Responding to the 2009 American Religious Identification Survey on national Christianity, NEWSWEEK’s Editor, Jon Meacham, lighted many fires this week with his cover story, The Decline and Fall of Christian America,
in which he wrote about the declining number of American believers,
especially in the Northeast. As he wrote, “This is not to say that the
Christian God is dead, but that he is less of a force in American
politics and culture than at any other time in recent
memory.”
In saying this, and writing about the waning influence of Christianity
in politics, NEWSWEEK’s heard from more than 4,000 of our readers, not
to mention myriad pundits and media outlets wanting to contribute to
the fray. On our own site, Meacham has responded to his critics, clarifying the
difference between Christianity (which is not dying) and Christian America.
We’ve also started a blog for religious thought-leaders to contribute.
But outside of Newsweek, many were dismayed by the cover.
Politico’s Michael Calderone reported that the Rev. Lou Engle, founder of
TheCall – “a movement emphasizing prayer, worship and fasting for Spiritual
breakthrough.” – had sent a letter to NEWSWEEK’s chairman calling for the
firing of Meacham. In an original version of the letter, Engle wrote: “the
numbers [of declining Christians] shouldn’t be characterized as an ‘imminent
fall.’ This language is sensational and offensive.” On The Huffington Post,
Bruce Ledewitz agreed, adding that “Only 15 percent of respondents in ARIS
identified as secular. That means that America is still a very religious
country and even a very Christian one. Nor will that change any time soon.” On
GetReligion.org, there’s consensus and an argument that the numbers of
declining Christians are marred by the political point: “Part of the problem is
that [Meacham] seems to be writing two essays. One argues that Christian
conservative influence in American politics is ebbing. The other tackles
morphing American religious demographics.”
Going back to Ledewitz, though, he argues – like many other
reporters and commenters – that the numbers weren’t the real story.
“The story
is more momentous because growing secularization at some point reaches
a
cultural tipping point. At that point, and for the first time, large
numbers of
people begin to reach adulthood without religious training.” Many
agreed that's why we're ending up in a “post-Christian America,”
including Rod
Dreher at Beliefnet, who added a political spin to that argument. “There’s a
lot of talk about the error conservative Christians made in thinking that
politics was the best, or at least a sufficient, way of halting and reversing
the advance of post-Christian America. I think this is entirely correct.” So
agreed the blog Creed or Chaos, which added that Meacham seemed to be “arguing
for the separation of Church and State for the sake of the health, not only of
the political order, but for the sake of the health of theology, practice and
mission of the Church.”
As Meacham makes clear, politics and ideas of post-Christian
America don’t signal the end of Christianity. So I appreciated this take by
Eileen Flynn, the religion reporter at the Austin-American Statesman: “Of
course, the pendulum does swing in this country from religious to secular. I
would caution anyone against writing Christianity’s epitaph just yet.”
