The Decline of Christian America

Townhall.com ^ | May 26, 2015 | Pat Buchanan

[Sherman Logan]

Of course, there is the Treaty of Tripoli, 1797, which stated, “the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.”

Agree or disagree, that is what it said.

[ClearCase_guy]

I do wish that the Constitution had declared the US to be a Christian nation.

I believe one of the points of the First Amendment is that we did not want sectarian fighting between Christian denominations. We did not want to argue about whether the government-supported church would be Lutheran or Methodist. We wanted Congress to make no laws on this issue.

But declaring a national sense of the US being a Christian nation would have helped us, I think.

[Responsibility2nd]

Buchanan is right. To those who mistakenly believe that morals, values and religion have no place in our laws and our courts; congratulations.

You now have the government you want.

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[Mrs. Don-o]

Well said, and too sad for words.

[Fido969]

Afterwhich, we beat the snot out of the Muslim pirates.

[oldbrowser]

Many churches came out to meet the cultural revolution halfway. The results were irrelevance and scandal -- too many Elmer Gantrys in televangelist pulpits and too many predators in priestly cassocks.

Christianity is being diluted by infighting of Christian sects. Every time I read about it I think of the story of the Tower of Babel.

[StoneWall Brigade]

Excellent article by Pat Buchanan.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Christianity is being diluted by infighting of Christian sects.

Amen. You see it all too often here on FR when Catholics and Protestants start sniping at each other over "how many angels can fit on the head of a pin?" style theological questions.

[ansel12]

We were a Christian nation, it isn’t the same as saying that we were created as part of the Christian religion.

Besides, that treaty wording to the Muslims, isn’t the end of discussion on America and Christianity.

[Sherman Logan]

Twice.

[ansel12]

You don’t think that the democrat voting church denominations and the anti-democrat voting church denominations, might disagree occasionally?

[Rashputin]

It's way beyond sects, it's become another fertile ground for individualism where every individual has their own personal version of Christ and Christianity.

Even within all the thousands of groups there's a constant churning of people coming and going whenever they feel uncomfortable with or disagree with something at a particular church.

Since Luther what passes for Christianity in the West has been on the glide path to, "It's all about me" with the only requirement being that someone say a few magic words which then makes them free to use the name of Christ to justify everything from queers marrying one another to masses of children born out of wedlock if that's how they personally interpret Scripture to suit their Self and Self Alone.

With no authority other than Self, there's anarchy which is the inevitable endpoint of the Protestant Revolt.

[Sherman Logan]

Actually, the treaty didn’t say we weren’t a Christian nation.

It said our government wasn’t founded on the Christian religion. Which is, mostly, true.

[ansel12]

Which is what I just just pointed out to you.

[skinndogNN]

7 of 10 are Christians? That’s actually more than I thought it would be.

Of course, most of those 7, don’t tithe or go to church every Sunday.

[mulligan]

Should read - ‘The decline of America’. And why? Many reasons.

Abortion, removal of prayer in many areas, political correctness, incompetent, greedy and selfish politicians who think they are gods, no standards of conduct like the 10 commandments (just do what feels good including a marriage of men to men and women to women), right is wrong and wrong is right, an almost non-existent educational system or program ( today is little more than just a brainwashing program),a massive government out of control relative to spending, racism encouraged, class warfare encouraged, police forces under attack, our military under attack, truth, decency and virtue under attack. and voters who seem to care little about the current mess. Evil is on the Throne - Good is on the Gallows. And the Rubicon has probably been crossed.

[Wallace T.]

There was an attempt that began in the Civil War era to add a “Christian amendment” to the U.S. Constitution. The wording of the proposed amendment would have acknowledged the Bible as being authoritative, God as the source of all power in civil government, and Jesus Christ as ruler of all nations. It was largely supported by Presbyterians. Opposition came from different sources: Unitarians and other liberals; Catholics; Baptist, Methodist, and other churches of nonconformist or pietist origins. These disparate groups believed the “Christian amendment” would lead to the establishment of a Presbyterian or Episcopal state church and restriction of religious freedom.

[all the best]

The U.S. Constitution was the very first such document in western civilization that did not invoke God but “we the people”. It all began right there.

[Steve_Seattle]

"By accommodating the social revolution of the 1960s to stay relevant, mainline churches appear to have made themselves irrelevant to America's young."

The paradox is easily explained: the churches did not just "accommodate" the social revolution, they accepted its proponents as the true sources of moral and intellectual leadership.

Not long after, the Left became the official voice of public morality - Freud's super-ego - as expressed through the news media, entertainment industry, and world of academia.

Once this was done, there was no reason to look to those churches as the source of moral or intellectual leadership, hence they became irrelevant. The churches were just parroting what they were hearing from secular elites. It's an American version of the Middle Eastern idea of "following the strong man."

It is almost comical to see older members of those liberal churches - especially the clergy - still acting as if they are a besieged, prophetic minority, rather than the new establishment.