The dying right: Why Christian right

[bekkah]

This article is examining the Christian right and how it is dwindling.

http://www.salon.com/2014/02/28/the_dyi ... e_partner/

Not breaking link because its salon.

[2xx1xy1JD]

The article makes the claim that the Christian right is "dying", but doesn't really support it.

Has anyone read through the whole Pew report and done a good, critical summary of the results? I've only read the Pew report on the Jewish community.

The fact that younger Americans overall are less religious doesn't mean that the Christian Right is dying. You can still have right-wing Christians gain strength if the losses are coming from mainstream denominations. The article also doesn't mention if the Christian Right is making any inroads in black or Hispanic communities.

I remember reading old articles describing how Orthodox Judaism was dying....and much newer articles on its exponential growth. I tend to take predictions of the "death" of any movement with a huge grain of salt.

[maia sayet]

From what I can tell, the declarations are based on youth attrition.

But, if you've grown up in any of the Bible Belts, you know how many people ditch Jesus in their 20's, and mysteriously relocate him when they've got kids of their own.

[tigerchild]

I'm actually expecting a bit of a resurgence. People leave the church because of the awful teachings, go out to a world where there is no jobs, maximum exploitation, lots of genuine fear for the future--and then get lured back by people who are masters at manipulating fear and giving people a structured reason both TO fear and to channel it into feeling superior about themselves.

[SPHASH]

I'm a Christian and I don't associate with the rightwingers at all. I do live a somewhat conservative lifestyle, go to church etc but I don't force it on others or brag about it. And I admit I am not perfect unlike the rightwingers.

[louisa05]

I'm a Christian and I don't associate with the rightwingers at all. I do live a somewhat conservative lifestyle, go to church etc but I don't force it on others or brag about it. And I admit I am not perfect unlike the rightwingers.

This.

And I do not, at all, feel superior about myself because I go to church. :?

[debrand]

I'm a Christian and I don't associate with the rightwingers at all. I do live a somewhat conservative lifestyle, go to church etc but I don't force it on others or brag about it. And I admit I am not perfect unlike the rightwingers.

I think that there are a large number of Christians who are not rightwingers but they don't get acknowledged by the media so it makes it appear that most American Christians are extremists.

[Nobodysdoormat]

My personal experience sure lines up with this article. 2/4 of my siblings and myself are atheist, having rejected our parents' faith, one is a non church goer that still claims to believe and one is a 1000% christian who has rejected young earth creationism. Progress!

[Cleopatra7]

Maybe what is happening can be described as the "barbell effect"; the mainline denominations are losing members, who either go to the extremes of non-belief (however that's defined) or conservative religion. As others have mentioned, some of the people who have left the church in their 20s may come back when/if they have kids. Conservative Christianity is still quite strong in the South, although there are an increasing number of people (like myself) who are out atheists. But given that a high school girl in North Carolina received death threats for trying to start a Secular Student Alliance, the fundies aren't going to go down without a long, hard fight.

[2xx1xy1JD]

You'd also need to look at the birth rates of both the Christian right and the more secular extreme.

One of the most unintended side effects of the birth control pill was to increase the proportion of religious folks who were extreme enough to shun birth control. Again, in the Jewish community, this created a huge demographic shift. 60 years ago, there wasn't much difference in family size between different groups. Then, more liberal groups started to marry later and planned smaller families, while more ultra-Orthodox groups shunned birth control that wasn't clearly needed for health reasons, and you ended up with lopsided growth. One end of the barbell had an average of 8 kids per family, the other had an average of less than 2 kids.

[Cleopatra7]

You'd also need to look at the birth rates of both the Christian right and the more secular extreme.

One of the most unintended side effects of the birth control pill was to increase the proportion of religious folks who were extreme enough to shun birth control. Again, in the Jewish community, this created a huge demographic shift. 60 years ago, there wasn't much difference in family size between different groups. Then, more liberal groups started to marry later and planned smaller families, while more ultra-Orthodox groups shunned birth control that wasn't clearly needed for health reasons, and you ended up with lopsided growth. One end of the barbell had an average of 8 kids per family, the other had an average of less than 2 kids.

For the most part, when demographers talk about conservatives having more kids than liberals, they mean having three or four as opposed to one or two. There are outliers like the Duggars and the Bateses who bring up the average, but the vast majority of conservatives aren't tossing their birth control so they can engage in militant fecundity. I think the example of Orthodox Jews is a bit different, because the Jewish population as a whole is much smaller than that of the Christians, which makes it easier for the super-fecund among the Orthodox to affect the overall numbers. Also, Orthodox Jews (at least those of the haredi variety) don't want to engage the culture like Christians, preferring to build their own isolated enclaves and speaking Yiddish as a first language, all of which makes it even difficult for people who want to leave. At least with Christian groups like ATI, there seems to be a high attrition rate, and even a good number of the Westboro Baptist Church people have left.

[SPHASH]

I think that there are a large number of Christians who are not rightwingers but they don't get acknowledged by the media so it makes it appear that most American Christians are extremists.

On Facebook I belong to a couple of groups called The Christian Left for Christians with liberal beliefs and they welcome atheists, agnostics, and other faiths. The other one is Christians Tired of Being Misrepresented for Christians like myself who do not subsribe to right wing ideology.

[Jana814]

My personal experience sure lines up with this article. 2/4 of my siblings and myself are atheist, having rejected our parents' faith, one is a non church goer that still claims to believe and one is a 1000% christian who has rejected young earth creationism. Progress!

Interesting!! I know someone who went very Jewish religious after being raised in a very reformed household.

[uber frau]

In my family, I'm the only one of three who has rejected Christianity. The other two are both pretty conservative Christian (on the other hand they're definitely more left than the mainstream and I can see the cognitive dissonance growing). Of my many, many cousins the overwhelming majority are still very conservative, both religiously and politically.

I wonder how much of the high retention rate in my (former) denomination has to do with the fact that the culture is older than most and so strong. I'd say it's even stronger than most of the fundies we discuss here; it's not uncommon for members of this group to have absolutely no contact (other than exchanging minor pleasantries with ppl like the postman or whoever's working at the checkout). Even among the ones who are a little more engaged with the outside world, deeper contact is actively discouraged. It's rare for anyone to have anything more than the most superficial acquaintance with non-members.

Like the conservative Jewish groups, most of the growth is through reproduction rather than conversion.