Quote:
While these young "nones" may not belong to a church, they are not necessarily atheists. "Many of them are people who would otherwise be in church," Putnam said. "They have the same attitidues and values as people who are in church, but they grew up in a period in which being religious meant being politically conservative, especially on social issues." Putnam says that in the past two decades, many young people began to view organized religion as a source of "intolerance and rigidity and doctrinaire political views," and therefore stopped going to church. This movement away from organized religion, says Putnam, may have enormous consequences for American culture and politics for years to come. "That is the future of America," he says. "Their views and their habits religiously are going to persist and have a huge effect on the future." This data is likely to reinvigorate an already heated debate about whether America is, or will continue to be, a "Christian nation." A recent Newsweek cover article, entitled "The End of Christian America" provoked responses from religious thinkers all over the spectrum.
Response:
There was a time when I would have considered this to be bad news. I now consider it to be good news. Jesus did not promote organized religion...just the opposite. What he did promote was a high standard of psychology, ethics, and spirituality. I call it secular spirituality. This is going to be a rocky transition. There will be many mistakes...but the human race is growing up.
America may have been based on Christian principles...but it was never intended to be a 'Christian Nation'...or 'One Nation Under God'. This would be Constitutional Heresy...and there is evidence that America is guilty of this anathema. Consider the following:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNpXrmlbV0g.