They’re leaving the church and joining QAnon or liberalism. As long as the base remains the same the superstructure will likewise remain the same. That being said I can’t deny that this excites me. The state I live in has some of the lowest religious participation in the USA and churches are still everywhere and are likewise packed on Sundays.
They’re leaving the church and joining QAnon or liberalism.
No, I don't think that's it. The boomer QAnon people are still in church. Younger people are leaving church because it is more obviously tied to politics in a way that's blatantly a power grab. In the past, white evangelicals had a veneer of MoRaLiTy to hide behind, but Trump's presidency destroyed that and in so doing ensured that millions of younger Christians left evangelicalism.
Along with greater LGBTQ+ acceptance among millenials and younger, many white evangelicals are leaving their megachurches and either leaving completely or attending mainline churches and calling themselves "exvangelicals" (I know).
There are some that just realized that church is a white supremacy thing and cut out the middle man to become nazis, but that's a much smaller group.
I grew up in a evangelical community and there was a small portion of kids who just became Nazis. A lot became liberals or socialists, some went mainstream, some stayed.
They became Nazis because they liked the white supremacist parts of protestantism.
Okay, so maybe they aren't necessarily joining QAnon—or they can go to their megachurches and believe Trump is Jesus at the same time—but some are also joining liberal churches or just plain secular liberalism instead. I keep an eye on the exmormon subreddit and sometimes even listen to the Mormon Stories podcast—not because I'm a Mormon (or ever have been), but because I'm fascinated with people leaving one belief system and joining another. So many posts on that subreddit are just like people photographing themselves drinking coffee. I mean, I love coffee, and I think life would probably be less cool without coffee, and I understand that coffee is probably a symbol for these people of embarking on a new stage in their lives free from the Mormon Church, but I also have to wonder if that much has really changed about them. Like, if they could drink coffee, and if the women were allowed to bare their shoulders, how many of them would remain within Mormonism? I think that moving from Mormonism to liberalism (or more liberal churches) has also got to be pretty dissatisfying. I went on their subreddit a few months ago and (politely) said they should check out Marxism, and I think every comment I received was hostile.
But many of them also say that the hypocrisy of the church (which you mention) led them to do research and ask questions, and then within a few months they were finished. That's pretty much the same reason I left liberalism. It seemed hypocritical to me, and could no longer explain the world in a satisfying way. At the same time, fascism was even dumber, which meant that I gravitated further toward the left.
Another random thought: I remember that in the Class Struggle board game, if large numbers of people leave organized religion, that counts as like some kind of bonus or boon for the workers. So although this issue is complex, we have at least one Official Marxist (TM) claiming that this is a positive development.
They’re leaving the church and joining QAnon or liberalism.
It feels like those QAnon lunatics are evangelicals and evangelical churches seem to be doing well :bern-disgust:
Up until recent years (I'm talking like 15-20 years ago), evangelical churches were doing pretty well relative to mainline and Catholic churches. I know, evangelicals used to crow about that all the time. But p sure the data shows in more recent years evangelical churches are hemoragging members.
Lol what? The venn diagram of QAnon goons and your local upper class suburban family that attends church every Sunday is a literal full circle.
/r/atheism hours
"community institutions are dissolving at a faster rate than ever! we did it Reddit!"
⬇️
What about when those "community institutions" are usually insular and reactionary? And use their power to enforce white supremacy?
"And what if group is bad, is it bad then?" well fucking duh genius. And I'm sorry, are you saying poc aren't religious/christian or are you saying they're white supremacist? Why are you painting in such broad strokes? Aren't African Americans the ones going to church the most?
I love me some John Brown/liberation theology, but they emerged out of periods of radical social progress and change, not present neoliberal stagnation.
I sincerely hope that the potential for spirituality charging the Left with a sense of social purpose is there—but I also acknowledge that in present-day America, the dominant forms of religiosity are entwined with capitalism, individualism, and the existing social hierarchy.
Let’s not leave Hegel on his head: religion follows a society’s material order, not the other way around. I’m not celebrating the decline in church attendance-i think it mostly speaks to American atomization and general lack of purpose and unalienated time post-2000s.
Of course I'm not saying that. But the white evangelical bloc, whatever you want to call it, is probably the strongest force of reaction in the United States after the capitalists themselves. I'm glad to see their numbers go down.
Sure but all of these people suddenly without community aren't just going to join mutual aid groups. They're going to attracted to groups that line up with their pre existing biases
I don't know if declining church membership necessarily correlates to evangelicals suddenly becoming normal
I mean...there’s definitely a lot of reasons people aren’t going to church anymore.
That the communities themselves have to address.
Guess which aspects of organized religion manifestly aren't going away, despite secularization?
What about when those “community institutions” are usually insular and reactionary?
Any institution can host reactionary leadership. Any institution can become insular over time.
What is the solution? Alienate ourselves for fear of coming in contact with these social elements does nothing to further our goals.
reactionary leadership
Except this is where the mass of members - not just the leadership - is highly reactionary. Arguably even more reactionary (source: was an evangelical for 30 years).
People aren't born reactionary. They're a product of their communities.
By all means, bring on the gulags and the reeducation camps. But leave the liberation theologists and the spiritual leftists out of it.
Kind of exactly the point. Organized religion as an institution in the US is largely reactionary. Therefore these churches are a network of reactionary "community institutions" literally acting as a catalyst to turn their community members (who weren't born reactionaries) more reactionary... Therefore, church membership being down is only good?
Therefore, church membership being down is only good?
Only if (a) American communities absent religious institutions are de-radicalizing and (b) American communities that retain religious institutions are not vulnerable to leftist rhetorical gambits.
I haven't seen (a). The techbro libertarian is no less reactionary than the midwestern evangelist. And I'm not sold on (b), either, given how many leftists have come out of black churches and immigrant synogogues.
Hell, the abolitionist movement was a religious-powered movement. As was the populist movement of the late 19th century.
Sure, no issue with liberation theology or spiritual leftist, of course. But the issue is that white evangelicalism represents the beliefs of like 25% of the US population, and wields and even larger, disproportionate amount of power. It's a group that is very unified in socio-political beliefs as well as theological beliefs. And those theological beliefs often have serious repercussions for the rest of us. And not just anti-LGBTQ views. You have any idea how many white evangelicals believe that everyone but them will spend eternity in a state of eternal, conscious torment? And how that leads to thinking the lives lived by most of us on earth is meaningless? This is a group that acts in an incredibly unified manner to oppress the poor and marginalized in America. They have numbers and power. And I get that if you're a leftist Christian it can be annoying to get lumped in with them. But at the same time we need to be able to talk about this very very large group of Americans that has fought and will continue to fight against any progress we want to make.
But the issue is that white evangelicalism represents the beliefs of like 25% of the US population, and wields and even larger, disproportionate amount of power.
The modern Evangelical community is comically removed from the founding principles of the Christian Gospel. At a certain point, they are simply consumerist vehicles of the capitalist state. The Televangelical is a classic instance of this problem, as it denudes religion of all its positive qualities - shared public space, human interaction, a religious leadership that exists as a member of the community - and leaves only the obligation to tithe and to conform to the dogmatic views of the charismatic preacher.
The problem with this system isn't that it's religious. The problem is that it's parasitic and corrupt.
This is a group that acts in an incredibly unified manner to oppress the poor and marginalized in America. They have numbers and power. And I get that if you’re a leftist Christian it can be annoying to get lumped in with them. But at the same time we need to be able to talk about this very very large group of Americans that has fought and will continue to fight against any progress we want to make.
I was raised a Catholic who kinda veered off into atheism. But as I get older, I begin to recognize how useful churches are as institutions of social organization and activism, and I regret losing touch with the Catholics as a community.
Lol pardon my fedora but "community institutions" Jesus fucking christ.
Organized religion in the US, specifically christianity, is the largest and most efficient pipeline to anti-LGBTQ/hyper capitalist/individualist/white supremacist/reactionary ideology - and has been since at least the 70's.
Aside from the almost inherently reactionary ideology of these religious institutions, much like philanthropy the primary function of the Church is to act as domestic tax havens. If we taxed church's in the US we'd generate something like $85 billion a year - 3x the amount needed to solve hunger in the US, 8x as much to solve homelessness. This is before the sheer network of brick & mortar church infrastructure that could (in my mind should) be seized and converted to shelters/health clinics/etc.
Long gone are the days of churches harvesting any ideals based in racial and economic justice. Referencing liberation theology, Catholic workers, and radical Christians as if that's a serious portion of religious affiliation in this country and not just Joel Olsteen mouth breathers is just bordering on romanticism. The idea that this is also largely focused on "white evangelicals" is also dumb shit given 1 in 3 American evangelicals are POC..
Long story short, leftists need to drop this myth that church communities are ripe for radicalization and organizing. The death of religious affiliation and church membership is a net good and has no bearing on ones personal spiritual belief OR our ability to organize for a socialist future.
I agree. I mean, in the spirit of comradeship I don't want to marginalize folks who, for example, believe in liberation theology. But yeah, the sheer size of Evangelicalism relative to more chill versions of Christianity in America means we have to treat it differently.
Though personally I say "white evangelical" because my personal experience has been 99.9% with specifically white evangelicals. I don't want to presume the beliefs and attitudes of POC evangelicals.
Sure - but herein lies the problem imo. Criticism of the institutions isn't an attack on your personal beliefs. We need to separate our personal spiritual beliefs from the institutions that are very reactionary, with real political power, on a global scale, that is almost always weaponized against our goals of racial justice, solidarity, anti-imperialism, LGBTQ rights, and more.
Idk, what are we supposed to do instead? In my personal experience, the only thing my church did as "community organizing" was to protest abortion clinics (they took credit for multiple clinics being taken down but idk how big their involvement was) and support our wars in the middle east. but I was raised a white catholic, so your milage my vary. It would be interesting to see which communities are leaving churches (I was pretty religious til I realized I'm queer)
I feel like we can celebrate that Christianity no longer has a hegemonic grip over american society (think about god telling bush to invade iraq, gay marriage, ect) without attacking christian socialists
Yeah, I dont see this as a necessarily good thing either and I'm not even religious. The main culprit for declining church membership is probably dissolution of all social bonds under the fist of capitalism, not some kind of slowly enlightening population. Even the wackiest evangelicals leaving churches aren't changing what's in their heads. They're just becoming even more deluded conspiracy theorists.
My evangelical family and friends have been spinning this as "well the people leaving were the ones who weren't really into in the first place" and that the "real" believers are as strong as ever... :cope:
A huge part of this is the erosion of all social institutions. I'm originally from a rural southern place, so churches to me aren't just "place you go to do religious things" it's more like the central social apparatus for the town. The petite bourgeois, workers, and farmers all end up in the same pews on Sunday. It's where people meet their spouses. It's where holiday events are held. The religious part is just an aesthetic for a lot of people.
Also, don't get me wrong. I'm not necessarily praising this kind of community structure, because the one I attended as a kid was rampant with homophobia and Islamophobia. I'm just hoping to express that churches exist as more than just something like "I believe in this thing so that means I go to this place." They're social instutions like other things and neoliberal capitalism does not give a shit. Nothing is sacred. Nothing has territory. People need to be alone, isolated, scared, and constantly generating profit.
It causes the dissolution of all social relationships outside of monetary transaction
The foundational values might be horrible but I can't help feeling envious of people who are part of a social institution. When you're young there is school/college but after that there's nothing. Just work and consumption. Once the labour movement was a social institution but today there isn't really anything.
As much as I'd like to hope that replacing Sky Daddy means more people being Scientific Socialists, I'm afraid they will be replaced by more Social Darwinist who wish to prove phrenology, "was correct all along." In America, at least.
:galaxy-brain:
TIL knowledge derived from centuries of theory and experimentations = putting faith into the unknown
We shouldn't be le epic reddit atheists but this is something I'd expect to see from prageru
Theories can be tested, they can be proven false. You don't accept a theory as true based on faith alone, the evidence has to be there as well. Of course there are things we don't know, and there is speculation in those fields, but that is not at all the same thing as putting faith into a specific explanation because you feel it in your heart. Science is built upon observation and experimentation, not blind faith. This is what distinguishes it from a religion.
People lavishing praise on people like Elon Musk and his Hyperloop and Boring Tunnel garbage doesn't make science a religion. You know what people have used to demonstrate that "his" "ideas" are complete and utter bs? A surface-level examination of the science behind it. Stuff like Musk's pesudoscientific promises have been peddled since long before the days of Snake Oil salesmen. It's the same thing it always has been; people falling for a con man.
Most scientists do not claim to know everything, even about their own particular field of study. The problem I see is science journalism being clickbait bullshit for know it all libs to efficiently consume.
Some scientists are shit, because scientists are people with all the same flaws a human inherits. Science is about removing human error as much as possible to find a small truth and more often than not it brings with it more questions than answers.
I get being bother by, "smart people and science will save us" rhetoric, but that comes from journalists selling news and not scientists describing their research. That's why I'm concerned in the first place.
I think it was probably lower in 99, folks were just embarrassed to tell a stranger they didn't go to church.
