The Unity of the Trinity
Depending on which poll you trust, the United States is between 75% and 85% Christian. In a democracy, majority rules, and that’s a pretty big majority. What, then, stands in the way of pure Christian rule in this country? The answer is fragmentation. Catholic, Mainline Protestant, Pentecostal, Evangelical, Ethnic and Orthodox churches usually don’t agree with each other, and often don’t even like each other. While their beliefs are 99% the same, there’s constant infighting over the translation of an Aramaic word here or the placement of a comma there. There’s disagreement over which of two equally silly interpretations of a passage is the right one. As I’m sure is the case with any non-Christian, that suits me just fine. Out of that massive majority, no one group amounts to more than a quarter of the US population, and that seriously limits Christian power. Well, that may change in the next year. There is a group on the verge of reconstructing the proverbial Tower of Babel and reunifying the languages of American Christians.
In September of 2001, a group called Christian Churches Together in the USA was formed with the stated goal of “expanding fellowship, unity, and witness among the diverse expressions of Christian faith today.” The plan was to get at least 25 sects to join the organization and then speak with a single voice whenever possible, amplifying the impact of Christianity in the United States. By the following April, 36 Church leaders met in Chicago and issued the cleverly titled Chicago Statement, which laid out their vision and put forth a multi-stage plan for achieving it. Several more meetings led up to what was to be the ultimate organizing meeting June 1-3, 2005.
Despite the fact that the target number of 25 member churches has been exceeded by 6 (with 20 more considering membership), the launch was postponed. Some say this is mostly due to the poor representation of black churches in the group at the present time. Another meeting will be scheduled for early in 2006.
If this kind of unity amongst Christian sects comes to pass, and all signs indicate that it will, it can only be bad news for non-Christian Americans, atheist or otherwise. At BEST, it will only make the Christian voice in the media stronger. At WORST it could mean the hijacking of the country. I know I keep coming back to the same point in post after post here, but the organization, unity and mobilization of atheists against the emerging threat of a Christian power play is more vital now than ever.
“…and in political speculations ‘the tyranny of the majority’ is now generally included among the evils against which society requires to be on its guard.”
-John Stuart Mill
~I Am~
June 16th, 2005 at at 12:46 am
Let’s say the christians get their way. Let’s say 100% of the world “sees the light” and converts to christianity. What’s next? Has any of these fucking morons considered the point at all of their goals? I hope the answer is not that they all believe that christ will return when we are united under one religion. Besides, I may not understand the end times jargon very much, but isn’t the point that christ will have to return because he needs to cleanse the earth again? It’s all so stupid I can’t believe this stuff has survived the dark ages. You know what they say? When religion was at its peak, it was called the ‘dark ages’(can’t remember where I heard that). Even the dumbest mouthbreather should understand though, that to unite will help in their immediate causes. When everything is said and done, their cause is the same. They are just too stupid to realize this yet. I’m with you I Am. I’ve posted a comment in the Atheism Online site that you probably have already read. I am commited to helping your cause. I am SO TIRED of the stupidity . I need to become an active voice if I am to have any dignity at all. What good will it be to say “I told you so” when I’m behind bars for being a heathen in public.
June 16th, 2005 at at 2:34 am
I figure you’ve got the evangelical part down. Maybe I should concentrate on the atheist apologetics. Oh yeah, we have nothing to apologize for. Actually, what I was thinking of was a project that might fit very well into the new Atheist Online site. A sort of Encyclopedia of Atheism. Perhaps an e-book. An ongoing updateable, expandable e-book. Contributions welcome from anyone and accepted or denied by the administrators of the site. The forum would act as a stage for debate of revision and acceptence as well as general discussion. This could become the atheist’s bible. A resource that shows all the commonalities between atheists. Haven’t you ever been frustrated by not knowing something or being able to find info or trust info? What if there was a site dedicated to asking and explaining all of those questions you’ve had, in a nutshell? I already have a basic outline for this encyclopedia. At first, I thought about taking the next ten to twenty years writing and developing it myself. I’ve already been at it for a few years. Then I realized I need input and help. To truly make this idea a reality, it would take more than I could do by myself. And I feel we are running out of time in this country. Time is precious. Give me your opinions on this stuff, and I’ll tell you more.
June 16th, 2005 at at 3:43 am
I’m completely with you Boywonder. I think that’s the grandest idea I’ve heard all day and I’ll help where at all possible. Although, interestingly, just reading some comments on here, I feel incredibly self-conscious. There are an awful lot of intelligent atheists on the internet (I suppose it comes with the territory).
What if we made it a wiki? Something everyone could edit without moderator approval? Because it seems that the little stuff is always left out when moderator approval is required (i.e. it’s embarrassing to send in a correction for one or two grammatical errors).
Either way, I’m sure it’ll work. I’m in. Is anyone else willing to help?
June 16th, 2005 at at 7:36 am
You guys are right on my wavelength. AtheismOnline is built on TikiWiki, which has all of the functionality you’re talking about because Delta and I were planning for expansion of this type. Let’s talk more about this, but let’s move the discussion over to the AhteismOnline forum. This is great stuff, but it’s not really about my post. I’ll start a thread over there.
June 16th, 2005 at at 10:42 am
I’m glad to see your enthusiasm for this guys, that’s definitely the first step. I’ll go check out AthOn after this.
I’m also very concered about the possibility of a unified christian majority. Americans take their freedoms granted so much. Everyone thinks “bah, this is America, we’ll always have our freedoms”. But we certainly definitely do not. The president currently supports laws that would take away rights from homosexuals. This kind of thing isn’t much better than the way blacks were treated in the early 1900s. And it has a good deal of support. Homosexuals, atheists, how different do these look to a christian?
One thing that I think is good though is that most christians in the country are just social christians. They go to be part of the community, not because they have this unwavering faith. They say they’re christian when they are polled, but most of them probably don’t go to church very regurlarly and they are unlikely to support too much church being combined with the state. And since voting is done privately, they can still vote against the church’s position and then go hang out with their christian friends with no worries.
June 16th, 2005 at at 11:26 am
I understand the scariness of this development everyone, but I dont think that Christianity is in any position to dominate America.
Now let me clarify: when I say dominate, Im not talking about political power but about numbers.
The plain fact of the matter is that Christianity is shrinking numerically in America. We are following the path that was blazed by europe. Europe is the most atheistic society in the developed world. America is following.
Between 1990 and 2004, the “nonreligious” population in America doubled from 8% to 16%. Christianity is losing followers rapidly in America. Churches are closing AND there arent enough preachers to fill the spots that are available…so theres a shortage of both sheep and shepherds.
The protestant portion of America is barely above 50% anymore, and wont likely remain so for long. As education improves and mixing of cultures increases, religion shrinks.
The scary aprt is the polarization. Those that are religious are becoming MORE fanatical, and those that are kinda-religious are losing their religions.
What we have to do, collectively, is serve as catalysts for deconversions. We have to obviously continue to spread godlessness however we can, but I think we shouldnt be too afraid of the religious organizations. We should fight them politically and ideologically yes, but rather than label them and recoil in alienation, we should engage them directly for dialogue. Communication is the key to all of this, as sharing of information is education, and education is what increases the “nonreligious” population in America and Europe and everywhere else.
We can use hard evidence to back up our cause. We can point to Europes heavily atheistic population and its superior crime rates, life expectancies, and teen pregnancy rates (Europe has the highest quality of life in the world… yes much better than America too).
June 17th, 2005 at at 12:49 am
Religion is all about feeling morally superior — mainly as compensation for real economic or intellectual inferiority. Christians need to feel their own sect is superior to the others and for this reason will never unite.
June 17th, 2005 at at 9:16 am
They might unite for a while, but there will inevitably be schisms. It is the same reason there are so many sects in the first place: they disagree on e the tiny details and split off. Hopefully, it will occur before the ink is even dry on their agreement! OR even better: it will far apart before they have a chance to truly unite.
June 18th, 2005 at at 11:31 pm
AK, I haven’t quite figured you out yet. Sometimes you seem to be pessemistic (sp), then you seem not to care about foreseeable problems. I guess I would be called a positive pessemist (sp). You know, the whole hope for the best, prepare for the worst kinda thing. I just hope you aren’t saying that christians don’t pose a dangerous threat.