THE DANGER OF MIXING RELIGION & POLITICS: “Did the Religious Right Lose 10 Million Christians?”

In the 1990s, a seismic shift occurred in religious America. During that period, the percentage of Americans who did not affiliate with any religion more than doubled. In the 1980s, about 7% of Americans reported being religiously unaffiliated, and by 2000, this was up to 14% (and has since increased to about 17%). To be clear, many of these religiously unaffiliated still believe in God, but they don’t associate with any particular religion or denomination.

What happened, and why did it happen in the 1990s? Micheal Hout and Claude Fischer, sociologists at Berkeley, published a study that links part of this substantial drop of religious affiliation to politics. They examined what type of people left religion in the 1990s, and they found it closely tied to political beliefs. Unaffiliation among liberals increased 11 percentile points; among political moderates it increased 5-6 points; and among political conservatives it increased an insignificant 1.7 points.

So, why would liberal or moderate politics move people away from Christianity in the 1990s? Well, that was a time in which the Religious Right held considerable sway in American politics, and the linkage of a Republican agenda to Christianity served to politicize Christianity. This repelled people who accepted Christianity but not the Republican party. As a result, many people who would otherwise affiliate with Christianity perhaps moved away from it as a reaction against this Christian-Republican linkage.

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RELATED: “A Civil Rant Against Civil Religion.”

I think most Christians would agree that there is a vast and unbridgeable chasm between a deistic civil religion and orthodox Christianity. But the civil religion that our fellow citizens embrace is not the type Rousseau had in mind. It is very much a view that is rooted in the concept that America is a Christian nation (or at least a Judeo-Christian nation). For them, the “In God We Trust” on our coins might as well say “In Jesus We Trust.” The State is not only subordinate to the one true Sovereign (and don’t let the capitalized noun fool you—we’re still talking about Jesus here) but is expected to conform to his standards. Although this view can lead people to use Christianity to promote Americanism, more often it simply leads to criticism of the nation’s flaws. The fact that the country continually falls short of God’s standards is a constant annoyance for those who believe that the founding documents were wholly derived—at least in principle—from the Holy Scriptures. (Think I’m exaggerating? Talk to some of these folks and see if you don’t get the impression that they think the Constitution was inspired more by the Gospel of John than by John Locke.)

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RELATED: “In an age of political vitriol, opposing Christians call for civility.”

The faith community needs to be a check against political vitriol in the 2012 election, which two religious leaders say has the potential to be the “ugliest campaign” in decades.

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ON SCRIPTURE: “Making the God Decision.”

What this God requires is a life-commitment that will impinge upon every dimension of public life — social, political and economic. This God, so says Joshua, is uncompromising. With YHWH it is “all or nothing,” no casual allowance for accommodation. What is at issue is a jealous God who is committed to neighborly justice and the organization of the economy for the sake of the weak and vulnerable (thus the testimony of the book of Deuteronomy that stands behind this narrative chapter). But the other gods, the totems of agricultural self-sufficiency, do not require such neighborly passion. The either/or that Joshua presents has immediate practical social consequences. A decision for YHWH entails socio-economic justice. A decision for the “other gods” leads inevitably to socio-economic exploitation, the accumulation of wealth at the expense of neighbors. Such a “religion” without commitment to social justice will eventuate in communities of economic failure, such as we now witness in Reading.

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ARAB SPRING/COPTIC WINTER: “Christian Student Beaten to Death for Wearing Cross.”

Arab Spring, Egyptian edition: a 17 year old Christian in a high school in Mallawi was ordered by his teacher to cover up a tattoo of a cross on his wrist. True to his faith, he refused to do so and instead exposed a crucifix that he wore around his neck. He was then beaten to death by his teacher and two Muslim students…

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WHAT SEX TRAFFICKING DOES TO PEOPLE: “All I Was Good for Was Sex.”

Christianity Today is running a series on sex trafficking. Today, you can watch the testimony of Jessica Richardson.

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GOD IN A BROTHEL: “Set the Sex Slaves Free: An Interview with Daniel Walker.”

You speak of a transforming moment near the beginning of the book where you move from seeing only the evil in the brothels to actually experiencing God in the brothel. Can you say a little more about that experience?

I was afraid of my sin, the bad guys with guns and evil itself. But as I held this 15-year-old girl on the dance floor of a brothel, and prayed, everything changed. I suddenly saw her not as a threat to my professionalism or purity, but as a child in whose life evil had been allowed to flourish and consume. And I was filled with holy hatred for evil and anger at an indifferent world.

I realized in that moment that I possessed sufficient evidence to prosecute all of the bad guys in that place and that if anyone was DANGEROUS in that place, it was me! They were the ones who needed to be afraid. And I was reminded that God was present in that brothel as much as he was present in any church, suffering with those who suffer, and waiting for someone, anyone, to show up in his name and rescue the oppressed and those enslaved there.

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RELATED: “Trafficking in humans ‘massive’ worldwide.”

Human trafficking has reached “a massive scale,” crossing international borders and involving loosely affiliated crime groups, making the prosecution of those involved difficult, according to testimony Wednesday before the U.S. Helsinki Commission.

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LOVE SINNER/HATE SIN: “To What KIND of Sinners Was Jesus a Friend?”

It’s no secret that Christians, of various flavors and stripes, are all over the board on how we deal with sin and Sinners.  Though most of us have all sort of grudgingly agreed to “hate the sin and love the sinner,” the actual implementation of Gandhi’s admonition hasn’t always been pretty.  Some more liberal Christians are not comfortable with the “hate the sin” part and some more conservative Christians are not willing to admit that Jesus ever entertained the presence of sinners. This, of course, has put a crimp in the love part.

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NO, BUT THAT’S NOT NECESSARILY BAD: “Is Technology Neutral?”

So when I say that cultural objects aren’t neutral, this is what I mean. This isn’t to say that the moment you pick up an iPhone or an assault rifle that you’re immediately defiled—that’s legalism. Instead, it’s merely to point out that these objects influence us profoundly because they open possibilities and make easier a whole world of action that was previously unavailable or much more difficult. In the case of the iPhone, the result is that we step into a way of living and relating that is more disruptive, more flooded with information, and ultimately more dependent upon that particular piece of technology.

The challenge, then, is for Christians to discern how to live in this technological milieu in a way that allows for virtue, love, and community to abound. It may be that such a way of life is possible but too difficult. It may be quite simple if we establish appropriate boundaries in our lives. But it most certainly isn’t possible if we simply accept the status quo of disruptive, noisy life in our newly tech-ed up world. (Particularly if we believe that it has no shaping effect upon us.)

There is no doubt that the new world of deeper web connectivity is empowering and has made life and work easier. The question is: Has it made it better?

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COMO SAY WHAT? “Mormons—Southern Baptist Zombies.”

From the viewpoint of many Southern Baptists, Mormons are Southern Baptist zombies. Mormons hold the same family values as Southern Baptists. They talk about Jesus like Southern Baptists. They send out missionaries like Southern Baptists. They baptize people like Southern Baptists. But they believe the wrong things about Jesus, God and the Bible. For many members of the SBC, Mormons’ foreign/familiarity leaves them with the same creepy feeling we all get when we watch a George Romero movie.

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NEARING HOME: “Billy Graham: Death’s Destination.”

When I was young, I could not imagine being old. My mother said, and the doctor confirmed, that I had an unusual amount of energy; and it followed me into young adulthood. When middle age set in, I dealt with physical weariness, but my mind was always in high gear, and it never took long for my physical stamina to return after a grueling schedule. It tires me out to dwell on it now, wondering how I ever kept up with such a jam-packed itinerary. I fought growing old in every way. I faithfully exercised and was careful to pace myself as I began to feel the grasp of Old Man Time. This was not a transition that I welcomed, and I began to dread what I knew would follow.