Bad Religion: How We Became A Nation Of Heritics

A summary of the book  . . .

Bad Religion: How We Became A Nation Of Heretics by Ross Douthat

1950s:

-          Post-war confidence; Protestant churches grow; Catholic Churches and Schools grow at a rapid pace

-          Reinhold Niebuhr’s writings strengthen Protestant beliefs and church attendance.

-          Billy Graham leads revivals attended by thousands.

-          Bishop Fulton Sheen has a prime-time religious show.

-          Martin Luther King, Jr. becomes a religious and moral leader for blacks and whites.

-          Popular movies with major stars about Catholics: Going My Way, Bells of Saint Mary’s, A Nun’s Story

1960s:

-          A Catholic is elected president of the USA.

-          The Pill - sexual revolution arrives with contraception.

-          The Catholic president is assassinated.   Rumors spread about his infidelities.

-          Pope Paul VI’s doctrine on human sexuality ridiculed widely for its “old fashioned” pronouncements.

-          Starting in 1965, attendance at major churches start to shrink.

-          Mainline Protestant denominations drift to the left; Evangelicals drift to the right; Catholics are split.

-          Sexual ethics shift to condone extramarital sex and abortion.

-          In 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. is killed sparking riots and loss of faith in peaceful Christian practices.

-          Major protests against the Vietnam War and conventional morals by progressives (hippies).

-          Protestant denominations shift from the supernatural and embrace Modernism.

-          Episcopal Bishop James Pike denies Christ’s divinity, renounces Christian morality, and consults psychics.

1970s:

-          Almost every denomination except Catholics formally accept some form of birth control and abortion.

-          Studies of politics and social justice replaced studies of theology in seminaries.

-          “Inclusion and Diversity” were the excuses for negating Christianity’s truth and moral teachings.

-          Five years after Vatican II, progressive views dominated Catholic religious and theological training.

-          Catholic publications, training, seminars, associations, and bureaucracy become more liberal and political.

-          Catholic religious groups place greater emphasis on “social justice” now over preparing souls for heaven.

-          The pope’s ambassador (papal nuncio Jean Jadot) to the USA, a liberal’s liberal, recommends fellow leftist political activists for senior offices in the USA hierarchy. 

-          Catholics stop attending weekly Mass and start leaving the Church in droves. 

-          Only Protestant and Catholic churches that resisted the spirit of liberalism were still growing. 

1980s:

-          Pope John Paul II becomes a rallying point in the fight against redefining Christianity.

-          Pope JPII fails in his efforts to change leftist theology in seminaries and most Catholic colleges.

-          Pope JPII started forming alliances with Evangelicals and some mainline Protestant intelligentsia.

-           

1990s:

-          US Supreme Court votes in 1992 for nearly unlimited right to an abortion.

-          Catholics and Evangelicals find common cause to resist abortion, but mainline Protestant churches do not join or return to orthodoxy.

-          Sex-abuse scandals devastate the Catholic Church and its moral authority.

-          Secularism, Humanism, and Modernism grow rapidly with assistance from secular colleges, political parties, and mainstream leftist media.

-          Christian orthodoxy becomes a minority that is easily dismissed by the press and wider public.

-          Most newspapers stop publishing religious columns and forums.

-          The majority of the USA becomes secular, anti-religious, and progressively liberal.

Present Times – Four Heresies Continue to Increase While Christianity Continues to Decrease

-          First Heresy:  Jesus Seminars and “Quest for Historical Jesus” which offer simplistic versions of Jesus as a mystic, proto-feminist prophet but not a Savior (a form of Gnosticism).

-          Second Heresy:  Pray-and-Grow-Rich Theology of will power promoted by Kenneth Hagin and Joel Osteen; focus on joy, Easter, success, and being nice and ignore the Crucifixion, sin, suffering, and the need for redemption.

-          Third Heresy:  “God Within”; do what you like doing; prayer and charity are not important; focus on self; narcissism; “Eat, Pray, Love” search for self and finding happiness with myself without service to others.

-          Fourth Heresy:  Nationalism.  “Liberalism  (or Conservatism) is my religion.”  Theology replaced by politics.  It’s the government’s job to provide charity, not me directly.

How to renew Christianity in the USA

-          Bring your Christian faith to bear on debates in the public square about justice and the common good.  Don’t be afraid to preach what you practice.  Don’t be intimidated by secular progressives who dominate the public square of news, politics, and colleges.

-          Show allegiance to Christian principles over your political party.  Stop making politics your religion.

-          Promote traditional views of sexuality  and the importance of stable traditional marriage for the sake of children.

-          Orient yourself toward holiness through prayer and personal sanctity to perfect your soul; save your country by first saving yourself.