Is America Experiencing a Religious Revival?

Or has a strategic GOP constituency been elevated to a place of false prominence (or dominance) through right-wing propaganda?

Whatever the case, it's making me ill.

The Republicans are using the religious right (including Bush) to solidify a base of support.

But some folks do, alas.

you're coming from, and the only thing that really offers consolation is history. This has been tried before. Be well.

Or at least that's what I'd think if I were a Christian.

just people being sucked in by shrubs ignorance. These people who voted for him who already are attending church were pushed into thinking that this idiot is reformed from drinking born again and since they also don't believe in abortion took that as a good reason to reelect him. What we saw was the already believer coming out to help the anti Christ accomplish his mission and hate a destruction. They were just to ignorant to know any better guided by their pastors who thought they were doing the right thing. They will take all of us down with them . i must say that this crap was never spewed in my church

has taken advantage of the disarray and fear.

that's just the corpse starting to stink.

religion itself is in decline.

The corpse is starting to stink.

revisiting the rhymes and reasons for my skepticism, and finding it founded on a relatively sturdy base of reason ...

After 32 years: I left the church and the 'faith', and will not go back ....

on atheists. My experiences were similar to yours - I was devout, then I lost all faith.

Only I think atheists like me are now remembering a lot of reasons they lost faith, or are seeing their position in a new light. I think atheism is moving from being personal and private into being important and social. I find I seek out other atheists more now, and talk about it more.

I believe there is a god out there, just that nobody seems to be willing to remember that the idea is to be good to each other and improve ourselves.

You know, things like learning from our mistakes. Like that Torture doesn't work for getting information.

In a special feature just before midnight on November 14, CNN looked at the evangelical movement in America leading up to the re-election of George W. Bush. Much was said about the influence this group (numbering anywhere from 33 to 40% of eligible U.S. voters, according to surveys) had on the election and about the "values" it promotes, not only within its own community but as measures it seeks to impose on the nation as a whole through political channels. I don't need to enumerate those "values" here. But what struck me most in this CNN Special was the impression so starkly conveyed about the evangelical mentality, both of its leaders and of its followers. Its main feature is Absolute Certainty, Certainty about its proclaimed Truth, about "moral absolutes," about the inerrancy of the Bible as the word of God, about the nature and role of Jesus Christ. A Southern Baptist spokesman, when asked by an interviewer if the only way to heaven for any human being was through Jesus Christ, replied with Absolute Certainty. He quoted the Gospel of John: "Jesus said: 'I am THE Way, THE Truth, and THE Life' " (his emphasis). Never mind that most critical New Testament scholars regard virtually all of the Gospel of John's sayings as inauthentic, the product of a later community and later time. An inerrant bible tied to a complete ignorance (or rejection) of mainstream biblical scholarship has given this man, and millions of others like him, a measuring rod by which to pronounce upon the most profound workings of the universe and humanity. (An essential element of those workings was declared to be Satan and his demonic forces.) Armed with Absolute Truth and Certainty, he and his fellow evangelicals are working tirelessly and uncompromisingly to transform the country into a reflection of those convictions. They have now reached a number and an influence which are threatening to put that goal within reach.

<snip>

And what is this "all that I see around me" that would lead a parent to yearn for the destruction of the world as we know it? In prosperous America, no less? Where life is a boon compared to much of the second and third world? An America—for the most part, and certainly within the evangelical community—of opportunity, wealth, culture and good living, unprecedented scientific and technological achievement, music, literature and entertainment, love and family, fine homes and food in the kitchen, unlimited scope for knowledge, discovery, invention and the improvement of the human condition. (Ironically, much of the third world's situation has been worsened by the American government's cutting off of aid funds to countries and organizations therein that promote women's and societal health by providing contraceptive resources and counselling that includes the option of abortion.) What, in the face of all that, has so warped this parent's brain to make her view society and her own children as a candidate for termination, regardless of what alternative one might believe awaited them afterward?

What else but the distortion of reality which religion, and especially the evangelical brand of religion, has visited upon the minds of believers? What else but the obsessive imaginings of sin and evil they see around them, threatening to overtake even themselves through their own weak and inherently sinful natures? Evangelical preachers have made a tidy career out of instilling that obsession and outlook on the world into those who sit in pews and listen to them week in and week out, who indoctrinate their children in turn with a bleak and twisted view of reality from their earliest emergence into awareness. What better reason to relegate for destruction a world you are convinced is populated by evil spirits, controlled by an arch-devil Satan whose supernatural energies are devoted to dragging you and yours to eternal damnation and horrific punishment? What of those non-believers (infidels, heretics or atheists) already under the control of such demonic forces: would it not be best if they were eliminated and the world they have adulterated destroyed? With what strange reasoning has that parent infected her daughter, to supply a meaning for Jesus' death and his imminent return?

www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_13836.shtml

:(

I think that there is indeed a "spiritual" revival or a renewed interest in personal spirituality.

Keep in mind that the religious right is not the only one that has seen a renewed interest. In fact religious diversity in America has probably never been stronger.

Eastern religions have taken on renewed interest as well as earth based, pagan and ancient religions. Unitarian Universalism has grown over the years. (at least I would like to think so)

These don't get noticed in the public eye as much because they are not evangelical in nature.

In many respects the non-Christian fundementalist religions in America are partly the reason for the aggressivness of contemporary "bible" Christian Churches.

So I would say yes there is "revival" of religion in America but it is a mistake to believe that it is contained within the Christian faith alone.

Religion is supposed to be about making people's lives better, spreading love and happiness. They are the polar opposite.

However whereas the first two resulted in a "loosening up" of spiritual ideas/practices.... this time we'll all have to begin handling rattlesnakes

America has always been religious. Too bad some now don't realize that keeping the government out of religion is the reason it has thrived.

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

religious revolution by a cadre of ultra-zealots

Murka has ALWAYS been extremely religious.