Quote of the Day: Christianists Are Creating Agnostics and Atheists

A number of studies and surveys have shown that the fastest growing religious category is the so-called "Nones." These nones espouse no religious affiliation and are reacting to the increasingly ugly face of religion and Christianity in particular in America and around the world. Andrew Sullivan sums the situation up wonderfully in a post today. Here's the pertinent part of the post:

Is Christianism Breeding Atheists? Why would it not? The way in which the next generation has been exposed to Christianity this past decade has been toxic to the faith. Christianism isn't just corrosive of our political order; it is deeply destructive to Christianity itself. Go to any college campus and ask the uncommitted their views of Christianity. What I hear is intolerance, anger, anti-gay prejudice, sexual obsession, and hatred of Islam. How many people Rick Santorum has scared off Christianity for life is beyond reckoning. And the bile directed at gay people has been deeply damaging in getting across to people what Jesus' message really was: which is, in many cases, almost the opposite of that of his current most prominent representatives in the media.

But the anti-gay Christianists are not solely responsible for the decine in religion among the younger generations. The "good Christians" have responsibility too although to a far lesser extent. Their failing? Not standing up to the hate merchants who have hijacked the Christian moniker. Andrew sums it up this way:

So Christianity in America, as Ross Douthat's excellent forthcoming book explains, is undermined by both the political temptation and degeneracy on the evangelical right and the failure of mainline Protestantism to advance a Christianity that is both at ease with modernity but also determined to transcend its false gods of money, celebrity, and power, and to require more from its adherents.

I've noted that the Episcopal Church and Evangelical Lutheran Church in America have in some instances found the spine to openly oppose the far right hate merchants (e.g., in Washington State and some parts of Minnesota) but they and other "good" denominations need to do much, much more. They need to put doing what is right ahead of what avoids intra-denominational frictions. The truth is that Christianity needs to change for the positive or else long term it will die. Frankly, the death of Christianity as marketed by the Christianist would be a positive development for society and the world.