By Kaveri Pillai ’23
Staff Writer
For many, myself included, religion is deeply personal. What makes this type of faith so intimate is its promise for inclusivity and a sense of community. The history of religious faith can be traced back to the sacred texts we read today and the rituals and festivals we celebrate. Yet, this very faith has seemed to challenge its promise of longevity. The rapid decline in religious affiliation that started at the beginning of the last decade has sparked a conversation that addresses a simple question: What changed? When disaster struck, people would rely on religion for comfort and as a source of sanity, but with time, this dependence on faith seems to have lessened.
This decline of religious affiliation is frequently connected to the recent evolution of the political and social landscape globally. The influence of religious institutions in many states and their controversial views on social matters are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the inevitable damage they have caused to their own religious membership.
While many believe that renewing this global faith in God might be a lost cause, the recent pandemic is being viewed by some as an event that will draw more religious believers in. A Pew study conducted in 2020 shows that in the wake of the pandemic, one-fourth of Americans have seen their religious faith grow. Because of this, an event that has wrecked lives and caused a disturbance to our daily routine, one cannot ignore how this time could be an opportunity for religion to regain people’s support.
During the last century, the world has experienced war, genocide, political and ideological shifts and incredible religious turmoil. With the world reduced to shambles, religion was the one anchor of hope that never seemed to diminish in value. Yet, now more than ever, we seem to be emphasizing the importance of diversity and inclusivity in our society, important values that were previously in a tremulous state. With the U.S. focusing on equality on multiple scales and engaging with a more heightened conversation about unity, religion has appeared to have fallen behind. Social issues regarding gay marriage and LGBTQ+ rights, and even access to safe abortion services and contraceptives, have caused a divide between the secular state and the conservative church. According to a recent Pew study, Protestantism and Catholicism in the U.S. are experiencing losses of population share. What was once 51 percent in 2009 was, in 2019, only 43 percent of U.S. adults who identified as Protestants, and only 20 percent of U.S. adults identified as Catholics, another drop from the 23 percent in 2009.
Conservative Christian values have also seeped their way into the walls of Capitol Hill, with religious conservatives quoting the Bible in Congress to defend their propositions that harm a great deal of Americans. Beliefs of Christian abstinence and homosexuality as a “sin” have proven to be the bedrock to sex education policies that still exist in many American public schools. While there is no explicit statement that denounces abortion in any verse of the Bible, many American radical evangelicals have equated the termination of pregnancy to a morally unacceptable homicide of an unborn child. This strong sentiment has resulted in states like Alabama restricting the number of abortion clinics in 93 percent of its counties, making this reproductive right highly inaccessible.
But many believe that some of these radical Christian views have hegemonized popular media, completely ignoring Christian efforts that aim to support these social issues.
“To say that Christianity doesn’t talk about social issues … is a misnomer,” Emily Carle ’21 said. “There were Christian congregations [that] were activists in the AIDS epidemic. I know Christian churches [that] were out there in the 1960s and ’70s marching for women’s liberation and for LGBT[Q+] acceptance. I have three clergy friends who serve on Planned Parenthood’s Clergy Advisory Board. Heck, my national church denomination, the United Church of Christ, just held a webinar on why Christians should be pro-choice. … This idea that Christianity is at odds with social issues is a relatively new phenomenon that came about during the 1980s, and it is really only prevalent in this neo-conservative Christian movement. … Being active in social issues is, for me at least, at the core of what it means to be a Christian and to follow Jesus.”
The rise to the popular conservative image has led to a decline in believers. Carle also said, “I think the pandemic has given the Christian Church an opportunity to evaluate what has been working for [it], what hasn’t been working and what [it] can do to change in order to carry Jesus’ message of love and justice more meaningfully out into the world.” Building on that, people from different walks of life seem to be at a crossroads with Christianity — religion has curated an image of being an instrument of hope, yet its relevance to a more liberal world is being questioned. The image that religion had once carefully created has been replaced by one that appears to exclude, divide and control. Religion can adapt and evolve to help guide individuals in this turbulent age and initiate conversations on social matters that deeply concern and worry communities. To pray for peace and harmony rather than make it an issue of religious superiority, Christianity has been given a chance to change its narrative for a more open world.