{"id":45447,"date":"2019-01-26T16:57:34","date_gmt":"2019-01-26T22:57:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/?p=45447"},"modified":"2019-01-26T16:57:35","modified_gmt":"2019-01-26T22:57:35","slug":"is-the-religious-right-to-blame-for-christianitys-decline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2019\/01\/26\/is-the-religious-right-to-blame-for-christianitys-decline\/","title":{"rendered":"Is the Religious Right to Blame for Christianity\u2019s Decline?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We’ve all heard this: liberal churches are shrinking and conservative churches are growing. It’s because – don’t you know? – churches that stand for something attract followers, but churches forever chasing after passing fads do not. People want substance, not gimmicks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not so fast. At The American Conservative<\/a>,<\/em> of all places, George Hawley cites several studies to argue against all that. “As plausible as this theory may have appeared a decade ago, recent trends in American religious life suggest it is incomplete, if not entirely wrong,” he writes. “[T]he Religious Right was, overall, a detriment to Christianity in the United States.” And this: “[T]hat it [The Religious Right] <\/em>expedited the decline of Christian identification and affiliation is a damning indictment of the movement.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The long and short of it is that conservative figures with a large media footprint – think Jerry Falwell – gave Christianity a bad name and made many people no longer want to be associated with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be sure, Hawley’s argument is nuanced and understated. He acknowledges that there are many other possibles reasons for the institutional decline of Christianity along with the declines caused by the Religious Right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And he states an important truth at the outset: “To lay my own cards on the table, I am persuaded that fertility rates are one of the best predictors of a Christian denomination\u2019s long-term health.” Everyone, please read that again. Liberals (who tend to be better educated) have fewer kids, which accounts for a good bit of the numerical decline of liberal denominations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hawley’s references and citations seem to refer mostly to Protestantism. But I’m sure much of what he writes applies to all religious traditions, including Catholicism. It makes me wonder: how many people are driven away from the Catholic Church by our version of loud-mouthed Religious Right folks, mitered or not, in the media?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

awr<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We’ve all heard this: liberal churches are shrinking and conservative churches are growing. It’s because – don’t you know? – churches that stand for something attract followers, but churches forever chasing after passing fads do not. People want substance, not gimmicks. Not so fast. 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