As a pretty conservative Republican, and a devout Baptist Christian, I find these results to be pretty disheartening. It looks like the Democratic Party has even more rigidly embraced the dogma of secular liberalism, and is becoming much less religious and Christian. The Democrats’ extreme stance on abortion—particularly, their support for the public funding of the killing of the unborn—speaks volumes to this fact. :mad:
Is that just Christian churches? Or do 44% of liberal Democrats say that mosques, Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines, Jewish synagogues, etc. are bad for America, too?
If these 44% say that all such religious entities/organizations are bad, then at least they’re uniformly consistent. But if they only take issue with Christian churches, but are OK with giving mosques/temples/shrines a free pass, then it seems to be driven more by an anti-Christian sentiment.
The debate is whether the increasing secularization of American liberals and the Democratic Party has made them irrationally hostile to religion and Christianity. I say it has. And I also say it is bad for the country.
Irrationally hostile? I think there are perfectly rational reasons to be hostile towards religion horning in on politics. And why do you feel it is bad for America?
Because it foments anti-Christian bigotry, and leads to moral relativism and a hatred of the Christian biblical principles that have defined this great country for over 300 years.
Why do you think Democrats are adopting an ever-more radical approach to abortion support through all months of pregnancy, and public funding for the grotesque procedure to boot? It is because of the influence of secular liberals.
Because there’s a push to go radical on that position the same way that Republicans are going radical the other way. Right now, at least, it seems that centrist positions aren’t winning.
And literally none of your top paragraph is correct. This country has never at any point run on Christian principles. And the beliefs predate any opinions on Christianity. They reject Christianity because it doesn’t fit their beliefs.
And I am a Christian. I also happen to be liberal, since liberals are the ones that care about morality in this day and age. While conservatives keep making excuses, culminating in electing the most profoundly unethical and non-Christian president ever.
I actually believe there are people who will go to hell over voting for Trump. And a lot of those Churches you mentioned encouraged it.
While we may not have been governed by explicitly Christian principles, at least there was some of the Christian morality in previous presidents. But Trump voters rejected that morality. If anyone can be said to have thrown away Christian principles, it was the Republicans.
Then why have so many prominent religious leaders and Republican politicians who claim to be devoutly religious cheat on spouses, do drugs, pursue wealth and material possessions by immoral means, lie about political opponents, molest children and generally violate pretty much every commandment and most of the moral guidelines in the Bible?
As a liberal Democrat, I am hostile to anyone who believes that their religion should dictate my behavior. If you want to believe in certain Biblical principles and practice them, that is fine. But please don’t tell me to follow them, or enshrine them in law so that I am required to follow them.
This is what the founders were talking about when they wrote that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.
What is it about belief in mythical supernatural beings that is good for the country?
What is good for the country is making policy decisions like those on abortion based on evidence and rationality, not mythology. “Because the Bible says so” has never been the basis of good policy, but throughout history it has very often been the basis of very bad and brutal policies.
The general basis of reconciling religious belief with a healthy democracy is in the right to individual religious freedom, whatever the religion may be, but keeping religious dogma totally and absolutely out of government. This is not atheism, it’s secular rationalism as the basis of governance. You’re not going to have much success here pushing Christian theocracy as a desirable form of government.
Factually speaking, the churches you’re so proud of cause far more abortions than Democrats do, so you’re mad at the wrong side. But please feel free to keep chanting dogma, arguing against contraception and birth control, dehumanizing women and encouraging them to submit to men, and force actively counter-productive abstinence-only sex education. Oh, and keep wondering why rational people might decide that churches are bad for this country.
I am routinely challenged (in real life) for being too conservative and for being too liberal. Do I get to identify myself for the poll? What happens to my position if someone who opposes my views challenged my right to call myself conservative or librral? Did Pew set up a test for political position and assign the respondents on an objective basis?
Secondly, it seems to me that the question asked was based on current activity rather than philosophical principles. The abortion issue is a clear divide in thought that is divided, not between liberal and conservative, politically–I know many pro-life moderate liberals. It is more a shouting match between the extremes.
However, the loudest voices with the most ignorant positions on many other issues have often been Evangelical Christians. Whether it is trying to force science classes to teach Creationism, demanding that schools put Christian prayers into classrooms, treating members of the LGBT community with unChristian hatred, etc., the Christoan Right is in the forefront of those actions. Add in the denial of science regarding Climate Change and support for the vastly immoral Trump with praise for his non-existant “zChristian” values that everything to with politics and nothing to do with Christian beliefs and the POLITICALLY liberal people are going to regard the POLITICALLY conservative churches as more negative than positive. And since the politically conservative churches are the loudest religious group, that antipathy translates (fairly or unfairly) to all religious groups.
Moral relativism, huh?
In the last election we had one candidate who is a Sunday School teacher and who stood by her husband through thick and thin.
Then we had another who was a serial adulterer, bragged about assaulting women, used to be for abortion until it was politically expedient to be against it, and clearly never read the Bible. (Two Corinthians, huh?)
And the churches you respect so much came out strongly in favor of the adulterer.
Maybe their hypocrisy had something to do with the results of the poll.
Your church would no doubt come out strongly for Satan if he registered Republican.
Aye that was the first thing I noticed when I clicked the OP’s link to the poll. I mean, the subheading is “Republicans increasingly say colleges have negative impact on U.S.”.
LOL, man who voted for a pro-choice atheist, one married to not one but two Godless Communists, decries America’s dawning realization that Evangelical Christianity is full of shit.