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The central delusion of the Christian right: Americans aren’t really churchgoers after all
Salon ^ | April 26, 2015 | Amanda Marcotte

Posted on 04/26/2015 11:56:15 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I wish some foundation would send Amanda on a fact-finding mission to share a few of these thoughts with her friends at ISIS.


41 posted on 04/26/2015 1:43:56 PM PDT by madprof98
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

the last 30 years have crushed the faith of Americans


42 posted on 04/26/2015 2:13:16 PM PDT by sten (fighting tyranny never goes out of style)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I never understood thE whoLe covering your arms with tattoos either. I mean, I would sooner wear a long sleeve than a tattoo to cover my arm.


43 posted on 04/26/2015 2:39:08 PM PDT by Morpheus2009
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To: reasonisfaith

How many churches do you know that would fit the ‘Bible thumping’ description?


44 posted on 04/26/2015 2:44:46 PM PDT by Balding_Eagle (The Gruber Revelations are proof that God is still smiling on America.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Christians know that the majority of the country is now under the control of the Wicked One.


45 posted on 04/26/2015 2:56:49 PM PDT by kaehurowing
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

My Momma told me what women with tattoos were.


46 posted on 04/26/2015 2:58:23 PM PDT by kaehurowing
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To: Obama_Is_Sabotaging_America

I wouldn’t dismiss this; there is no reason anyone looking in from outside would assume this is a religious country. While “gay marriage” is forced on Americans against their will, the fact is most are OK with divorce/remarriage, extramarital sex, artificial contraception, and many accept abortion-on-demand as well.

There is little evidence that Americans are religious (at least within the context of traditional faiths).


47 posted on 04/26/2015 3:47:35 PM PDT by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

That Ms. Marcotte does not understand the - quite reasonable - logic about a respect (free) of a God that will hold one accountable.....that is SCARY...not what she thinks is scary.

She is right that our country has become secular, and probably was always...just it wasn’t “fasionable” to be “secular.” In many ways this is a good thing. Too many phoney “religious” persons that really didn’t believe are being revealed. It is getting easier to tell the sheep from the goats.


48 posted on 04/26/2015 4:14:56 PM PDT by Sola Veritas (Trying to speak truth - not always with the best grammar or spelling)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Christians believe that they will be a persecuted minority until Jesus returns. Salon obviously has no idea that their whole premise is wrong.


49 posted on 04/26/2015 4:17:33 PM PDT by GeronL (Clearly Cruz 2016)
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To: Balding_Eagle

Does your answer depend on that number?


50 posted on 04/26/2015 4:18:54 PM PDT by reasonisfaith ("...because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved." (2 Thessalonians))
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

“Most Americans believe that divorce, birth control, premarital sex, single parenthood, and homosexuality are morally acceptable behaviors.”

Which is why we are a society in decline, and until such time as our nation regains some semblance of a Judeo-Christian population, will continue to do so unto its own collapse.


51 posted on 04/26/2015 5:28:39 PM PDT by GenXteacher (You have chosen dishonor to avoid war; you shall have war also.)
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To: reasonisfaith

I don’t understand what you are asking, but my point was/is that there are very, very few churches anymore who are Bible preaching churches.

One only has to look at dwindling attendance to see that.


52 posted on 04/26/2015 6:38:57 PM PDT by Balding_Eagle (The Gruber Revelations are proof that God is still smiling on America.)
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To: Balding_Eagle

Okay now I see. Well, I’d say “Bible thumping” is a stereotype whereas Bible believing and teaching is real.

And it’s not dwindling all that much. Especially in some areas.


53 posted on 04/26/2015 6:57:20 PM PDT by reasonisfaith ("...because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved." (2 Thessalonians))
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To: 2ndDivisionVet; All
I hate to say it, but part of the blame for this state of affairs lies with chrstian conservatives whose entire argument for morality is "this is a chrstian country!" If that is so, then the instant it ceases to be a chrstian country then morality has no basis.

When it comes to morality it is irrelevant who founded this country or what their religious beliefs were. Objective morality comes from G-D and nowhere else. Even when I was still a chrstian I was horrified by the implied relativism of the "national heritage" argument for morality. Isn't it time we jettison it? Of course, that means also jettisoning the "right" to practice any religion whatsoever and committing oneself to the One True Religion, and many of even the most militant conservatives don't have the stomach for that.

As for the quote from the smart-mouthed brat about "primitive people who wondered where the rain came from," it sounds to me as if she still retains the chrstian cultural supremacism which she doubtless condemns very loudly. Were I a member of one of de' 'ow you say, "indigenous pipples," I would be enraged and demand an apology. Doesn't she know that all condemnations of religion are to be limited only to the Fundamentalist Protestantism of the American Bible Belt?

54 posted on 04/26/2015 6:57:29 PM PDT by Zionist Conspirator (The "end of history" will be Worldwide Judaic Theocracy.)
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To: Balding_Eagle

Okay now I see. Well, I’d say “Bible thumping” is a stereotype whereas Bible believing and teaching is real.

And it’s not dwindling all that much. Especially in some areas.


55 posted on 04/26/2015 6:59:00 PM PDT by reasonisfaith ("...because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved." (2 Thessalonians))
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Can I see some numbers please?
56 posted on 04/26/2015 7:04:22 PM PDT by Harmless Teddy Bear (Proud Infidel, Gun Nut, Religious Fanatic and Freedom Fiend)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Marcotte has cited the correct evidence and failed to draw the correct conclusion from it. The correct conclusion is that the whole monolithic Bible-thumping Christian Right Conspiracy thing was largely a non-Christian media boogeyman from the very beginning, and that contrary to the politicians she cited being wrong about it, none of the politicians she mentioned actually believe it in the first place. Nor do most of us Christians. The narrative was a misrepresentation from the outset.

That is not to state that Christians do not vote their conscience. So do atheists, presumably. And when that conscience is repeatedly beaten over the head with what is clearly outrageous - the killing of babies in the womb, for example - then widespread condemnation does not imply a conspiracy or a political monolith. Certain atheists - Christopher Hitchens, for one - came to agree with that position. It is threatening only to people who consider that they have a moral code, find themselves acting in contravention to it, and refuse to reconsider their position.

In short, the I Stood Up To The Bible-thumping Christian Right narrative is largely the imagining of children pretending that the shadow on the wall is a menacing monster. So it is, in their minds. That doesn't make it a monster to the real world.

I have to suspect, though, that someone who insists that a moral code based on a "flimsy belief" - it isn't - "in a supernatural being" is shaky when her own moral code based on nothing at all occupies solid ground, is only fooling herself.

57 posted on 04/26/2015 7:20:18 PM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: Balding_Eagle
So true, 99% of the churches are no longer Bible thumpers, going to them is pointless.

Many religions consider doctrine/canons/tenants to be more important than the Bible. It's why I went non-denominational where the Bible is the source and Jesus is the primary topic.

58 posted on 04/27/2015 3:03:26 AM PDT by trebb (Where in the the hell has my country gone?)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Christians will always be a minority. The road to Perdition is wide, the path to Heaven is steep and narrow, and chosen by few. It was probably fashionable at one time in Western civilization to be “Christian” but has fallen out of vogue, thus the empty pews and church buildings fallen out of use. Most people are hell bound and proud of it. It has always been so.

But speaking of the state of churches today; yes, some denominations have strayed far from the truth of the the Bible, but not the churches I’m familiar with. And even if a great number of the people sitting in those pews are not Christians, and merely hypocrites, there’s hope for their conversion. That is why I invite so many people to come with me to church, including unbelievers and “believers” who are out of fellowship.

We may not be a “Christian” nation, with only a minority of citizens as Christians, but we’re not an atheist nation either, or a homosexual nation, as these groups are minorities themselves. We are a secular nation that was founded on Judea/Christian principles, noting a belief in truth (misnamed as religion) that does not force itself on society, but holds moral values that are undeniably proper.


59 posted on 04/27/2015 6:35:56 AM PDT by Blue Collar Christian (Ready for Teddy. Cruz, that is. Texas conservative.)
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To: kearnyirish2

There is an ‘off the books’ surge of religion in the United States, Catholicism to be precise. Illegal aliens are by far mostly Catholic!


60 posted on 04/30/2015 12:21:19 PM PDT by Obama_Is_Sabotaging_America
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