BAD RELIGION: THE DECLINE OF RELIGION

POLL: 38% of Americans wary of mixing religion with politics.

This is great development to me. I'm so tired of people criticizing me for mocking Christians. WTF? Christians use their religion to bash me and my kind for my entire life. People are turning away from organized religion--for me, this is a sign of enlightenment. Because these people don't even understand the religion they claim to live their lives by. So we get Christians for war, Christians who don't want to help the poor, essentially they are called Republicans. I also love that the NY Times reviewer, a Catholic NY Times reporter named  Ross Routhat, calls out the folly of this new idea of "Only God can judge me" which is a common and idiotic urban expression which translates to "Nothing I do is wrong and you can never point out my errors because that's God's job." Routhat also points out the craziness of popular spiritual leaders who go on Oprah (like Deepak Choprah) who tell people what they want to hear about spirituality--which often translates to you're OK if you feel good about yourself. But that doesn't mean that you are following Christian teachings! Do good Christians wear designer clothes when others are starving? And where are the Christian leaders who are speaking out against war? Christianity has been hi-jacked by idiots who are full of hate. He also gets a ding in on the mega-ministers like Creflo T. Dollar, who preach ways to become richer. And it usually involves paying him!

WATCH THE INTERVIEW WITH MSNBC'S DYLAN RATIGAN:   MSNBC

NY TIMES REVIEW OF BAD RELIGION:

When American Faith Transcended Differences

In ‘Bad Religion,’ Ross Douthat Criticizes U.S. 

Christianity

Excerpts:

Mr. Douthat, a Catholic conservativeand an Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times, has written a book about contemporary American Christianity that is quite good. But the religion he describes is comically bad. On the left, he maintains, American Christianity is beholden to a self-centered, Oprah-fied spirituality, and, on the right, Christianity is too often represented by a jingoistic, wealth-obsessed evangelicalism. Mainline Protestantism is disappearing, and a beleaguered Catholicism is running out of priests. (The author ignores Jews and other non-Christians, who should be grateful to slip his noose.)
Of all these Mr. Douthat is shrewdest about the role of wealth. “Entering the ministry had always involved sacrifice,” he writes, but with salaries rising so swiftly in other sectors, “the scale of that sacrifice grew considerable steeper during the 1960s and ’70s.” The quality of the clergy declined, as did its ability to preach about charity and encourage sacrifice. Worshipers grew richer, and on Sundays they wanted to drive S.U.V.’s to megachurch campuses, guilt free.

And Mr. Douthat never sufficiently confronts the way consumerism and disparities of wealth warp meaningful religiosity. Rich people want to be told they deserve their success; poor people want a God who will make them rich.

 

MORE:   NYTIMES