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<h2><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wayne-besen" rel="author">Wayne Besen</a></h2>
<p class="teaser_permalink">Founder, Truth Wins Out</p>
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Gay Bashing by Churches Is Why a New Pew Poll Shows America Losing Its Religion
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<span class="arial_11 color_696969">Posted: 10/12/2012 3:29 pm</span><br>
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<p>A new poll by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life reveals
that a record number of Americans (19.3 percent) have abandoned faith
and now consider themselves unaffiliated with any particular religion. <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/10/08/nones-protestant-religion-pew/1618445/" target="_hplink">According to <em>USA Today</em></a>:</p>
<blockquote>This group, called "Nones," is now the nation's
second-largest category only to Catholics, and outnumbers the top
Protestant denomination, the Southern Baptists. The shift is a
significant cultural, religious and even political change.
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<br>...
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<br>Today ... the Nones have leapt from <a href="http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/religion/2008-02-25-survey_N.htm?imw=Y" target="_hplink">15.3% of U.S. adults in 2007</a>, according to Pew studies.
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<br>One in three (32%) are under age 30 and unlikely to age into
claiming a religion, says Pew Forum senior researcher Greg Smith. The
new study points out that today's Millennials are more unaffiliated than
any young generation ever has been when they were younger.<br><br><br></blockquote>
<p>If you want to understand the reasons behind this trend, take a moment to read <a href="http://www.truthwinsout.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/nienstedt_letter.bmp" target="_hplink">a disturbing letter</a>
that Twin Cities Catholic Archbishop John Nienstedt sent to the mother
of a gay son. In it, the holy man told the mother that her "eternal
salvation" might depend on whether or not she embraced the anti-gay
teachings of the Catholic Church, thus rejecting her own child. Talk
about family values! </p>
<p>Such a callous admonition might have worked in the past, when people
had little education. It might have resonated in bygone eras, when gays
and lesbians were invisible and easy to demonize as the "other." It
might have held sway had the Catholic Church's credibility not been left
in tatters after the church spent <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/14/us/sex-abuse-statutes-of-limitation-stir-battle.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0" target="_hplink">more than $2.5 billion</a> to clean up the wreckage wrought by pedophile priests and their enablers.</p>
<p>While Nienstedt's arrogance and cruelty stands out as particularly
odious, it isn't just Catholicism that is in decline. In a world that is
increasingly more complicated, with infinite possibilities and
pitfalls, as well as seemingly unlimited access to information, the idea
that one faith owns absolute truth is a notion that is slowly becoming
obsolete.</p>
<p>I, for one, believe that the 19.3-percent figure for Nones is too
low. A substantial number of people identify themselves in surveys as
belonging to a particular faith for one of three reasons:</p>
<ul><li><strong>Habit:</strong> People over 30 were brought up in a
world where everyone was presumed to have a religious affiliation as
both a mark of faith and cultural identity. So, when asked whether they
belong to a faith group, they reflexively check the box, with little
thought to their own belief system or actual adherence to the religious
convictions they claim. As the "Nones" make themselves more visible, it
gives these folks a new box to check -- and many of them will. </li><li><strong>Fear:</strong> For centuries it was dangerous for
people to acknowledge their genuine beliefs. "Today, there's no shame in
saying you're an unbeliever," Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
president Albert Mohler <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/10/08/nones-protestant-religion-pew/1618445/" target="_hplink">complained</a> in <em>USA Today</em>.
With people like Mohler losing their ability to ostracize nonbelievers
and impose social consequences on them, millions of people finally have
the ability to "come out" and exercise their freedom from religion. </li><li><strong>Politics:</strong> Even today, if an ambitious person
wants a successful career in politics, it is easier to fake having
faith than to acknowledge being a nonbeliever. The result is that
politicians appear significantly more devout than the general
population. Once this taboo falls, which is likely to occur in the next
decade, it will open the door to a more honest dialogue about the role
of religion in public life. Of course, this can't happen soon enough,
with the religious right arduously working to demolish the separation of
church and state. </li></ul>
<p>Religious extremists have long claimed that the acceptance of
homosexuality would bring down the fundamentalist church -- and they
have been proven correct, albeit not for the reasons they proffered. The
downfall occurred not because gay people stopped heterosexuals from
reproducing or recruited their children. It din't happen because LGBT
individuals hate families, which they have always been part of. And it
didn't happen because homosexuals despised faith; the abundance of
deeply religious gay people proves that this is not true. </p>
<p>The fundamentalists undermined their legitimacy by worshipping
anti-gay bigotry long after it had been exposed as a false God. In this
unholy obsession the sacrifices left bleeding at the altar were truth
and justice. When people see their own sons and daughters and friends
and co-workers coming out, it creates a crisis of credibility for
religious institutions. It leads to countless situations where
mean-spirited men like Nienstedt demand blind, irrational obedience and
say "take it or leave it" -- and more people are now following their
consciences and walking away. </p>
<p>I'll conclude with this: The political coalition of the future is
non-dogmatic, mainstream people of faith and the Nones. In the coming
decade these two groups will forge bonds and create a dynamic force that
rivals the holy-book literalists who presently hold power
disproportionate to their numbers. This will be a much-needed correction
to the outmoded ideas and celebration of ignorance that is holding back
our nation's promise and progress.</p>
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</p><br><br><br>------ <br>Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)<br><a href="mailto:art.deco.studios@gmail.com" target="_blank">art.deco.studios@gmail.com</a><br><br><img src="http://users.moscow.com/waf/WP%20Fox%2001.jpg"><br><br>