When I posted an item about the new ARIS data a week ago, I had no idea that the same topic would be the cover story in this week's Newsweek magazine. (Dated April 13) The headline is sensational, more sensational than the article itself: "The Decline and Fall of Christian America." The fact is that decline has set in (as I pointed out last week, based on the ARIS data), but it is way too soon to talk about fall.
The sensationalism is unfortunate. It will be waved off by conservatives as a sign of liberal bias on the part of mainstream journalism when they should be paying attention. Somewhere in the past two years there was a tipping point in American history. Two years ago "the" Evangelical president was in the White House and his party controlled both houses of congress and the Supreme Court. Jim Dobson could think that "traditional family values" and a big radio audience gave him the right to select the next president of the U.S. The only thing the old Evangelical establishment got out of the election last year was the Veep slot on the losing side. Evangelicals like Jim Wallis who used to be considered fringe elements are now regularly advising the new president, the first African American president. More than anything else this article is an attempt to suggest a broader narrative answering the question "what happened?" Its basic thesis is certainly true so far as can be seen with current information and projections: the dominance of traditional Christian religion in American culture is fading.
This is article is written by The Editor of Newsweek, Jon Meacham. He is an active Christian, a vestry member in two Episcopal churches, St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue and Trinity Church Wall Street, both in Manhattan, NYC. He also serves on the Leadership Council of Harvard Divinity School. He has written a book on the mix of religion with politics in the history of the U.S.: American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers and the Making of a Nation (Random House, 2006). It is presents the facts about exactly how the major figures in the formation of America were religious: What did they believe? How were they involved in religion? What did this have to do with how the founding documents and decisions were constructed. He is a career journalist, raised in Chattanooga and starting as a reporter at the The Chattanooga Times. He is now 40 and was hired by Newsweek in 1995 as a staff writer.
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