Religion is a big part of American culture; however, as times have changed, so have people’s beliefs.
February 4, 2019
It is the First Amendment that allows people the freedom to practice any religion. The most popular religion in the United States is Christianity. Even so, the Pew Research Center found that in the last seven years the percentage of Christians in America fell nearly eight percent. Along with that, the amount of Americans who consider themselves atheist, agnostic or nothing at all jumped more than six percent in the same time frame.
Reasons for losing faith varies from person to person. Sophomore Lindsey Lubicz grew up going to Faith Evangelical Lutheran, a Christian school. Lubicz shared her personal beliefs on why some may not be as religious now as they were when they were children.
“I think the reason why people and myself included are not as religious as they used to be is because the churches in America tend to teach very old ways,” Lubicz said. “They don’t update the material to go with today’s society. I feel [that] a lot of people are not as accepting of old teachings because they can be offensive and wrong.”
Lubicz is one of the many people that have different beliefs than the religion they were born into. A big issue some have with Christianity is that some churches don’t support the LGBTQ+ community.
There was a question on Debate.org focusing on the morality of being LGBTQ+. Several users who were unsupportive of that community used the Bible as a defense for why. It is believed by many that passages of the Bible can be interpreted as God’s disapproval of people who are LGBTQ+.
The youngest generations are the primary factor in the decreasing number of Christians. The Huffington Post found that the reason for the decreasing number of religious Millennials is that they don’t believe in organized religion. Many don’t associate themselves with being spiritual and therefore, have not brought religion into their lives.
With many years passing, religion has always been a difficult topic to talk about; it leaves people with differing opinions, which are all protected under the First Amendment.
People like to have their own voice when they talk about religion and many choose to stray away from what was taught to them. Instead, they explore the other possibilities.
