April 2009 Archives

We've had much discussion lately about the "decline and fall of Christian America," as the Newsweek cover story put it. That article was based on a survey showing the percentage of Americans calling themselves Christian dropped from 86% in 1990 to 76% earlier this year while the percent saying they had no affiliation jumped from 8% to 15%.

From the hoopla, one might have the sense people are driving straight from church services over to their secular humanist meetings.

But based on a new survey that came out from Pew Religion Forum, I'd like to pose a different theory: what we're seeing is not a flight of the religious but rather the changing nature of the irreligious.

The Pew study founded that 79% of the currently unaffiliated --also known as "nones" in the survey--started off life connected with a religion. But get this: only 30% of "nones" who used to be Catholic and only 18% of former Protestants said they'd had strong faith as a child. This is true even for those who attended church regularly.

AFP/GettyIn other words, perhaps it's not that the devout have lost their way, it's that the nominally religious have stopped pretending to be religious. Perhaps what we're seeing is not an increase in the number of "nones" but an increase in the numbers willing to admit it.

Another bit of evidence for this theory is that the rates of church attendance during this same period from 1990 to 2009 have remained stable. The pious are just as pious; it's the more tenuously connected that seem to be fleeing.

That still leave the question of why those with a weak connection have drifted away rather than being drawn closer. When the stats about the rise in "nones" first came out, liberals and conservatives offered different explanations (surprise!) Liberals said overly politicized, intolerant, exclusivist preachers were turning people away. Conservatives said the decline occurred because folks were rebelling against the liberal mainline Protestant church's emphasis on liberalization and inclusiveness.

The latest data seem to buttress the liberals more than the conservatives. Of the unaffiliateds, 17% had been raised as a mainline Protestant, while 22% had been raised evangelicals (27% had been raised Catholic.) What's more, the reasons cited for the switch tend to reinforce the liberal interpretation. When asked why they left their childhood faith, survey participants' three top answers were:

• "Religious people are hypocritical/judgmental/insincere"
• "Many religions are partly true, none completely true"
• "Religious orgs. are too focused on rules, not spirituality"

There's one sign of hope for those wishing for a more pious population. One-third of the unafilliateds are still open to joining a church. They just feel they haven't found the right fit yet

First printed in WSJ.com

A prayer circle from Christy Long:

Please Pray for us...Like most today I have lost my job and we are struggling

We were married on 3/28/2009 and I was laid off 3/31/2009..We have three children. My husband works but my income is what paid our household bills...We are now about to loose lights and water and our house payment is due in 3 day's..

We are doing a lease option and cannot be late and now that I've lost my job I don't know how we will ever be able to purchase our home...

I am so worried and cry so much I get sick...

I am trying sooo hard to give this to the LORD and let him work it out, but I find myself trying to take it back...We just recently rededicated our lives and I know GOD will fix this and provide for us....

Please Pray for my family and all those that are in the same situation...

Offer her your prayers here.

Several commenters have suggested that my "safe, legal & early" argument is the same as Roe v. Wade.

freelunch writes:

"Steve has discovered the decisions in Roe v. Wade. It is the law of the land already. I don't know if Steve is being silly in some way or really had no idea what our laws are."

As I wrote in the full piece, some of what I'm arguing is indeed congruent with the original spirit of Roe v. Wade -- which did not give an unfettered right to abortion. It gave the woman total autonomy in the first trimester, allowed for restrictions in the second and allowed for outright bans in the third trimester. The woman's right became less absolute as the clock ticked.

Behold this quote from the majority decision by Harry Blackmun in Roe:

"Appellant and some amici argue that the woman's right is absolute and that she is entitled to terminate her pregnancy at whatever time, in whatever way, and for whatever reason she alone chooses. With this we do not agree."

However, the position among most pro-choice political activists has, in a sense, evolved away from that part of Roe.

The first issue is the "life and health" exemption. Roe said abortions, even in later parts of pregnancy, needed to be allowed to protect the life and health of the mother. Simultaneous with the Roe decision, the Supreme Court handed down Doe v. Bolton, which defined life and health in a very broad way, effectively making it harder to regulate second or even third trimester abortions. "Judgment may be exercised in the light of all factors--physical, emotional, psychological, familial, and the woman's age--relevant to the wellbeing of the patient," Justice Blackmun wrote in Doe. "All these factors may relate to health."

Over time, with further court rulings, some pro-choice leaders have come to view any restrictions as an erosion of a fundamental right to choose at any point in the pregnancy. Hence, pro choice groups sometimes block efforts to ban "born alive" abortions or "partial birth" abortions on the ground that it would infringe on the inviolable right to abortion.

But if you look at Roe alone -- without the subsequent jurisprudence and political theory that has grown up around it -- there is no absolute right to abortion. It is a sliding right -- one in which the woman has absolute authority in the beginning, and less and less over time.

My argument also differs from Roe in this sense: it's not just about "rights"; it's about what kinds of decisions women make once they have that right. Many American women who want abortion to be legal nonetheless wish they'd happen as early as possible.

Hence, I'm arguing for a new approach to public policy, one in which incorporates the question of timing into all abortion discussions. For instance, we usually talk about parental notification rules in yay-or-nay terms. Under a "safe, legal, early" framework, we might say no notification requirements early on and tight requirements in the third trimester.

You can read the full argument here.

Over at Crunchy Con, Alan sarcastically summarizes the argument in my big "safe, legal, early" piece:

"For decades, the argument has focused on whether we should be killing babies. This is a mistake. Instead, we should be asking ourselves: can we kill babies faster?"

Note the premise: any life in the womb is a "baby." A one day old zygote -- a single cell, not even implanted in the uterine wall -- is a "baby."

I respect the theology here. If God creates the soul at that moment, then the killing of a zygote is soul-murder. But couldn't pro-life activists at least ackowledge that to those who don't happen to share those religious views, a zygote is not the same as a "baby" and therefore those who terminate that zygote are not "baby killers"?

Do you agree?

(My full piece, "Safe, Legal & Early," is here)

A prayer circle for Pammy Adamski:

"Her cornea transplants are not taking and she may go blind. Her doctor is sealing up her tear ducts in hopes that this will save her sight, but so far, this is not helping. She must continue to work and cannot afford time off. "

Comment on her prayer circle here.

First printed on AOL's PoliticsDaily.com The political debate on abortion has for several decades focused on the wrong moral question: Does life begin at conception? Those who believe it does, oppose abortion. Those who don't, or think the question is...

Virginia Williams asks for your prayers:virginia williams financially worried and cried out I am the only one in my household working at the moment. I dont know if I will have enough money to pay our bills and buy food...

From the Senate report on torture: "One Muslim inmate was allegedly forced to eat pork, had liquor forced down his throat and told to thank Jesus that he was alive. He recounted in broken English: ''They stripped me naked, they...

Most attention these days has focused on revelations that administration officials sanctioned torture for "high value" Al Qaeda operatives. That's important but another moral issue is as crucial, and in some ways more morally clear-cut: As part of the war...

A prayer circle for Kim Caserta: "A single mother has been looking for a job for nine months, just got her first interview the other day, thought the interview went well, she really wants this position as an ultrasound tech....

Immigrants who are arrested for being here illegally sometimes lose their children as a result. The New York Times profiles the case of Encarnación Bail Romero who was arrested as part of a raid of a poultry processing plant in...

A quick experiment. Please read the text block below and then say out loud what it says: . The illusion of of 'seeing' Did you say it out loud? Ok. When Alva Noe, a professor of philosophy at University of...

Keith Ward, an esteemed professor of divinity at Oxford University, explained Sunday that the view of nearly all Christian leaders, writers and theologians from the time of Jesus until the 18th century was that God is timeless and spaceless. Got...

The most fascinating talk at the Templeton-Cambridge event was given by Chris Frith, a neurologist at University College in London, author of Making up the Mind: How the Brain Creates Our Mental World A few ideas that came from this...

In Saturday's session, Alasdair Coles, a neurologist at Cambridge, surveyed the scientific research on brain functioning and religion. Most interesting were the studies shwoing that Alzheimers patients become more artistically creative as their disease progresses. Bruce Miller, the researcher who...

Harvey Whitehouse, an anthropologist from Oxford, is leading a massive cross-university effort called "Explaining Religion" looking at the re-occurring tendencies in religious groups throughout the world. (More on the project here) Anthropologists kept seeing that religious ritual tended to be...

Dame Gillian Beer, a Darwin scholar who spoke this morning at theTempleton-Cambridge Science & Religion conference, noted that Darwin had a certian "scorn" for those who were horrified by extinction."He believes extinction is just what happens with living species," he...

A For Effort on this video from the Catholic Church:...

In this morning's Templeton classes, Dame Gillian Beer, a Darwin scholar and emeritus Cambridge professor, described the scandal caused by the publication of the Origin of Species. Many immediately saw this as a threat to religion, especially the notion that...

: Until the recent discovery of Neanderthal DNA, I hadn't realized that this species actually existed side by side with homo sapiens. (I had naively assumed homo sapiens descended from primitive Neanderthals). There's something I always wondered and, while attending...

For the next few days my posts will be focused on science and religion, as I'm lucky enough to be spending the next five days in Cambridge, England at a conference put on by the Templeton Foundation on evolution and...

Scott C.: "I have been out of work since December 2008. Please pray that I find a full time job again. Unemployment has been very difficult finianically and has place a strain on my marriage." Add your prayers...

Jananie begs for your prayers: "I am in a very bad situation without a "JOB" .I has applied for EVERY SINGLE job out there. But nothing!!! I started to stay with a friend but then she came into difficult times...

A surprisingly heartwarming moment on Britain's Got Talent...

I missed this extraordinary video from Martha Williamson, creator of Touched by an Angel. She describes how she recovered from being molested -- and offers sage advice to others dealing with this trauma....

If you've made your reputation in part by preaching that folks can achieve happiness and prosperity through a positive attitude, what do you tell them after they've been laid off? Though he rejects the label of "prosperity gospel," Joel...

In our interview, Joel Osteen mostly steered clear of controversy. (My full take on his recession-proof message here; full transcript here). But given that he seems the very model of a modern major mega-church preacher, Osteen may raise some eyebrows...

Rev. Joel Osteen, senior pastor at Lakewood Church in Houston on April 6, 2009 visited the offices of The Wall Street Journal for an interview with Steven Waldman, Editor-in-Chief of Beliefnet & WSJ.com columnist. Osteen is preaching in Yankee Stadium...

Beliefnet has some wonderful offerings to help make your Easter season more meaningful. For the days preceding Easter, writer Kimberly Winston's "Lent Prayers for the Light" focuses on the hope of Easter and offers tips on how to use a...

After Rick Warren was selected by Barack Obama to give a prayer at the inauguration, attention turned to comments he made to me during an interview for Beliefnet and WSJ.com in which he appeared to equate homosexual relationships with relationships...

Passover is by far our favorite Jewish holiday -- not so much because I'm pleased the Hebrews escaped Egypt (though I am) but because it is associated with the most loving, quirky family traditions and memories. Like most traditions, they...

It was electrifying to hear an American President declare before the Turkish Parliament, "The United States has been enriched by Muslim Americans. Many other Americans have Muslims in their families or have lived in a Muslim-majority country -- I know,...

the talented Canadian talk show host Drew Marshall has decided to give up his site for Lent by putting in special contact lenses that make him blind....

In a press conference in Turkey, President Obama said, "One of the great strengths of the United States is ... we have a very large Christian population -- we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation...

M Ranil writes: "A very devout christian who is loosing his will to fight a condition of jobloss Dear Believers - I too had been a very devout believer like all of you in the past. However, for the past...

Levi Johnston told Tyra Banks that he stayed over at the Palin house, in the same room, and that he suspects the Governor knew the teens were having sex. As I recall, my parents had a "not under our roof"...

When George W. Bush was running for President, Christians hoped that having a devout man in the White House would lead to more a more moral government.. But Bush wasn't the most interesting test of the theory. Though his faith...

For those collecting examples of amusing or interesting uses of the Obama-esque rhetoric, here's one we saw in Manhattan this Sunday. This is a picture of Rabbi Menachem Schneerson, the Lubavitch leader who, according to some of his followers, is...

Pray for Richard Harvey 04/03/2009 "My husband needs prayer for a set back he is having with his health after having a Liver Transplant 4 years ago." Pray for Bill D. 04/02/2009 "Please pray for my friend Bill. He is...

Conservative pro-life radio show hosts ambush Ann Coulter for supporting Mitt Romney. He is viewed by some religious conservatives as too pro-choice, to pro-gay and too, well, Mormon. She gets quite emotional about the "anti-Romney fanatics."...

From a pro-life blog called "Stand for Life: "For the last five years Focus on the Family has had the program Option Ultrasound, where they have provided over 400 grants for ultrasound machines and training at pregnancy clinics in 49...

From today's Nick Kristof column: "According to World Bank estimates, the global economic crisis will cause an additional 22 children to die per hour, throughout all of 2009. And that's the best-case scenario. The World Bank says it's possible the...

I find this smelling meditation to be really helpful....

I had figured that with the whole Eckhart Tolle controversy, they would have backed off this plan. But the logic is pretty compelling: "Oprah Winfrey has been declared the fourth person of the Trinity, according to an astonishing new theological...