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The Christian Right Is Helping Drive Liberals Away From Religion

James Brown

James Brown

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Over the course of a single generation, the [United States] has gotten a lot less religious. As recently as the early 1990s, less than 10 percent of Americans lacked a formal religious affiliation, and liberals weren’t all that much likelier to be nonreligious than the public overall. Today, however, nearly one in four Americans are religiously unaffiliated. That includes almost 40 percent of liberals — up from 12 percent in 1990, according to the 2018 General Social Survey.1 The share of conservatives and moderates who have no religion, meanwhile, has risen less dramatically.
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ATD.DC-RELIGION-POLITICS.0918-0917-1.png
 
This gives the right wingers something to bray about. "Us vs. the horrible, atheist them!" And of course the converse, "Us vs. the toxic Christian right wingers!" I caught a few minutes of Lush Rimjob ranting about the Liberals lack of religious belief, so this line of political propaganda is already in play on the right, and not just from people like Ann Coulter. The GOP is collecting huge sums of money, including dark money for 2020, and i suspect that eventually we will hear a lot of cable TV and radio ads playing this religious card. Political culture war. It may well be that the GOP's embrace of toxic religion will eventually turn out to be something of a tar baby.

More popcorn as these things develop on the way to November 6, 2020.
 
Cheerful Charlie said:
This gives the right wingers something to bray about. "Us vs. the horrible, atheist them!" And of course the converse, "Us vs. the toxic Christian right wingers!" I caught a few minutes of Lush Rimjob ranting about the Liberals lack of religious belief, so this line of political propaganda is already in play on the right, and not just from people like Ann Coulter. The GOP is collecting huge sums of money, including dark money for 2020, and i suspect that eventually we will hear a lot of cable TV and radio ads playing this religious card. Political culture war. It may well be that the GOP's embrace of toxic religion will eventually turn out to be something of a tar baby.

More popcorn as these things develop on the way to November 6, 2020.
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They always did accuse the Left of being godless atheists. It was just less true in the past. I note that it is still not true by the numbers, despite how much those numbers have changed. But truth doesn't matter a heck of a lot to the politically radicalized mind, whatever its sympathies. Or to the pen of the propagandist.
 
When these religious people say stupid things like Bonespurs is the second coming and gays and sinners cause natural disasters, they are of course going to be thought of as idiots and morons.
 
I'll accept Jeebus, prayerfully and with copious tears and rending of garments, when the Religious Right...
> stops saying that God will not let man make the earth uninhabitable
> actually says that a society should feed the hungry, clothe the naked, etc.,etc.
> accepts the gospel teaching on public prayer
> puts on clown shoes and gives Trump such a kick in the ass that he won't be golfing for 2 weeks
 
Two weeks? No, what you've got to do is cut the hamstring on the back of his leg right at the bottom. He'll never play golf again, because his weight displacement goes back, all his weight is on his right foot, and he'll push everything off to the right. He'll never come through on anything. He'll quit the game.
 
While I consider the decline of religion to be a positive thing, in this case it seems to be because of political affiliation rather than because of critical thinking. I'd think that those who leave religion for such reasons can still easily be taken in by other forms of irrational beliefs.
 
The Christian Right Is Helping Drive Liberals Away From Religion | FiveThirtyEight - titled link

No mention of a Religious Left in that article -- it has let itself become marginalized.

From the article: "Researchers haven’t found a comprehensive explanation for why the number of religiously unaffiliated Americans has increased over the past few years — the shift is too large and too complex."

But I think that it's something like the fall of the Soviet Union's Eastern European empire - it happened very quickly. When Mikhail Gorbachev decided not to use force to support the nations' Communist regimes, those regimes fell very quickly.
Time Line of Eastern European Collapse
CHRONOLOGY-Communism's fall around eastern Europe - Reuters
So if it was some sort of social duty that one got little out of, then once the social pressure goes away, it vanishes.
 
From April 2018, Americans' beliefs about the nature of God | Pew Research Center
  • 80% God - yes
    • 56% As described in the Bible
    • 23% Some other higher power / spiritual force
  • 19% God - no
    • 9% Some other higher power / spiritual force
    • 10% No such thing
Then how many of Americans believe that God/HP determines what happens to them:
All the time 27%, Most of the time 21%, Some of the time 18%, Hardly ever 9%, Never 13%, No such thing: 10%

And how many people believe God/HP does what:
Protected them 77%, Rewarded them 67%, Will judge people on what they've done 61%, Has punished them 40%

Communications:
They talk to God/HP, God/HP talks to them: 28%, They talk to God/HP, God/HP doesn't talk to them: 47%, They don't talk to God/HP, God/HP talks to them: <1%, they don't talk to God/HP, God/HP doesn't talk to them: 15%, No such thing: 10%

God of the Bible considered more active than a more general higher power / spiritual force
  • 69% 97% Lives all people, regardless of their faults
  • 68% 97% Has protected them
  • 53% 94% Knows everything
  • 53% 87% Has rewarded them
  • 39% 86% Has power to direct/change everything
  • 25% 70% Determines what happens in their lives all/most of the time
  • 37% 50% Has punished them
  • 16% 40% Talks to them
[*]
 
lpetrich said:
The Christian Right Is Helping Drive Liberals Away From Religion | FiveThirtyEight - titled link

No mention of a Religious Left in that article -- it has let itself become marginalized.

From the article: "Researchers haven’t found a comprehensive explanation for why the number of religiously unaffiliated Americans has increased over the past few years — the shift is too large and too complex."

But I think that it's something like the fall of the Soviet Union's Eastern European empire - it happened very quickly. When Mikhail Gorbachev decided not to use force to support the nations' Communist regimes, those regimes fell very quickly.
Time Line of Eastern European Collapse
CHRONOLOGY-Communism's fall around eastern Europe - Reuters
So if it was some sort of social duty that one got little out of, then once the social pressure goes away, it vanishes.
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"Let itself be marginalized"? Wtf? Is that your perspective on every muted minority voice, or do you save that attitude for the really special ones?
 
Keith&Co. said:
Two weeks? No, what you've got to do is cut the hamstring on the back of his leg right at the bottom. He'll never play golf again, because his weight displacement goes back, all his weight is on his right foot, and he'll push everything off to the right. He'll never come through on anything. He'll quit the game.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrcgjMJmvNg

3:36
 
Tammuz said:
While I consider the decline of religion to be a positive thing, in this case it seems to be because of political affiliation rather than because of critical thinking. I'd think that those who leave religion for such reasons can still easily be taken in by other forms of irrational beliefs.
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Because of political affiliation? Not at all. Both decisions are dependent on critical thinking, not on each other.
 
Politesse said:
lpetrich said:
No mention of a Religious Left in that article -- it has let itself become marginalized.
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"Let itself be marginalized"? Wtf? Is that your perspective on every muted minority voice, or do you save that attitude for the really special ones?
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My perspective on every muted minority voice? Of course not.

Do I save it for some "really special ones"? Of course not.

I'm asking why the Religious Left has been so absent from politics since at least the 1980's. I used the phrasing "let itself become" because it does not seem to me that it was overpowered by anything.
 
lpetrich said:
Politesse said:
lpetrich said:
No mention of a Religious Left in that article -- it has let itself become marginalized.
Click to expand...
"Let itself be marginalized"? Wtf? Is that your perspective on every muted minority voice, or do you save that attitude for the really special ones?
Click to expand...
My perspective on every muted minority voice? Of course not.

Do I save it for some "really special ones"? Of course not.

I'm asking why the Religious Left has been so absent from politics since at least the 1980's. I used the phrasing "let itself become" because it does not seem to me that it was overpowered by anything.
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Easy: the religious left, given of a tendency to actually look at the teaching of religion, is more likely to give into (the government) what is (the government's), and to let them "know we are Christians by our love."

In short, the Bible has clear provisions that chastise being politically active as a Christian or to flout the Christianity as the reason for being good. The religious left has been absent from politics from the context of their religion because their religion demands quiet devotion to their principles rather than outspoken advertisement.
 
lpetrich said:
Politesse said:
lpetrich said:
No mention of a Religious Left in that article -- it has let itself become marginalized.
Click to expand...
"Let itself be marginalized"? Wtf? Is that your perspective on every muted minority voice, or do you save that attitude for the really special ones?
Click to expand...
My perspective on every muted minority voice? Of course not.

Do I save it for some "really special ones"? Of course not.

I'm asking why the Religious Left has been so absent from politics since at least the 1980's. I used the phrasing "let itself become" because it does not seem to me that it was overpowered by anything.
Click to expand...

Just who do you think is the backbone of the Democratic Party?
 
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