If you listen to the media, you would think America was as religious as ever. However, evangelical Christians are an egregious example of how a noisy minority can appear to be a more significant number of people than they actually are. And they have used that noise to grab political power by hijacking the GOP.
But as conservative evangelicals in the US have solidified their hold over the Republican party, Americans as a whole are becoming less religious. In 1980, 89% of Americans Identified as Christian. By 2020 that number was 68%. And what is even worse news for organized religion is that the move to secularism is generational. The young are not buying what the church sells. Which raises the question, what is religion selling?
According to its propaganda, the Church says it provides a haven in a harsh, uncertain world. It explains where we came from and where we are going. It guarantees entry to heaven (if you check the right boxes). It provides a moral guide. It gives solace to people when they are hurt or grieving. And it is a community where like-minded people can socialize. My mother went to church every Sunday of her life. But I have no evidence that she believed in God — she never talked about the subject. Nor did she ever use God as a reason to promote bigotry and prejudice. And ironically, I think an older woman provides a clue as to why younger Americans no longer feel drawn to the church. Because, while she embraced the charity and compassion of traditional mainstream Protestantism, the Church today is best known for its arbitrary moral absolutism and judgmental prejudice.
Ever since the Moral Majority supported Ronald Reagan, a divorced, non-church goer, over Jimmy Carter, a devout evangelical Christian, conservative Christianity has not only been a political force but America’s largest promoter of hatred, bigotry, and anger in the public sphere. And the youth of America don't like it. Voting patterns provide evidence for that argument. Millennials overwhelmingly voted for Democrats, who comprise the party supporting the rights of disadvantaged groups in America - aka, those who do not fit the white, male, heteronormative mold. Or, put another way, they champion people whose civil rights would be stripped from them if religious bigots got their way. And these are issues that resonate with younger adults who are more likely to support the LGBTQ+ community, immigrants, a social safety net, and a woman’s right to choose.
In fairness, it's not only the young. Many older Americans also back the same positions. The support for gay marriage, which stood at 27% in 1996 when Gallup first asked the question, has now reached 70%. Even the majority of Republicans support it. You will not find it used as a political issue much anymore. But the damage to evangelicals from their campaign against same-sex marriage — which exposed them as hateful and even unChristian — lingers.
Going hand in hand with political power is the root of all evil, the want of money. The Church is big business. And wherever there is money, there are liars, thieves, cheats, con artists, and cynical opportunists. I don’t know if religion has a higher percentage of grifters than other fields of financial buccaneering, but one thing the church has in spades is hypocrites. When Bernie Madoff was putting his hand in your pocket, he wasn’t telling you how you should lead your life. or enumerating who was a sinner destined for hell. But religious snake-oil salesmen lard their larceny with moral mandates they themselves often ignore.
Consider televangelist Jim Bakker, founder of the PTL club. In 1979, the FCC investigated him for fraud. In 1985, a confidential IRS report found Bakker and his wife Tammy Faye had used $1.3 million in charitable donations for their benefit from 1980 to 1983. But no action was taken by a Reagan administration that turned a blind eye to the financial sins of its evangelical base.
In 1987, news surfaced that Bakker had had sex with the 21-year-old secretary, Jessica Hahn. He said it was consensual. She said she had been drugged and raped. He paid her $279,000 in hush money. Bakker might have survived the sex, but the bribe upset the sanctimonious. So he had to quit.
In 1989, he was found guilty of 24 charges of fraud and received a 45-year prison sentence. An appeals court reduced it to eight years. And he ended up serving five.
Currently, he is selling food and other supplies to doomsday preppers. And his latest scam is promoting colloidal silver as a cure for COVID. Sued once more, he had to make restitution for fraudulent claims again.
He is not alone among the religious degenerates. Jimmy Swaggart’s of prostitutes led to his defrocking. Noted homophobe, Ted Haggard, was busted for buying sex and crystal meth from a male prostitute. Tony Alamo was sentenced to175 years in prison for sexual abuse, transporting underage girls across state lines for sexual purposes, pedophilia, marrying an eight-year-old girl, and child rape. Alamo's defense: he was framed by the Vatican.
And there are the reprobates who are not ministers but promote a Christian lifestyle. People like Josh Duggar (child porn), Jerry Falwell Jr. (three-way sex and lying), and David Vitter (prostitution).
You get the point and that’s enough for this diary. Let’s leave the Catholic Church and child rape for another day.
I predict that by 2032, the number of nonbelievers in the US may well reach 40%. Republicans could slow down the trend by supporting more immigration from Central and South America, because Hispanics are more religious than Gringos. Would a right-wing Bible-thumping racist ever chose to support large amounts of brown immigration? I suspect that, much as the scorpion stung the frog, the religious bigot would rather drown than do the decent thing.