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Here are some generally agreed-upon facts about religious trends in the United States. Institutional Christianity has weakened drastically since the 1960s. Lots of people who once would have been lukewarm Christmas-and-Easter churchgoers now identify as having “no religion” or being “spiritual but not religious.” The mainline-Protestant establishment is an establishment no more. Religious belief and practice now polarizes our politics in a way they didn’t a few generations back.
What kind of general religious reality should be discerned from all these facts, though, is much more uncertain, and there are various plausible stories about what early-21st century Americans increasingly believe. The simplest of these is the secularization story — in which modern societies inevitably put away religious ideas as they advance in wealth and science and reason, and the decline of institutional religion is just a predictable feature of a general late-modern turn away from supernatural belief.
What kind of general religious reality should be discerned from all these facts, though, is much more uncertain, and there are various plausible stories about what early-21st century Americans increasingly believe. The simplest of these is the secularization story — in which modern societies inevitably put away religious ideas as they advance in wealth and science and reason, and the decline of institutional religion is just a predictable feature of a general late-modern turn away from supernatural belief.
Opinion | The Return of Paganism
Posted from nytimes.com
Religion
Theology
Christianity
Islam
Judaism
Posted 6 y ago
Responses: 3
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I hate it when they say "are you Christian or Catholic?" Hello! Catholics are Christians as well!
They may not agree with Protestants, but they are Christians.
They may not agree with Protestants, but they are Christians.
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LTC (Join to see)
PO1 William "Chip" Nagel chip, I don't blame Martin Luther. I really got along well with Lutheran chaplain we had in my Brigade. Lutherans believe in Saints and talking Theology and such made me feel comfortable that he was the kissing cousin of Catholics and we were able to discuss theology and spiritual matters and I felt totally comfortable with him. I would feel the same way talking to a rabbi. Don't be torn by the past, just Relish in your heritage.
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
LTC (Join to see) - I'm Catholic Born and Bred but the Catholic Chaplain on the California CGN-36 I would Readily Use as Oscar the Man Overboard Dummy if Given Half a Chance. Had No Use for the Man. My 3 Most Favorite Military Chaplains were the Rabbi at CINCPACFLT, the Rabbi at Pacific Northwest HQ Bremerton and Our Beloved LCDR Edwn M. Carroll Black Minister on USS Arkansas CGN-41 "I Went thru the Seminary on a Football Scholarship" Big, Funny, Cross Eyed Man with a Huge Heart that Loved to Volunteer Me for Things.
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
VETERANS DAY 1996 on USS ARKANSAS
On November 9th, 1996 I flew to Hawaii from Seattle to join my Dad, youngest brother (Navy Chief and host) and my nephew to sail a TIGER CRUISE from Pearl Ha...
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Study the fall of any Nation - Rome being the most documented I believe - and you will see a pattern of turning away from God/Gods as a precursor to the fall. Yes, I've "self identified" as "spiritual not religious" and have for over 4 decades. A common religion for a nation is where the moral base begins. With the greater and greater lack of morals, especially in government, happening in the world today I know we are in for a very rough future (the next 4-6 decades).
Paganism. A religious practice older than Christianity. According to the Christian doctrine I was brought up in, Paganism is pretty much any other religion that does not have God or Jesus (or both) at the center of belief. Vikings were Pagan. Celts were Pagan. Romans were Pagan. Greeks were Pagan. Mayans, Aztecs, Japanese, Chinese, Indian (India), Indians (Americas), Africans, et al, were all Pagan. All of these past and present belief systems have, at their core, the same moral compass as Christianity and Judaism. Namely, the Golden Rule, some form of the 10 Commandments, some form of the 11th Commandment (the Golden Rule), etc.
So, to me, the question is not if we are moving to Paganism, but rather are we losing our moral center as a country. I also look to the churches who are more about getting butts in the seats every Sunday instead of building belief in a moral compass. My wife and I have been members of several churches over the last 28 years and have witnessed the turn away from morality towards entertainment. The Sunday Sermon has become a passive event and is no longer a group survival mechanism. Add to that the political (creator of man's laws) pressure to secularize, to be forced and coerced into believing something outside your personal moral compass and you get a society that is tearing itself apart.
We are supposed to be a free nation. Yet we are, more and more, a nation of making laws that abridge the common moral compass.
Paganism. A religious practice older than Christianity. According to the Christian doctrine I was brought up in, Paganism is pretty much any other religion that does not have God or Jesus (or both) at the center of belief. Vikings were Pagan. Celts were Pagan. Romans were Pagan. Greeks were Pagan. Mayans, Aztecs, Japanese, Chinese, Indian (India), Indians (Americas), Africans, et al, were all Pagan. All of these past and present belief systems have, at their core, the same moral compass as Christianity and Judaism. Namely, the Golden Rule, some form of the 10 Commandments, some form of the 11th Commandment (the Golden Rule), etc.
So, to me, the question is not if we are moving to Paganism, but rather are we losing our moral center as a country. I also look to the churches who are more about getting butts in the seats every Sunday instead of building belief in a moral compass. My wife and I have been members of several churches over the last 28 years and have witnessed the turn away from morality towards entertainment. The Sunday Sermon has become a passive event and is no longer a group survival mechanism. Add to that the political (creator of man's laws) pressure to secularize, to be forced and coerced into believing something outside your personal moral compass and you get a society that is tearing itself apart.
We are supposed to be a free nation. Yet we are, more and more, a nation of making laws that abridge the common moral compass.
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