Ever-religiously-conflicted Andrew Sullivan has a smart new piece up today on the Times Online:
Yes, America is far more devout than most of western Europe; but it is not immune to the broader crises facing established religion in the West. The days when America’s leading intellectuals contained a strong cadre of serious Christians are over. There is no Thomas Merton in our day; no Reinhold Niebuhr, Walker Percy or Flannery O’Connor. In the arguments spawned by the new atheist wave, the Christian respondents have been underwhelming. As one evangelical noted in The Christian Science Monitor last week, “being against gay marriage and being rhetorically pro-life will not make up for the fact that massive majorities of evangelicals can’t articulate the Gospel with any coherence”.The quality of the Catholic priesthood has also drifted downward: the next generation of priests is more orthodox, but also more insular and less engaged with the wider world. There are a few exceptions: the 29-year-old orthodox Catholic Ross Douthat has just won a treasured opinion column slot in The New York Times. But he is sadly an exception that proves a more general rule. American Christianity may be stronger in some pockets, but it is dumber too. In the end, in the free market-place of ideas and beliefs, that will count.
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[Embiggen]
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(THE GRAPEVINE
Thanks for posting the link to that article. It was an enlightening read. I am glad to see the atheism/religon debate pushed into the limelight by mainstream journalists (now if the others just stop demonizing us!). I read the Christian Science Monitor article last week and had mixed feelings. It was very honest in their assessment of the position Christians are in, which is a pretty bad position in terms of the future. My problem with the article is that they are now figuring this out and may take a proactive response. At least progress is being made on our part every day.
isn't it amazing how easily people demonize atheists? consider how people would react if people were so hostile to the fourth largest religion in US?
As long as the so called righ winged Christians continue to make hate and bigoted attacks at anything that they do not like, they will continue to drive people away from Christianity.