Monday, June 24, 2013

Homosexuality: The End Of Christianity?


I was reading an interesting article a while back that argued that the recent precipitous decline in religiosity in the US and of people affirming faith in Christianity is not due to the arguments of New Atheists like Richard Dawkins or Sam Harris, but rather is due to the rapid increase in public acceptance of homosexuality and same sex marriage.

The argument goes like this: as more and more Americans embrace a tolerant attitude towards homosexuality, they find themselves increasingly at odds with the church, and as churches across the country refuse to progress and accept a more tolerant approach on homosexuality, this is causing a rapid falling out with the church, especially amongst younger people. It seems plausible. Since 81 percent of Americans under 30 support same sex marriage, why would a young person want to sit in a church and spend time listening to a pastor or a priest lecture them on the evils of homosexuality, abortion and other hot button issues that even the majority of Americans as a whole support?

It seems from the result of this disparity, larger numbers of people, especially young people, are leaving the church because their progressive ethics are not compatible with their church's. I certainly could never attend - let alone support a church, or any organization, that is at odds with my politics. That would truly be doing good to my enemy - a "moral" I think no one actually considers practical, or particularly moral.

So where do we go from here?

Well, since I want religiosity to decrease, I actually want prominent religious leaders to be as anti-gay and as anti-evolution as possible and to be outrageous about it. That will ensure a continued decline in religiosity as we head towards a future America where there is an overwhelming majority support of homosexuality and same sex marriage. So what scares me is that churches across America will progress and embrace homosexuality as some churches like the Episcopalian church is starting to do now. If churches progress on homosexuality, it will make Christianity's future survive-ability outlook a bit more durable.

But I'm not going to lie though. I am an opportunist. Although I do indeed fully support equal rights for gay people, I use homosexuality and same sex marriage as a way to argue against religion to my advantage whenever possible, and I love supporting equal marriage as a way of shoving secular ethics down the throats of those with religious faith.

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