# The Decline of Religion in American Life **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 12, 2019, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-decline-of-religion-in-american-life/844744 "2019-12-12T11:45:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 13
**Author:** ![RioRico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f04885/32.png) [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2020, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-decline-of-religion-in-american-life/844744/241 "2020-01-01T00:36:51Z")
Religion is only cost-effective if you’re poor, or a religious bureaucrat/leech. Note that Xian “rightists” oppose anti-poverty relief and universal health care. They want a sicker, poorer America more in need of religious fantasies. ---
**Author:** ![Bookkeeper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bookkeeper/32/281_2.png) [@Bookkeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bookkeeper)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2020, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-decline-of-religion-in-american-life/844744/242 "2020-01-04T22:08:49Z")
> [@Deltree](#): > > Basically, yeah. Non-Jews have to follow the [Seven Laws of Noah](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Laws_of_Noah), and that’s it. Everything else is optional, which is why you get such a wide range in doctrine from one denomination to the next. Other than the Noachide Laws, they can pick and choose what they want to follow and what they don’t, and only their own denomination’s doctrine on who has the authority to say so determines whether or not something is allowed. Note, most denominations reserve to some authority the right to say whether something is allowed or not, but there’s nothing stopping anyone from shopping for a denomination with rules they like, or even starting their own if they can’t find a good one. There’s plenty of room for self-serving interpretation in there, and in case you haven’t noticed, many Christians take full advantage of that fact. My understanding is that the Noachide Laws are part of Jewish theology (what non-Jews should do to be good with יהוה), not of Christian theology. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2020, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-decline-of-religion-in-american-life/844744/243 "2020-01-04T22:34:57Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Does your pastor support SSM? Or is he too chicken to have an opinion which might offend much of the congregation? > Since I assume he has no problem with divorced adulterers being married. I know my pastor supports SSM because he’s in one. Some scholars actually believe that the Levitical statement about male homosexuality is actually about pedophilia. ---
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2020, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-decline-of-religion-in-american-life/844744/244 "2020-01-04T23:53:54Z")
> [@Bookkeeper](#): > > My understanding is that the Noachide Laws are part of Jewish theology (what non-Jews should do to be good with יהוה), not of Christian theology. Christian theology is all over the place. I’ll grant it does seem to be at least a superficially sound way for Christians to pretend like the OT (with large swathes of “thou shalt nots”) does not apply to them. Covenantism and dispensationalism are the other two (either god makes new covenants all the time, and most recently for Christians with Jesus and some of the more flowery, less judgy things he said, or god dispenses new knowledge that “clarifies” what is really moral, all that stuff he said before notwithstanding). Because of course you can find a justification for just about anything in scripture if you read it right, including mass murder and rape. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-decline-of-religion-in-american-life/844744.md?page=12)