A fresh wind is blowing through church steeples and minarets. It's got the archbishops, pastors, rabbis and imams of Old Time Religion in a reactionary rage. And no wonder. As Bob Dylan sang a generation ago, it'll soon shake their windows and rattle their walls, for the times they are a-changin'.
I'm speaking of the wind of freedom, the kind that howls when ordinary people break free of the ancient, oppressive, us-against-them, woman-despising theologies heaped upon them for so many centuries. The trend of liberation holds great promise, but it's also dangerous as all hell. Here's why.
Christianity remains America's largest religion, but membership has fallen to about 80 percent of the population. Among those who remain, less than half attend church regularly. It's not for lack of room: of the 225 seats in the average American church, only 105 are filled each week. A similar situation faces American Judaism. Astoundingly, a majority of American Jews are now nonbelievers.
The departed souls are wandering into all sorts of fresh territory, from angry atheism to anxious agnosticism to disaffiliated believers to the merely apathetic. Taken together, the "Nones" form the second-largest "faith" group in America. At 16 percent, they have nearly four times the numbers of all other religions put together.
But those who have broken with the old regime are unorganized, unfocused and fractious -- not to say ideologically fratricidal. A loss of belief in the authority and credibility of religious institutions seems to be the primary motivation for leaving. What the new "Nones," along with the religious liberals and tolerant Mainstreamers, fail to recognize is that they need new allies and goals, or they will soon lose much of their hard-won freedom.
How bad is it? Mainline churches such as the United Methodists have become deeply disunited over gay marriage, liberal religion has its internal squabbles over varying shades of political correctness toward Islam, and the New Atheists have decided to make any and all religion their sworn enemy.
"Perhaps you're a moderate, you support good science, education, and the environment, you just love Jesus or Mohammed, too," writes biologist and atheist blogger P.Z. Myers. "I'm sorry, but I don't like you."
There's not much of the ancient wisdom of the Middle East that speaks to modern times, but one old saw surely rings true today: "The enemy of my enemy is my friend." Nevertheless, arrogance, self-congratulation, and self-induced idiocy continue to fracture the secular and religious left.
Meantime, as those who have a, um, vested interest in Old Time Religion grow more desperate to preserve their power, they are making unholy alliances to tear at every stitch of progress made in the last 50 years. I do not exaggerate when I say the entire fabric of our society is at risk.
Despite the efforts of the GOP to put a few black faces before the cameras, racism has had a big resurgence on the right. After President Obama's election, UCLA research psychologist Eric Knowles did careful work to bring it to light.
Today, he wouldn't have to. Race-baiting comes through loud and clear in the right's election rhetoric. You may believe that Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) just accidentally called President Obama a "tar baby," but it's not just the big guns that are doing it, and it's not just Obama who is targeted. Think of the savage stereotyping of Trevon Martin in the last weeks.
And it's not just in the media. As I was driving home from work recently, I came to a stoplight behind a muscular SUV that had an Obama 2012 bumper sticker on its rear hatch. Oh, I thought, that's surprising. Then I saw the homemade sticker under it. "Got Rope?" it said. No longer merely surprised, I was stunned. Really? Lynching? We're gonna bring back lynching?
Well, it would fit with the tenor of the times. Meantime, the simply mind-boggling assault on women's rights continues apace. We're not just talking about Rush's rants or the right to choose embodied in Roe v. Wade -- crucial though that is.
We're talking about bills to mandate shoving instruments into women's bodies against their will if they attempt to exercise that right. We're talking about the conservative men on the Supreme Court banding together to give states the power to discriminate against those who take family leave. We're talking about the Vatican slapping down American nuns for having the temerity to support healthcare reform and to support gender equity. And, if you've been out of the country for awhile, brace yourself; you're not going to believe this one, but, yes, we're talking about women being forced to the back of the bus in New York City!
We haven't even mentioned Islam's treatment of women. Well, Islam is going to get a free pass today. Not because it doesn't include some the worst, vilest reactionaries in the world -- it does -- but because we all know of them. Instead, I want to talk about what unites, or rather should unite, people of good faith who stand outside the shadow of Old Time Religion.
Can it be done? Do mainstream Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, agnostics, atheists and assorted others have enough common ground to stand shoulder to shoulder in defense of a reasonable and compassionate society? In my short new book, "Free God Now! How to Liberate Yourself from Old Time Religion & Just Maybe Save the World," I make the case that we do.
If you lived through 9/11, you may doubt that. You may think, "Christians and Jews, yeah; Jews and atheists, sure; but Islam? It just won't work." In the dreadful days after 9/11, historian Bernard Lewis, an elder statesman among Middle East specialists, published an gloomy book whose title alone tells its story: "What Went Wrong? The Clash Between Islam and Modernity in the Middle East." (Full disclosure: my father, Thomas Naff, also a Middle East historian, was a graduate student under Lewis long years ago.)
But in the decade since, Christianity, Judaism and, yes, Islam, have all undergone rapid evolution. As in life, they have experienced the kind of branching that leads to speciation. On the liberal branch, Muslims are striding toward the same kinds of humane values held by Christians, Jews and nonbelievers. I see this for myself every day in the people I work with. But don't take my word for it.
In his book "Islam and Liberal Citizenship," the rising young political scientist Andrew March, while noting that on its face liberal, secular society appears contrary to Islam, goes on to write that for liberal Muslims what's important is not the specifics of sharia, but rather that the Quran demands "a general attitude of treating all persons (including non-Muslims) with 'justice' or 'equity' ... What is crucial about this approach [which I take to be characteristic of a generally held Islamic attitude] is that the recognition of the rights of non-Muslims in a given country is not based merely on a specific promise or contract but rather on a general, divinely ordained attitude of recognition and respect for the dignity of the other."
The real divide today is not between the Judeo-Christian West and the Islamic East, but between the reactionary forces of Old Time Religion and the rest of us. If we don't see that in time, in November we will have our second straight historic election -- but this time it will be for all the wrong reasons. People of good faith, we have just a few months to recognize, rally and unite. This, I have faith we can do.
Follow Clay Farris Naff on Twitter: www.twitter.com/claynaff
It's mankind that dumbs it up.
We are all making decisions that will effect our eternity, some are choosing to live with God in Heaven (believers), and some are choosing to live apart from God in Hell (non-believers and sinners).
That is the truth. You can reject it if you want, but it won't change.
Besides it's relationship, not religion.
Religion is exactly what you deserve when you let others do your thinking for you.”
“The Government of The US was set up to NOT BE religious. Because Democracy works better that way of course WE need to get rid of this Bible Thumper Maniacs.
Is time for people of reason to raise up and finish all this. Ridiculous, idiotic religions all of them.
This people have done way to much damage in the name of imaginary gods.
The dumbest religion is athiesm.
The real problem as I see it, stems from the command that Christians must proselitize -- as long as that is required, they will be in the face of any non believer, secular humanist, spiritual teachers and seekers, and those professing non Christian faiths. Short of exorcisizing this element from the faith with bell, book, and candle, I don't see companionable coexisitance anytime soon. =/ As my niece, a practicing Wiccan is fond of shouting, "The evangelistas are coming! The evangelistas are coming!" -- and she hides! LOL
The Earth only being 6000 years old, creationism, talking snakes, the ark, are 2000 year old logic - they were even before the internet! People know better now, they just don't know how to express it without being attacked by mobs and witch hunters.
Information not only comes from today, but it also comes from the past.
The Bible is a credible reference, and has been for thousands of years.
Credible reference? We all come from incest, snakes talk, the world was created in six days, all the pairs of animals on earth fit on a boat, for starters.
Science follows logic and changes over time as we learn. To refer to 2000 year old science (the bible) as fact is absurd in our age of knowlege. I really hope you were joking.
When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do. If she does not please her master, who designated her for himself, then he shall let her be redeemed; he shall have no right to sell her to a foreign people, since he has dealt unfairly with her. If he designates her for his son, he shall deal with her as with a daughter. If he takes another wife to himself, he shall not diminish the food, clothing, or marital rights of the first wife. And if he does not do these three things for her, she shall go out without debt, without payment of money
http://www.godisimaginary.com/index.htm
Now, with the decline in Church members attending churches a correlation is being made with some very ugly political agendas. No, that is not the reason for decline in Church attendance. The primary reason for a declining number of those attending Churches is the secularization of the Churches. And, those whose core-beliefs find this secularization un-Christian are not attending many of the main stream Protestant Churches.
Thanks for reading and commenting.
Clay
I agree with you that the reasons young people are leaving the church are subtle and complex. However, churches, in general, are not as concerned about the absence of the young people as they are with the decline in "baby-boomers" attending church.
It is that shift in the demographics which effects the amount of money a church has to operate on and function. All of a sudden, many baby-boomers have awakened to the fact that they need "money" themselves. Therefore, their ten percent tithes are not finding their way into the collection plates. Whereas, with teenagers and young adults there has always been a "prodigal son" approach to attending church.
And, the elderly, those with staunch old time religion beliefs, are refusing to attend church primarily on the basis of: 1.) ordaining of gay clergy; 2.) marriages of gay couples. Therefore, churches are no longer reaping the benefits of money being left to the church in endowments, trust funds, and wills.
So, alot of Christians, regardless of their political affiliation, are falling into two groups: 1.) passive; 2.) apathetic.
I got the better deal.
I feel that you have not fully covered the cause and effect of this, as you yourself put it like this "as those who have a, um, vested interest in Old Time Religion grow more desperate to preserve their power, they are making unholy alliances to tear at every stitch of progress made in the last 50 years. I do not exaggerate when I say the entire fabric of our society is at risk"""""--------- IT IS ALL ABOUT VESTED INTERESTS EVERWHERE and they make great alliances. In order to save the fabric of the entire global society there is a dire need that all these vested interests divulge of those special interests groups who have all the resources to do anything they want --- you name and you will get it.
So God you are eternal and supreme, but here on earth there are and some who want to FREE GOD NOW, and who want to keep themselves captivated in all respects by the overly vested GROUPs. Again God help all of US from these vested groups.
Clay
One focused point of research is the idea that in the eighties when many of the city wide revivals were taking place many decisions for CHrist were being made. The problem was so few of them were assimilated into a local discipleship program causing many people to see the gospel story as nothing more than fire insurance. This has produced several generations that don't see a need for CHristianity and church attendance since it produced no change in behavior in their parents.