'The Bible Belt is collapsing," says Russell Moore. Oddly, the incoming president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission doesn't seem upset. In a recent visit to The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Moore explains that he thinks the Bible Belt's decline may be "bad for America, but it's good for the church."
Why? Because "we are no longer the moral majority. We are a prophetic minority."
The phrase is arresting coming from such a prominent religious leader—akin to a general who says the Army has shrunk to the point it can no longer fight two wars. A youthful 41, Mr. Moore is among the leaders of a new generation who think that evangelicals need to recognize that their values no longer define mainstream American culture the way they did 50 or even 20 years ago.
On gay marriage, abortion, even on basic religious affiliation, the culture has moved away. So evangelicals need a new way of thinking—a new strategy, if you will—to attract and keep believers, as well as to influence American politics.
The easy days of mobilizing a ready-made majority are gone. By "prophetic minority," he means that Christians must return to the days when they were a moral example and vanguard—defenders of belief in a larger unbelieving culture. He views this less as a defeat than as an opportunity.
To illustrate his point, Mr. Moore tells the story about a friend from college two decades ago, an atheist, who asked for the name of a church that wasn't very demanding of its congregation. When Mr. Moore inquired why, the friend said he needed a church to attend because he planned to run for governor some day. Mr. Moore says the story shows that in the past you had to join a church even if you had no belief because everyone else belonged. But today his friend wouldn't feel so obliged because "the idea that to be a good person, to be a good American, you have to go to church" has largely disappeared.
I agree with Mr. Moore's conclusion that people no longer feel that attending church is necessary to project to others that they are a "good person." But of course I would also argue that many of those who use religion to convince others of their morality are often morally bankrupt, and simply use that as an ethical camouflage.
This is just one more step forward toward the day when there will no longer be a religious test for those seeking higher political office. Which of course is exactly the way the Founding Fathers intended it to be.
Wresting the mantle of moral superiority from the Evangelicals has been a lifelong dream of mine and I could not be happier to see them losing influence. That is nothing but good news for the future of this nation.
It is getting closer to the day when I can discard my "The Immoral Minority" masthead and replace it with "The Immoral Majority." A name which I believe to have been more accurate all along.
I laugh at people displaying NOTW stickers on their cars.. I want one that says NOTW? Get the F Out!!
ReplyDeleteMorality as defined is a very subjective thing:
ReplyDelete"Principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behavior."
What is right and what is wrong? Good or bad? Unless one uses a religious yardstick to measure morality, who can truly judge what is moral and what is not, and judge against what set of rules or measures?
I was raised Atheist, and feel as if I live my life as a "moral" person, however, I use only the yardstick employed by my parents during my upbringing to measure my morality; I live by the rules of good/bad, right/wrong that my parents taught me, but these were not biblically sourced rules for behavior, they were commonsensical rules for behavior some of which are shared by some of the world's major religions.
Don't steal, don't kill anyone, treat everyone kindly; those are familiar to christians but to my parents and me seem like common sense that everyone should enjoy.
Even though I live my life as what I consider a good and moral person, I would appear to be terribly immoral in some of my actions if judged by a person of strict religious adherence, but my morality is an adherence to the moral tenets I was raised with not religiously sourced. Some would find my lack of faith to be the highest level of immorality possible.
Morality is a tough thing to judge. It seems that we all have our own unique aspect of morality that might not be shared by others.
I use only the yardstick employed by my parents during my upbringing to measure my morality
DeleteWhat do you mean, only???
Who are you going to trust—your parents, or a bunch of men wearing dresses, whose livelihood depends on their convincing people that they know better? Remember, your parents got to where they are partly through the upbringing they received from their parents, who got to where they were … and so on back.
For cases that your parents didn't cover, you might have a look at Michael Shermer's The Science of Good & Evil.
When I got my copy off the shelf, it serendipitously fell open at this passage (near the beginning of chapter 7): At the underpinning of all theistic ethical systems is the belief that without God there is no ultimate basis for determining right and wrong. We have already seen the limitations of theistic ethics, but there are two additional questions to consider here: (1) what if the moral issue is not discussed in the sacred writings of the individual's religion? Cloning, stem cell research, and genetic engineering are not discussed in the Bible, of course, so what are Jews and Christians to think about these very real moral issues? They either have to attempt to infer from ancient biblical writings something that is loosely related to the modern moral issue, or they have to think it through for themselves; (2) what if the moral issue is discussed but is clearly inappropriate or outright wrong in its moral command? With both of these limitations the believer is often forced to selectively read the sacred text, picking and choosing passages without consistency.
The bible thumpers are the ones who made me really examine what I thought were unshakable religious beliefs and turned me into an atheist. Working with Samaritans Purse doing tornado relief (they were the only game in town for reconstruction) when questioned on my religion I simply replied, "I believe in the teachings of Jesus to always do good and to teach by example." and left it at that. Got all kinds of reactions....after a month I left as the worst of the damage had been cleaned up and the jobs we were being put on were not tornado related.. we were fixing old damage to suck people into the church and trust me these people knew how to play the system.....
DeleteThe 'selective reading' is what gets everyone in trouble, isn't it? I mean, people like Santorum pretend that they have a red phone line to God; that they understand the Bible and are somehow more knowledgeable and 'good' than people who just live good lives. The GOP Taliban who insist that women must be kept down, and quiet, and forever pregnant, read that in Paul's writings, or whoever put that stuff in the King James Bible and attributed it to Paul. I still go to my peace church, but I have never been a blind follower of anything taught there, nor at the E&R church my Grandma took us to. In fact, I shun the 'Bible study' and the Sunday School, because I don't want other people to tell me what THEY think the text says. I can read; I can think; I know what is true for me. Beware men who 'know' what the Bible means..men like Robertson and Huckabee and Santorum are dangerous because they want to tell the whole country what to think, while pretending to honor the Constitution. The more fervent they and poseurs like Palin get, the more grateful I am to the Founders, who truly did have a great vision for this nation, which did NOT include a belief in, nor a blind worship of, God.
DeleteAs a progressive, non-Bible Belt Christian, I fully concur...
ReplyDeleteThe Bible Belt may be in decline, but it seems that the individuals involved in what's remaining are particularly nasty. I have noticed over the years that many of the worst of them don't actually attend a church but seem to be channeling the bullshit directly. The fundy churches have always had buses to pick up the kids for Sunday school as the parents slept off their drunken binges of the previous evening.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Article in the US Constitution,
Article 6 paragraph 3:
"The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution;
But no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States"
"Prophetic" ???
ReplyDeleteYou're not prophets sir, you're delusional.
Your stranglehold on politics, science and rational thinking is what is WRONG with America - goodbye, sir, and good riddance.
While reading the blog, when I came to the word, "prophetic," I stumbled over it because my mind wanted to say, "pathetic!"
DeleteI guess the people in Indiana haven't gotten the memo about the collaps of the Bible Belt. I think this state has become more religious in the last 5 years. It's kind of sickening, really.
ReplyDeletePerhaps the best way to show the value of their religion would be for its members not to be so morally bankrupt and hypocritical, while attributing those (lack of) values to others. There is no better example than their reaction to the election President Obama.
ReplyDeleteSo far in my life of 70 years, I have been correct in my observation that movements such as the Christian Right have within them the seeds of their own destruction. Waiting patiently for them to implode is, sadly, not an option for they destroy much that is good along their way. We atheists, humanists and other non-religious' must continue to drown out the nonsense with reason and truth.
ReplyDeleteI just listened to a lengthy interview with Mr. Moore. Based on that, I think this story misses the point.
ReplyDelete