In U.S., Decline of Christianity Continues at Rapid Pace

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

43. I already knew it. And to a large extent, the religious leaders have brought it on themselves.

The Catholic Church has, for centuries, institutionalized misogyny. They used to say that women cannot be ordained because women are inferior to men; now they say that women are "ontologically different" from men -- which is a euphemism for "women are inferior to men". Many women, and many men who support them, are fed up with this.

Last week, the Catholic bishops filed an amicus curiae brief with the Supreme Court, asking the court to allow them to discriminate against LGBT employees. Any Catholic who opposes bigotry should see this as repellant and unchristian behavior.

Protestant Evangelical churches were founded before the Civil War, and had defense of slavery as a major tenet. After the Civil War, they made the easy switch to defense of Jim Crow. Racism is still a major part of that religion, as is misogyny, as is homophobia. A majority of white Evangelicals support Trump, basically because they see their "values" under attack, and believe that Trump can stay that attack. Religious social conservatives view individual freedom as "the individual is free to do as he or she pleases, but only insofar as I, personally, approve of what the individual is doing". To put that more simply, they do not approve of individual freedom.

Indeed, many of them want the US to be turned into a theocracy, with, of course, them in control. The world shown in A Handmaid's Tale is, essentially, what they want. These attitudes turn off a great many people. As one man I know put it recently, "my church has turned into the Republican Party at prayer".

So yes, there is a lot to dislike in organized religion in the United States. I, myself, have essentially left the Catholic Church, and I told my bishop exactly why. He didn't like what I had to say. I try to follow the teachings of Christ, especially the commandments about loving one's neighbor. I wish that various Christian churches would do the same.