The End of American Religio-Culture Wars?

|

DC Examiner political editor Chris Stirewalt declares that the Right has surrendered in the culture wars:

…the resurgence of traditional Christian mores and culture that began in the late 1970s has ended.

Stirewalt is corrrect. Once hot button Christian conservative issues are fading away:

There were some raised eyebrows when the White House sought out gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender parents to bring their children to the Executive Mansion for the annual Easter celebration as a show of inclusiveness. But there wasn't the kind of shock and outrage that would have greeted the move a decade ago.

Similarly, the fact that gay marriage is now a foregone conclusion is met with mostly a shrug. With Vermont's move to pass a law allowing the practice, every state will eventually have to acknowledge the legality of gay vows administered elsewhere. Keeping local restrictions will seem pointless and out of date when the laws actually do nothing to prevent the practice.
In much the same way, changes to the way the government treats abortion and embryos provoked some quibbling but mostly silence.

In April last year, I argued that the Fourth Great Awakening was over and that America was moving into a "New Age of Reason." Historians recognize "Great Awakenings" as periods of rising religious enthusiasm that provoke spasms of political activity in the name of enforcing Christian morals. The fourth such spasm began in the 1970s and, as Stirewalt notes, is just about played out. In my article I cited evidence for the end of this most recent awakening including:

(1) Congress' interviention in the tragic Terry Schiavo case polls showed Americans disapproved of Washington's intervention by almost 2 to 1 in 2005;

(2) Animus towards gays is receding. The Supreme Court's 2003 decision finding sodomy laws unconstitutional was supported by 74 percent Americans.  The same poll also found Americans opposed state laws regulating private, sexual relations between opposite-sex married couples (87 percent) and same-sex domestic partners (82 percent). In 1996 only 27 percent of Americans approved of same-sex marriages. By May 2007, 46 percent did, and 62 percent of those under age 35 favored them.

(3) Attempts to restrain biomedical progress in the name of religious values are receding too. By 2007 a Gallup poll found that 60 percent of Americans favor embryonic stem cell research.

(4) The Christian marketing Barna Group finds that only 60 percent of 16-to-29-year-olds identify themselves as Christians. By contrast, 77 percent of Americans over age 60 call themselves Christian. That is "a momentous shift," the firm's president told the Ventura County Star. "Each generation is becoming increasingly secular."

Stirewalt concludes:

Newsweek is trumpeting "The Decline and Fall of Christian America" in a cover line provocatively arranged in the shape of a cross — the symbol of godly sacrifice that Christians will venerate Friday.

Not long ago, writing off Christian America would have caused wide offense. But the tenets of the faith that gave America its moral bearings and a sense of spiritual destiny don't arouse much passion anymore.

I more hopefully concluded by citing lawyer Clarence Darrow's remarks at the 1908 Personal Liberty League's meeting:

"The world is suffering more today from the good people who want to mind other men's business than it is from the bad people who are willing to let everybody look after their own individual affairs." That has been true for a long time now, but we may finally be heading toward a better world—one where Americans are increasingly willing to live and let live. 

Whole Examiner op/ed here. Read my "New Age of Reason: Is the Fourth Great Awakening Coming to a Close" article here.