apparently ironically bemoaning is that people of today in the United States are now more diversified is their choice of either secular positions, or a variety of multiple religious or spiritual beliefs. That this is the case is history moving forward - as the Founders of this country intended that it should.
3
I go to my church as often as possible. My church is everywhere but not in a building with an alter and bibles. My church is away from the noise of the evangelicals and conservatives who disparage others who are different than they are. For just a few hours at a time, I can stand in a river and cast to fish or make turns in fresh powder. I marvel at this creation along with my community of fellows who seek it out for the same reason.
3
Watch Megan and Harry’s wedding, pay attention to Bishop Michael Curry. It’s all about love.
Thank you Nicholas. I’m thankful First Presbyterian sponsored your immigrant dad fifty years ago.
1
Jesus was the father of Liberalism. He promoted radical ideas such as; all people, are of equal value, and in fact, those with the least may be of more value than those with the most. Take care of each other. Be careful falling in love with physical possessions or money. There exists a higher power than any man. We take these ideas for granted today, but radical ideas during his time. The last idea probably got him killed.
4
Both the Muslim fanatics and the Christian fanatics are simply more ignorant than the moderates. The truth of the matter concerning religion is beautifully captured in the words of a certain existential philosopher and mathematician (Bertrand Russell): "Religion, since it has its source in terror, has dignified certain kinds of fear, and made man think it not disgraceful. In this it has done mankind a great disservice; all fear is bad. I believe that when I die I shall rot, and nothing of my ego shall survive. I am not young and I love life and scorn to shiver with terror at the thought of annihilation. Love and happiness is all the more true love and happiness because it must end, nor do thought and love lose their value because they are not everlasting. Many a man has bourne himself proudly on the scaffold; surely the same pride should teach us to think truly about mans place in the world. Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cozy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigor, and the great spaces have a splendor of their own. It is for us to choose the good life, not for nature -- not even nature personified as god.”
1
And don’t forget the Jewish fanatics...
God bless you Sir, and many thanks for your comments. Evangelicals can't say that they love Jesus and at the same time say that immigrants are bad persons. In addition they could go to "La Iglesia del Buen Consejo" in Bogota. A Catholic church. They do teach how to be a good Christian, the priests are excellent preachers, and they still send missionaries to Africa, A missionary is an immigrant who loves Jesus. Oh, and they have a wonderful singer. No, they don't behave as evangelicals.
Kristof is right. It is not the rise of secular culture that has ruined religious culture in this country. It is much more the incessant incursion of religion into secular life that has damaged the Christian brand.
2
I usually agree with Kristof but he's way out in left field with today's article. It's very surprising as well because Kristof has traveled outside of the US and in exposing himself to other cultures he must understand that the vast majority of humans don't believe in the Christian pantheon of God, Jesus and the Holy Ghost. Less Christianity, less religion? I say: great!
It's embarrassing to listen to adults talk about deities. It's like those 10-year olds who still believed in Santa Claus.
3
Christian faith suffers from a fundamental contradiction: it was born as a rebellion of the poor against horrors visited upon the conquered by the late Roman Empire. But then, it was adopted by the same rotten Empire as the state religion which provided divine justification for the same sort of horrid repression. It served this purpose for two millennia. The nuns who spend their lives in piety are Christianitie's alibi. Habitual cruelty, lust to control the lives of others and extract treasure for themselves out of this control has been it's true nature. For two millennia. As one famous man said: Opium for the People.
1
This is by far Kristoff's strangest column.
Either by omission or careless proofreading, he seems to be defending the idea of a state religion.
Even were I not an atheist, I would find his column disturbing.
He says that "the mockery of Christians is wrong." Well, maybe doing so in public or to their face is uncivil, especially as many of use non-believers do have religious friends.
But in our hearts and minds we find the idea of religion and belief in the supernatural to be childish, and we do secretly mock them for their gullibility.
Faith is the last refuge of the ignorant and the willful know-nothings.
Wisdom lies in trying to understand the world and accepting that we don't yet have all the answers, not inventing imaginary beings to compensate for our insecurity.
5
People view Christianity as a vehicle of hate because of the hateful behavior of your congregations lay members. Trying to shift blame to "some blowhards" is tantamount to willful ignorance of the foundational issue.
2
There is very little “Christ” left in “Christianity”. Several years ago when we were searching for a church, all we were able to find were giant money making enterprises. Now they’ve turned into something worse: giant political action committees with heavy leanings into white supremacy. Why would anyone want to identify with that? I know Christendom has always been full of hypocrites but it seems far worse now than ever before. No, thank you, please.
3
Christianity can and should be about the most beautiful passage in any religious texts; the Sermon on the Mount. Christians felt the need to add Paul’s letters and other texts to complete the Christian bible. I long ago abandoned the Hebrew Bible due to its violence and justification for killing non-Jews and the “Us” vs “Them” belief. I’m doing just fine as a secular Jew that lives his fellow man.
1
Why is it so important to you religious people that others believe in your faith (ie, worldview)? As an atheist I wholeheartedly welcome evangelical inadvertent help opening people’s eyes to the insanity of all religious beliefs (not just a Christian), especially the relentless push into secular life and government. The business of religion is a for-profit enterprise run by men as a way to control and abuse women, children, and the poor. Why do church leaders make millions and own private jets? Why do Muslim women walk around in head-to-toe black sheets? Why does the Catholic Church continue to do nothing about pedophile priests? Why do religious people feel entitled to decide laws about women’s rights? The end of all religions will be a good thing.
3
As someone who believes in the teachings of Jesus, I cannot in Good conscious call myself a Christian as their actions and their new God Trump are the antithesis of Christianity. They have traded in Christ for an antichrist.
8
I couldn’t agree with you more; sadly.
“But a far bigger threat to the “brand” of Christianity comes, I think, from religious blowhards who have entangled faith with bigotry, sexism, homophobia and xenophobia. For some young people, Christianity is associated less with love than with hate.”
The most potent force for leaving Christianity is the Bible itself. It’s filled on almost every page with bigotry, sexism, homophobia, and xenophobia. The problem isn’t “blowhards”. It’s the book the blowhards accurately and honestly quote.
1
Speaking as an elderly atheist I always wonder about the handwringing on the subject of diminishing religious identification. So what? Christians don’t practice much Christianity seems to me. Selfish, unkind, dog in the manger and xenophobic. I go with Ivan from Brothers Karamazov, if Jesus returned to earth today, he would be crucified again( this time as a heretic). Give me Epictetus any day over evangelicals voting for trump.
1
Nicholas Kristof is missing the point. Claiming this country is, or ever was, a "Christian" one is like claiming it is, or ever was, a "white" one (inferring that if you aren't Christian or white, you're not really an American). The "Don't blame all of us for a few bad apples" argument is cowardly and hypocritical.
The problem isn't a handful of bigoted blowhards who indeed make the Christian faith look bad (Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell Jr., the late Fred Phelps). It's the majority of American Christians whose silence suggest assent. To use the N-word in public today can get you arrested (as some college kids found out recently) or lose you your job; comparable anti-LGBTQ comments, while occasionally conceded to be not exactly nice, tend to be defended as "free speech" or "sincere, deeply held religious beliefs."
Actually, when you think about it, it seems incredible that any religion continues to flourish in this day and age, and less amazing that people increasingly are rejecting the concept of human destiny being controlled by the arbitrary whims of a giant invisible wizard in the sky--particularly a deity who apparently shrugs at war, yawns at famine, but goes bananas whenever two adults of the same gender go to bed together in private.
I've always hoped that somebody would explain to me "God's great and glorious plan." Plan for what? What do you need to accomplish when you're already God?
2
At their core, conservatism and Christianity are polar opposites!
1
Today, all groups are seen as markets and easily manipulated. Christ can’t be institutionalized without being co-opted by money. Get ready for Christmas.
To sum it up the "Christian Right" is neither Christian or right.
4
Religion is supposed to inform society, but actually society creates religion for its own purposes. Look at the Protestant Reformation. Catholicism didn't fit the needs of the Northern European trading cities. The burghers found a theology that worked or them. Look at Islam, or the Church o Latter Day Saints. The Mormons have a mechanism to adapt to social change.
In America we have Mega Churches based on "Money Theology". Worship here and get rich. Free Market Capitalism Day is their highest holy day.
Sorry, I'm opting out.
Maybe y'all are just going to the wrong churches. Only white Christianity is in crisis. Black Christianity is going strong. It teaches humility, tolerance, community, and service.
2
Satan offered Jesus the throne of power over the whole earth. Jesus rejected this saying "My kingdom is not of this world."
Jesus rejected wealth and power.
But many Americans are distracted from Jesus by the promises of
the favor of "All Powerful God". They align themselves with power and wealth and not with love.
Christ would not recognize them as Christians.
4
The only time Trump has told the truth is 2016 when '.... asked to name a favorite part of the Bible, he muttered “an eye for an eye” '
2
"Religion is an insult to human dignity. Without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion." -Steven Weinberg, 1999-Nobel laureate in Physics (1979); Professor, University of Texas. https://ffrf.org/outreach/awards/emperor-has-no-clothes-award/item/11907-steven-weinberg
3
Christianity (perhaps more than other religions) is a religion of belief. If you assent to the supernatural aspects of the narrative, then you're in. Behavior has little to do with it, though sitting in a pew is lauded. This is a religion for the masses, with "belief" overriding a religious attitude, and in today's world, the expectation of prosperity reinforcing efforts to believe, not to engage in any type of transcendence-experience of spiritual practice.
I'm frankly surprised: where did they find those 49% who regard themselves as Christian?
3
Religion must almost always be conservative because it is based on faith rather than fact. Rather than find out how things work based on a process of open inquiry - that is science - religious people accept the authority of individuals in past ages who claimed to have learned everything from spirits. Religion usually involves inter-group hostility because each religion claims the sole moral and temporal authority, and each religion claims to have obtained supernatural authority from its own particular gods. Tolerance and religion do not go together - historically tolerance has been imposed in some countries because power has obtained by less religious leaders.
2
Excellent news. The more secular this country becomes the better. Surveys show a clear association between regular church attendance and conservatism. The converse is likewise true for progressives. I have faith (pun intended) that the millennials will not turn hard right as they age and remain secular and progressive as opposed to my own Boomer sellouts.
4
I've been an Episcopalian for over 50 years, attending regularly, but when asked about my religious affiliation I still sometimes say "recovering Lutheran". Confirmation instruction in the Missouri Synod--the evangelical one--Lutheran Church made me decide I was an atheist, and I'm still working on getting over that. Allowing the jerks described by Mr. Kristof be the face of Christianity may well put off a whole generation. Real Christians need to be more outspoken in denouncing these hypocrites. Whether you believe in God or not, the teaching of Jesus are as good a set of guidelines for living as we have ever had.
2
Did you consider those ELCA side of the Lutheran faith?
Excellent piece. I would add one more point: perhaps the most off-putting feature of conservative evangelicals is their posturing as victims. The hyperbolic arguments about a war on Christianity are eerily similar to that of white supremacists whining about their sorry lot in life, what with all the political correctness and diversity training. Christians have dominated western civilization for 2,000 years. The United States is still a nation "under god" as declared on our currency and in our popular discourse. To be a non-Christian and elected to high office is, if not rare, still remarked upon. To be elected to anything as an open secular humanist--a member of the elite that allegedly wields all the power in today's world--is nearly unthinkable. But Christians are a battered minority who risk being thrown to the lions. Please. No wonder large numbers of people are turning away from such ridiculousness.
10
Really, who cares? There have been so many hypocritical, un-Godlike, immoral versions of the Christian church, especially when it was in power historically and the evangelical movement is no different from those. Ask any Jew who lived in Poland or Russia prior to WWII. This country is not supposed to be any type of Christian or religious nation, as it was built on the principle of separation of Church and State. Indeed, isnt Christianity just culturally appropriated Judaism? As a Jew, and an American, I resent the whole premise of this article.
6
When the most prominent Christian leaders in our country get mixed up in political warfare, why wouldn't Christianity suffer?
Politics is where principles go to be debased and thusly, Religion Politics = Politics. How would that appeal to any honorable Christian?
2
Right on, Nic. I gave up formal Christianity almost 50 years ago but I never stopped loving (and trying to live) the social teachings of Jesus. What is left of American Christianity has to a large extent hijacked Jesus’ name to support a wholly unchristian social agenda. So glad so many “Christians” who responded still live the message of Jesus. Thank you for your thoughts today.
3
When will an atheist represent us on the Supreme Court? That day can't come too soon.
5
Millenials should be commended for objectively evaluating the tenants of religion rather than just accepting the brain washing handed down from previous generations. Whether it is the Spanish inquisition, 7th century caliphates (its modern day equivalent in ISIS) the holocaust or ethnic cleansing in Mynamar, all major religions have exhibited deplorable behavior (or acquiessed to it) in the name of their respective beliefs. Millenials have come to realize that morality is not dependent on accepting man made stories that have no basis in fact. Mandating the acceptance of religion as a condition of being considered a moral human being is fear mongering to ensure obedience.
6
I submit that part of the appeal to these faux Christian sects lies int the so-called "Prosperity Gospel." The promise that followers will be materially rewarded for simply following. The fact that the so-called religious leaders are usually the only ones showing obvious rewards is lost on them.
Like The Reverend Ike is reported to have said, as he rode around is his Deusenbrg limousine, "The best thing I can do for the poor is to not be one of them"
3
Christianity, just like all other religions, is hogwash and is neither necessary or sufficient for living a moral, compassionate and giving life. I, for one, am overjoyed to see it declining, and can hardly wait for its total demise.
4
Religion has become perverted, used against people as a way to toe the line, as established by men, to keep power over women, LGBTQ, disenfranchised, poor people. I’m so sick of hearing evangelicals whine and moan that they are under attack. Their faith is so weak that they demand the government to do the job of God. We are taught that God will provide and care for us but for evangelicals it is a false belief hence their demand for government intervention to protect them from themselves. They can’t be surprised at the blowback, they pushed us out the church doors with their brand of dogma, they ignore the Golden Rule, the basis of all religions, as they fall further in the thrall of government to solve their problems instead of turning to God.
3
This is a good trend - we do not need or want religion interjecting their dogma into our government and society.
The future of Christianity needs to be a movement of people practicing the message of Christ to love one another for the goodness and peace that message brings by itself without the superstition or dogma that drags us all back to the dark ages.
2
The Progressive's hatred of the Judeo-Christian tradition and conservatism in general in this country cannot and should not be whitewashed away.
Like VP Pence, die hard Christians are anticipating the second coming and trying to speed it along. Their dislike for anything scientific removes environmental protections for all. People are being diagnosed in their 60s with asthma whether they are religious or not from the pollution. This group of religious fanatics votes against anything related to healthcare that they also need. They are against women, against gays, against education, against foreigners and most things that would better people's lives. They have proven they are not religious, but uneducated misogynistic racists by their support for trump. Of course we don't like them, they are the Puritans ready to burn the rest of us on the stake as witches. We need to stop being a religious state and become a all the people state.
3
Newsflash, Nicky. We are not a Christian Nation. We are a nation governed by a secular constitution that explicitly bans the privileging of one faith over another.
That is the essence of Universal Rights, in which your mythical "good" Christians have never -- for a single moment -- believed.
9
Thank God we’re less and less a Christian nation. We weren’t one to begin with; and the notion that America is a Christian nation ain’t nothing but a pr campaign funded by big business. “In God We Trust” was added to our bills in ‘56. “Under God” was added to the Pledge in ‘54...
4
A fate now facing the republican party for similar reasons.
2
I do believe that Republicans and the "religious right" helped hasten the retreat from Christianity for many, myself included, but I also think there are other contributing factors. Chief among them is that I view Christianity, and religion in general, as a tool of division and hate. Consider the current movement of "religious freedom" laws, which are nothing more than an attempt of republicans to force their religion on the masses. Or look at The Crusades from the 11th/12th centuries where European Christians tried to spread the word of God by invading and killing Muslims. More personally, I can still remember my "Christian" parents practically disowning my brother when he came out as gay.
Additionally, the existence of a God just doesn't make any sense to me. If God is supposed to be all powerful, why does he/she allow bad things to happen? Why did God allow 6+ million Jews to be murdered in WWII as an example? If he/she is all powerful and allows these horrible acts to occur, then isn't that the definition of evil--allowing horrible atrocities to occur wen you have the ability to stop them?
Another problem for me is that there have been around 3,000 Gods over the course of human history, so why would Christians presume that their God is the right one? Isn't the more likely scenario that all of these Gods are just man made creations of what a society wants a God to be?
If I'm wrong, then God, please send me a sign. Yep, didn't think so.
2
I had a hard time explaining to my wife, who had the idea that all christians were right wing homophobes and racists from previous ex-boyfriends, all of which were evangelical or southern baptist, that places like the Episcopal church were not like that. She herself had turned away from faith, as had I. The only thing that brought me back was seeing a speech from Bishop Curry on Youtube and realizing that you could be a liberal christian.
2
It is absolutely true that the Evangelicals and their support of Republican liars, cheaters and hypocrites like Trump has turned people away from Christianity.
When a candidate and then president of this country uses foul language, brags about his sexual conquests, lies every time his mouth opens and enriches himself and his family through his office, why on Earth would any true Christian support him? When he has proven to be completely unfit for the job, why continue to support him?
Millennials are not stupid and they cannot be conned by this man. When the churches they attended growing up put their faith in this horrible man, of course they are going to leave those churches. The Evangelicals have brought this upon themselves.
The U.S.A. was never intended to be a "Christian nation." The mixing of church and state is expressly forbidden. Yes, at one time this was a nation of mostly Christians, but no longer. We have allowed churches to preach politics from the altar and they should lose their tax-exempt status because of it.
Look for a continuous increase in "nones" and "others" in the future. As long as the Evangelicals are allowed to dictate policy to the president and Congress, citizens will continue to leave Christianity behind.
There is plenty of room for people of non-christian faiths and no religion at all to be part of the government. I am thrilled and amazed to have at least two Muslims in Congress. It means that we the are better represented.
6
As a Jew who was raised with violent antisemitic harassment, I am glad we are NOT Chistian nation and that we have a constitutional separation of church and state. The best thing about this country is our diversity and our freedom to practice any religion or none.
5
Thanks, Mr. Kristoff, appreciate your op-Ed. I’m a lifelong Christian, a Catholic who left the RCC five years ago because of many reasons after a lifetime of being very involved. One reason was the hypocrisy, couldn’t stomach it any more, couldn’t explain or excuse it!
Jesus’ great commandment still is “Love one another as I have loved you...” yet, where’s the love for the LGTBQ community which has been treated with violence, as outcasts, judged and condemned? Where is the love for the poor souls walking thousands of miles to seek asylum for themselves and their family? Who are torn apart, who are DEHUMANIZE by the holier-than-thou types! Where’s the so-called-pro-life people when children are torn from their parents, traumatized and incarcerated?! Some as young as...one year of age! Where is your outrage about the inhumane treatment of children?! And Marriage Equality? “Christians “ are upset about this! However for all their talk of the “sanctity” of marriage ...they have the highest divorce rate!
Evangelicals, and others who support the Republican president are not followers of Christ, NO follower of Christ would support a chronic liar, a serial adulterer, a misogynistic predator or a man who sides with the most brutal dictators we have today, Erdogan and Putin!
What would Jesus do? He’d be sickened and disgusted!
5
If being a good Christian means supporting Trump, the sinner-in-chief, then I thank God that I'm an atheist.
6
As Max von Sydow’s character says in the film Hannah and Her Sisters, “If Jesus came down to earth tomorrow and saw what was being done in His name, He would never stop throwing up.”
5
I'm glad to see a decline in religiosity. Society should be based on facts that are supported by evidence, not random faith in the correctness of ancient texts.
But there is a cautionary tale in here for institutions dedicated to truth, most notably academia: Allow your institution to be captured by political agendas at your own peril.
3
For people in their 70's Christianity was less a choice and more of an inevitability. The social stigma that would have been associated with non-conformism was extremely large. The change in Christianity from the love, humility and charity was also due to the lost of that dominance in the culture. That philosophy of benevolence has been traded by many sect that now evangelize intolerance and greed. Similar to white privilege, Christian privilege meant dominance of society, culture, and politics and like white privilege the loss of power and statute has created extreme elements that seek to restore preeminence by less than Christian means.
1
I beg your pardon, but the fact that you choose to call the United States a "Christian Nation" says it all Mr. Kristof. Christians may have founded this nation, but the idea of who we are has changed over the past 243 years. The idea of who we are as a nation has changed specifically based on the great ideals that are promoted in the constitution. That is what we should be celebrating daily.
I don't speak for anybody but myself, but I also want to make it clear, when I question your motivations towards your religious beliefs, I am not questioning you as a CHRISTIAN, I am questioning YOU—your decision making and how you square the circle of the many contradictions of your thinking.
2
Oddly, there is nothing in this column about the troubles that have afficted the Catholic Church in the past two or there decades.
Secondly, I'm not sure why Christianity in the U.S. should have priority over other faiths (Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Native American spirituality, and on and on). Demographically, the United States is a polyglot society, so why not embrace a polyglot of faiths, including no faith at all?
9
Not buying the bad apple narrative. Christianity has been responsible for atrocities for thousands of years. It’s just inherent to the faith. People doing good in the name of Christianity are the exception rather than the rule.
5
Interesting that less & less people are considered Christians, but aren't Christians supposed to be following the teachings of Jesus. Jesus said more or less "What you do unto my brother you do unto to me". He taught tolerance, love, and acceptance of our fellow human beings. He taught you should reach out to the poor. How many so called Christians really follow these teachings? How many really practice love & acceptance of all their fellow humans?
There is a growing segment of people in this world who consider themselves spiritual rather than religious. Religious people follow the teachings of their church, spiritual people follow the teachings of their soul. Jesus never started a church, but he did give some great lessons on how we were supposed to live. What do you suppose he would consider more important, a tax cut or money to make sure there are no people living in poverty or without food or a roof over their head or children without a good education so they can have a successful life.
Let's forget about labels and just give some thought as to why we have the highest poverty rate, highest incarceration rate, highest dropout rate and most expensive healthcare among the industrialized nations. What are you willing to do to change that?
7
The gradual abandonment of religion is not a troubling thing.
At some point in human evolution (if we don't destroy the planet) the various faiths will be seen as rather silly.
5
The less organized religion in this world, the better. And the reason that the number of people willing to believe in invisible friends is shrinking doesn't matter nearly as much as that positive result.
1
Trump does not attend church. How is that not a deal breaker for his Evangelical supporters?
6
Because they see him as an enabler of their fascist agenda.
2
@Scott Gray
Because he is stacking the courts with ultra conservative judges. And many are now in their mid30s to 40s.
3
Just a few years ago, the phrase "What would Jesus do?"was commonly expressed by Christians as a reminder to ignore current political and social fads and seek to do the "right" thing. Funny, but I never hear that phrase anymore. It is never applied to Trump's outrageous behavior, for example.
Christian hypocrisy does not encourage anyone to be a Christian. It is no wonder their numbers are declining. If Christians want to blame someone (as they usually do) for their problem, they should look inward instead. Actually they should ask themselves, "What would Jesus do?"
4
It does seem we have reached a point in our society that their are those who have placed themselves in the position to deem the rest of us more or less Christian. When you take a closer look they are using their faith often for power and wealth not good deeds.
Mr. Kristof,
Consider the possibility that the various churches did this to themselves. From the centuries long perversion of the Catholic Church, to the intolerance of the far right churches, to the mainstream Protestant Churches who want you to leave your brain at the door, they'll tell you what to think and feel, oh and by the way, give us your money. Churches are not addressing the needs of their people, they are applying yesterday's solutions to today's problems and its not working. Worse yet they are saying its your fault. Church's seem to be big on guilt.
Some thoughts - This is your life, you make the rules. You also live in a society and there are consequences for violating their rules. Be aware of what those rules are and the penalty for violating them. Decide accordingly. There is help out there to assist you in making decisions about your life. There are examples both good and bad on how to conduct your life: Jimmy Carter is one example, Donald Trump is another. Both achieved that highest office in the land. One will end his life (soon I regret to say) as a revered example of how to make a positive difference in the world. The other is seeing his dreams coming crashing down around him in ruin as a result of his own decisions.
Your life, your decision.
2
Emphasis on “Christian” values ignores the fact that Jewish, Muslim, and most other faiths espouse the same values. Kindness, charity, honor among all are not just Christian. The “my way or the highway” attitude of so many congregations is what has many people of good faith running for the doors. Ignorance of what Christ’s actual teachings were (as per Trump) is another big part of the problem. He was a radical fighting for human rights and his kindness was extended to all, not just the moneyed and powerful. He touched the lepers, he comforted the fallen woman, he challenged us all to be better than we are.
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When I see how many evangelicals support Trump’s behavior—the lying, the belittling, the arrogance, the greed, the abuse of power—I don’t feel one bit bad for churches losing attendees. Religion has forced its way into the political discourse for far too long. I wouldn’t care if people could manage to keep their faith private, but it seems like so many want to inject their religious morality into law. In a pluralistic society like ours, that isn’t okay.
5
We stopped attending regular services when our priest, and a substantial proportion of the congregation turned Sunday worship into a tea party rally.
5
It’s not just Christianity. Unfortunately most religions or religions people around the world behave the same way. Even Buddhist monks have leaders who train their followers to fight and hate. All in the name of religion. You don’t have to belong to a particular religion to know right from wrong or how to love. Humanity is the biggest religion and our younger generation is probably able to see that.
3
I have read the New Testament and have a fairly good idea of what Christ taught. If you accept his teachings and try to live by them, I would think you would most likely be "liberal" or "progressive". Jesus told his followers to take care of the orphans, widows and the poor. How does most of the Religious Right get past that one?
3
As a Christian of ancient tradition (not one belonging to a 19th century's literalistic start up), I couldn't agree more. When I came to faith as an adult, my contemporaries assumed I was following one of those Bible thumping sects we see on TV. They want no part of that lunacy... nor do I.
Trump and the evangelicals always strike me as the height of hypocrisy. With friends of various faiths there seems to be agreement on the essence if not the verbiage of the sentiments conveyed in the Ten Commandments. Trump seems to have violated all of them, except thou shalt not kill. Yet, now his attorneys argued in open court, he could not be held accountable for even that violation. So, why are the evangelicals solidly in his camp?
5
I loved church when I was a kid in the 70s, and even considered a career in the clergy. (That was a bit of fantasy for a girl, but I still considered it.)
No more. I find that church has been taken over by the same sorts of people who were the bullies in middle school. And they've aligned themselves with the worst bullies of all, the torturers and people who would starve the poor to feed the military machine. I don't think there's anything Christian about that. I wish I could say there was nothing human about it, but it's all too human. It's the side of human nature a good religion would challenge instead of indulging.
7
Maybe, just maybe, people are finally starting to see through all the falsehoods and lies that are rampant in all religions. Maybe people are embracing reality. That's a great thing.
1
I respect that many people do not believe in God. But for a world that has lost its way in many ways, I think many could benefit from the teachings of Jesus Christ right about now.
1
All excellent and fair points. And I would add that rampant sex abuse and institutional cover-ups have also seriously eroded public trust in the moral authority of religious institutions.
I largely agree with Kristof here, although I still think Christian evangelicals deserve most of the pummeling they get. The movement is riven with bigotry, empowered by ignorance, and energized by paranoia. As Gandhi supposedly remarked, this is not a Christianity Jesus would recognize. I wish Kristof would accept that Christians are not the only ones allowed to criticize Christians and Christianity, and that the dead and gone are only bad Christians that we can call out.
2
A somewhat obnoxious observation.
First of all, as Mr. Kristof knows all too well, we were truly founded on the basis of the SEPARATION of Church and state, and while we are largely a Christian nation by population, that doesn't now, nor did it ever, discount the contributions made by myriad other religions.
I am a Jew, and never considered this a "Christian" nation.
I am offended by his assertion and the assumption.
Let the evangelicals do their thing, spin their wheels, or their tales. They have zero impact on me -- other than their dangerous input to Trump's rallies, fueled by their presence, I couldn't care less about them.
3
It is heartbreaking that the message of Christ has been distorted by a loud and vocal group of driven by selfish ignorance. We don't know what God really is. If God could be described in words it wouldn't be God. That's beyond our comprehension. But the vision of God we have is Jesus Christ. And Jesus preached love and compassion. This is also the core message of all major world religions. Those followers of Jesus who are making a difference in a hurting world are doing so because they are listening to the message of a loving Jesus. They are too busy to be "blowhards" that think they have the right to condemn others. It makes me angry that they are taking up all the air making noise while what I consider "true Christians" are busy quietly doing God's work.
1
Where in the Declaration of Independence or Constitution does it say the United States is a christian nation? I do know it says “all men are created equal” and that there is a clear separation of church and state, the other - not so much.
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Not mentioned specifically but noteworthy in present political context are ultra conservative regions in US northern states culturally dominated by the Dutch Reformed (Calvinist) Church. You got your Betsy DeVos from south western Michigan, and your STeve King from north western Iowa. There’s a reason Republican presidential candidates spend much time in such places.
1
If Jesus showed up at a megachurch, and saw and heard the loud appeal for money in his name, promising things that he will then do, you have to wonder how he would react--and how the preacher and company would react to Jesus. Hmm. What was that story about the money changers in the Temple?
3
Trying to lay our country’s growing disaffection with the edifices and institutions of organized religion at the feet of only evangelicals is a vast oversimplification and one that bemoans the trend without saying what would change were it otherwise.
As such, It’s just another plaintive cry supporting the conservative leitmotif that goes: If only we were packing the pews we’d still be the godly, ascendant nation that dressed us in our Sunday best and reflected on Christian values on our day of rest.
Unfortunately, this was the same nation that was content foster rampant racism and sexism, tolerate a host of irrational, regressive views about sexuality, to engage in unrestrained violence in Southeast Asia and Central America, build enough nuclear weapons to immolate the planet, befoul its waters and lands, and imprison those who dared to expose these existential hypocrisies.
Perhaps the world is finally catching up to the essence of the Reformation: We don’t need religions to tell us what is ethical and good or how to behave. They’ve had their chance for thousands of years and failed miserably. You’ll get no boohooing from this quarter. Instead, I’m in the ‘it’s well past time’ crowd.
2
Millennials are the most educated generation in US history and all that biology, chemistry, astronomy, history, comparative religion has a payoff, I guess. This op-Ed doesn’t bother to inquire, “Are people leaving Christianity because they realize it is built on falsehoods?” It doesn’t seem the author can face that question either, which is a bizarre lack of enlightenment reason for someone paid to opine. The harm that Christianity does psychologically to its practitioners and politically to society aside, one of the big points driving millennials away is probably that it’s all, well, an awful, obvious lie.
1
"But today’s prominent evangelical leaders are mostly conservatives."
No, they are mostly phonies. Just like the president they support.
Thank goodness a younger generation can tell the difference.
3
What exactly is your point? The hypothesis is incorrect or the headline is misleading. This is a nation, period. One’s religion or lack of it is a separate matter or should be.
2
A very good analysis indeed. We are not, nor have we ever been a "Christian Nation". That would fly in the face of our Constitution and the intent of our founders. We are a nation of religious freedom FOR ALL.
Pompous "Holier than thou" chest thumping is not an attitude that founders of Christianity would approve of. It is tribal, fake and just wrong. There are good and bad people of every faith, and there are con artists and power-hungry zealots too.
One's "faith" is a matter of deep personal, subjective belief - not a political or power base. That is the direction in which it is becoming perverted. THAT is what has accounted for more deaths by hostility than any other clause in the history of humanity.
Perhaps it is now time to take the BEST of religious thought, of ALL religions, and apply it to returning peace and civility to this beleaguered nation.
2
The “old fashion days” are gone when christian devotees were taught introspection, reason, and listening for that still quite voice of god that guided christian behavior for centuries. The modern evangelical’s abridged version of christianity has abandoned the difficult personal journey for salvation; replaced it with the debauched thunderous power of a modern business model crying out for obedient militant followers. Church leaders have learned to translate their “beliefs” Into a political outcry to save a social movement that has consciously abandoned following in the footsteps of Christ.
2
Looking for answers as a nineteen year old in the 1970's, I followed a friend's pleading that I attend the Bible Study group that was hosted in his father's house every week. What followed was a year of Bible Study, which often had my head spinning.
"Blessings" were often seen as wealth. If someone installed a new deck in their backyard, it was called a "Blessing". If someone bought a new boat, it was called a "Blessing". Of course the obvious opposite had to be also true. people who were down on their luck were obviously sinners who God had punished for their transgressions. This was often stated in the Bible study group. Gays were "Punished" by God by being stricken with Aids. The homeless were cast out of their homes by "Ungodly lifestyles".
Along the way, I was told that the more unbelievable the Bible story was, the more I had to believe it. Believing would prove my "Faith". This also applied to the preachers, especially the TV preachers at the time - Swaggart, Baker, Scott - who I was told to believe lock, stock, and barrel as a show of my unquestioned faith.
Whenever a contrary event or fact came along, it was always that "God works in mysterious ways". I eventually felt like Jack Nicholson in the Cuckoo's Nest. I was told accept everything and to not ask questions.
I left and never went back.
2
The intolerance of Evangelical Christians in the US is every bit as dangerous as radical Islam. Until all US Christian churches get back to the gospels and the message of tolerance and caring they will continue to lose support and will deserve to.
3
As a Jew I’m taught to question all authority including god. We have a brain a heart and the ability to know right from wrong.
Fundamentalism is destructive irrational and prevents equality for all people.
Let’s do away with all fundamental religious practice and require region to not be irrational. If any religion teaches inequality prohibit it.
Equality is the one true expression of god if god exists.
1
White evangelicals traded their religious high ground years ago for political power, and their hypocrisy is on display for all to see and to be revulsed by it. Such evangelicals have supported the Republican Party’s racism and hateful anti-LGBTQ/anti-woman policies for decades, and their cult-like worship of Donald Trump is the culmination of what is wrong with religion today and why people are turning against it. Their version of religion has nothing to do with morality when they support a president who has no morals, who lies daily, enriches himself with taxpayer dollars, and appoints people like him who are just as corrupt. They seem to think that with enough federal judges, they can have a federal government that legislates morality for all people. Our Constitution guarantees both freedom of religion and freedom from religion. Trump supporters, including the Republican members of Congress, are ignoring the part about the state not establishing a religion. They know they do not have the support to revise the Constitution to establish a theocracy, so the next best thing is to vote people into office who will ignore everyone else’s rights in favor of white evangelicals. Fortunately for the country, many people see through their attempts to enact their Old Testament religious beliefs into law. Those people need to vote in 2020 if they want to avoid legislated discrimination.
2
The hate, the intolerance and the self-righteousness that has taken over the so-called "evangelical" so-called "churches" has seriously damaged the brand of Christianity.
The good news is that the positive things that traditionally was delivered to society and individuals from religion does not need churches.
2
Christianity was created by Paul, who taught his disciples to respect political authorities as being the hand of God.
1
It is a natural progression of evolution. As the human race becomes more educated in general and learns to utilize the vast amount of information available to them they are going to question everything including their beliefs and the ideology of religion thus opening up their minds. It's wonderful to see. The beginning of the end for the charlatans(or travel agents) peddling travel to heaven for a fee.
1
The problem isn’t numbers, the problem is attitude and behaviours. The “prosperity gospel”, which is what American evangelicalism is becoming all about, has not a single thing to do with Christianity.
2
Clearly values do not have anything to do with religion. Growing up in the 50's my family was torn between being Catholic and Protestant. It was all about judgement and social bias. Being Protestant was allegedly better than being Catholic but anything else was forbidden (you ought check your dna as you might be forbidden) as was homosexuality, shaming independent women, interfacing with any one other than whites (Italians and Asians were suspect). Our immigration codes reflected our beliefs. We are now confronted by more petty religious wars, a system which attacks women rights and ability to protect themselves, increasing violence against other, scandals by priests, a government that preaches but thinks it is above the law and religion that rejects science.
3
I can think of no better reason never to walk in a Catholic Church EVER again as the horrible story of child abuse perpetrated by said institution for who knows how many years and the lengths gone to cover up such devastating abuse.
Never mind the patriarchal, misogynist views held for the last 2000 years. I was the kid in catholic school always questioning doctrine and getting In trouble for that.
I blame the hypocrisy of a priest droning on and on about a “faithful” man in his eulogy who spent 40 years as an adulterer.
I applaud young people today and anyone for that matter, who is not lead by blind faith.
3
There is anger and hurt everywhere. Yes, Mr. Kristoff, Mr. Trump and his cabal do no reflect the values of many religious Americans
But, no God can fix the malaise of tribalism that afflicts America. Only we, the people, working together, shaping the American way of life, can.
1
It has seemed that all that was distasteful in the self-righteousness homophobia of so-called Christians has been amplified since Trump took office. The most egregious of these is Franklin Graham. He is the antithesis of what his father grew into later in life. It is a shame how he has dishonored his father’s name.
2
Teasing out Christians from other religious beliefs is an easy target for criticism. It took 350 years to rid us of slavery; 400 years to recognize that women have the ability to cast a ballot and, in all this time to abandon the original thoughts of the Enlightenment which underpin our form of government.
Your attack on the Nones is gratuitous as it is unfounded.
1
Young people understand one thing clearly: their futures are threatened by climate change and anyone who either pretends it isn't happening or insists that nothing be done is either stupid or immoral. Far too many Christian "leaders" have done both, and in the process the broader church has lost its moral authority. Combined with the rampant hypocrisy evident in so many Christians, this has relegated religion in general-- and Christianity in particular --to a category not unlike broadcast TV, physical newspapers, or typewriters: things that "old people" think are important that the rest of the world has passed by. And of course once they have proven themselves irrelevant young people are never going to take them back up-- American Christianity will go the way of the porkpie hat and electric can opener in a generation due to the works of its own flawed leaders and the cumulative weight of a failed theology that told people they were better than others and nobody need worry about the present because an imaginary future would save them, if only they would donate money and vote a certain way.
5
Christianity, like Islam, is an offshoot of Judaism, albeit mixed with European pagan practices, words (days of the week /months of the year) and holidays (Easter, Christmas, etc). Despite the humanity of the teachings of the (probably fictitious) Jesus, its adherents seem to mostly enjoy the worst of the Old Testament. I welcome its continued slide into irrelevance, although I truly enjoy the art, architecture and music that has been produced over the centuries .
1
There are thousands of gods the average American does not believe in. The world will not be worse if it is one more.
3
It astounds me that there are "conservative" Christians. I often wonder if they have ever read the New Testament. They seem to like to quote from the Old Testament which is essentially PRE-CHRISTIAN.
6
"Some intolerant conservative evangelicals have tainted the faith."
Religious faith by its nature is self tainting. You don't get to cherry pick the nice parts of religion and bemoan the fact that the evil parts are tainting the nice parts, or that "some" members don't follow the true goodness of what you imagine your religion to be.
I taught Sunday school in an evangelical church in a small town in Northern California in 1977. When I told the church elders that they were indoctrinating children rather than educating them, that sainthood wasn't a matter of following the dots, that Jesus didn't ask anyone to be stupid, that they could substitute Hitler's name for his- yes, I was let go, summarily.
I have a red-letter edition of the Bible given to me at that time. Every statement attributed to Jesus is printed in red. This amounts to little more than several paragraphs, and is pretty uncontroversial.
As Rabbi Hillel admonished, "do not do unto others that which you hate. This is the Law. The rest is mere commentary."
Even a child can understand that.
5
Why would anyone want to be part of any Religious group whose sole aim seems to be to control the thinking and the actions of their Congregation by purposely misinterpreting the Bible
The Bible never said to ostracize any who are a different culture, color, less fortunate or gender.
Supposed Christians now call for some of the meanest actions towards our fellow humans. They have conveniently forgotten the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule
Hypocrisy writ large.
5
It should be no surprise that people are no longer associating with Christianity when the primary public leaders of it embody literally none of the teachings of Christ. The people who have done the most damage to it are the evangelical leaders themselves – the Fallwells, Robertson, and their ilk who have monetized it for personal gain and turned their churches into businesses. What they’re promoting comes from a place of fundamental dishonesty and manipulation in order to maintain their cash flow. They have nothing to do with actual Christianity or true spirituality.
3
I grew up in a Catholic family. I emotionally left the church when I was 13 and fully when I started to refuse t go with my family. I was embarrassed, along with a black girl in our Catechism class for being dark-skinned. I was olive, she was black. We were singled out by the nun.
Nothing in the church seemed inclusive. That was 50 years ago. It was racist, sexist, and exclusionary.
For about a decade I searched for a replacement. Truth be told, all religions are based on nothing but control of the masses and explaining what science now does a far better job.
In my early 20s, I became an atheist. It was the radical and angry evangelicals that caused me to become an aggressive atheist. One that calls out the hypocrisy in religions.
I hope we continue to be less Christian as a nation. Religion is the reason for most of our wars and strife on earth. It's time we become more just and rational, and dare I say, moral.
4
For some reason you leave out another contributor to the decline - the Catholic Church's leadership. If you don't see their rejection of birth control and their protection of predators as a problem, that's very curious. So yes, wealthy televangelists (and their sons like the toxic Falwell Jr.) do a lot to erase the true message of Christianity, but so does the Catholic hierarchy of old men.
Anyone bearing the message that "we're right and everyone else is evil" is not trying to bring people closer to God, they're grabbing power.
Many of the most generous, caring people I know are also the most deeply religious - of many faiths and of many brands of "Christian".
The difficulty many "nones" have is reconciling these concrete examples of selflessness and care for others - messages every faith have at their core - with the corruption at the top, and the divisive messages spread by some in authority - especially when the messages are spread to their commercial advantage by businesses like Fox with their grievance-based appeal to an older audience who thrive on being told their the put upon.
6
Religious zeal (or the claim thereof) has been the cause or justification of a large share of the wars and other atrocities we inflict on one another, historically and now. Seen in this light, an increase in the proportion of people who declare themselves to have no religion seems like a very good thing indeed.
3
Thank you, Nick and the many fine commenters, as your words help to connect many thoughts from my great college humanities classes from 45 years ago, you know, courses designed to make one think about such questions. For I, who resented from an early age religion being forced down my throat, had and continue to have many questions. And, obviously many others still have these questions as we observe religions and the religious and their endless contradictions.
4
This trajectory doesn't just identify Christians but organized religion itself. It may have revealed itself more significantly in America with a majority Christian population but it addresses the entire sphere of religion. A falling away from the big three brands of religion and may signify that humanity is entering a dramatic phase of human enlightenment coinciding appropriately with a new millennium. At base what this signifies is that people are seeing the need to examine religion as independent individuals. Moving into a reassessment of the some 2,000 years of codified writings assembled in so named holy books brought forward into the 21st century. For what organized religion represents are human constructs, many of fantastical proportion, that are the products of primitive men living in ancient eras. Has organized religion served to enrich humanity or served too often as a condition of plague? Just maybe, could it be, the time has come for human beings to embrace what constitutes genuine human enlightenment?
5
Sure, let’ s try that. Religion, although not perfect, after thousands of years brought us to this point. France experimented with enlightenment and the result was the reign of terror. Let’s give enlightenment another chance and see what happens. I am up for it!!
I’m currently touring the Middle East. I just spent some time in Jerusalem, visiting holy sites including the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and the Church of the Nativity. I learned that control of these sites is shared among several Christian sects that jealously guard their pieces of the real estate. Fistfights are known to occur between priests of different sects when any encroachment of territory is perceived inside these churches. This is exactly the opposite of what Jesus taught. Learning this has further driven me from Christianity.
7
Faith is personal; religion is political by it's very mature. Churches in the US have chosen to align themselves with backwards and divisive politics. No wonder that people who want to cooperate to solve the real problems if humanity, no longer feel at home there.
7
Mr. Kristof -- please tell your colleagues in journalism that anyone (I'm thinking of fundamentalists of every stripe) who thinks that their way to God is the only way to God are wrong. You know that; I know that; it seems that a lot of other people don't know that.
By the way, the U.S. is not a "Christian nation." Our neighbors of every faith and no faith are part of this nation too.
4
There is a serious failure of logic here. Yes, the religious right is not doing itself any favors. But perhaps a more likely explanation is that more and more people are seeing that religion just doesn't make much sense, and there are other ways to develop a sense of morality than looking to some ineffable being in the sky, mediated by (mostly) men who claim to understand the ineffable. In other words, more and more people are finally coming to their senses.
8
I was raised in a evangelical church in the Deep South and was a devout Christian. I was very fortunate to leave home and receive a liberal arts education in college that introduced me to new ideas that opened up the world for me. Much of the teachings and stories on Jesus still resonate with me. Now I find a great shame attached to the word Christian, especially evangelical. The cruelty and ugliness increasingly associated with my group of evangelical Christians is distressing.
10