Steve Benen, writing at Talking Points Memo, comments on an article in the Atlantic, which noted that the number of Americans who stated that they had “no religious preference” doubled (from 7%) between 1992 and 2002. The authors of a study cited in the article, Michael Hout and Claude S. Fischer, concluded that the increase was not due to a rise in atheism, but to a growing disgust with the religous right. Benen concludes:
But if the Hout/Fischer analysis is right, and more people are turning away from organized religion because they’re just so repulsed by the Dobson/Robertson crowd, well, that’s just hilarious.
It may or may not be hilarious, but I doubt that it would be disturbing to the Dobson/Robertson crowd, on either doctrinal or political grounds.
I’m no expert on Protestantism, since they’re all heretics. But I do know that there are contradictory currents running through their brand of Christianity. On the one hand, they do proselytize, but for many of them there is the concept of the elect, that is, some people are bound for heaven, and some won’t get in no matter what. Naturally, each one believes that he or she is one of the elect, and is more than happy to count nearly every one else as being of the “left behind” variety. The non-believers are just announcing their status, pre-judgment.
Politically, the Dobsons and Robertsons will no doubt thrive if open secularists become more numerous. They flourish by fostering a sense of exceptionalism and victimhood in their followers. The more they can portray themselves and their sheep (Jesus sure chose the right metaphor there, didn’t he?) as persecuted, the more blind loyalty and fanaticism they can engender. They aren’t particularly interested in winning over a majority of Americans. They are particularly interested in controlling a subset significant enough to enable them to control elections. It’s no small achievement to have total control over 20 to 30% of the voting population. The more they can scare the sheep, the more they can herd them to “safety”.
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