Moral and Religious Decline in America Essay Example

John Adams (the second president of the US) once said, Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. "One of the major challenges that America is facing in the 21st century is a moral crisis, which is related to a variety of social dilemmas. It is correlated with a rise in crime rate, drug abuse, sexual irresponsibility, high divorce rate, and racism (Matthews 1). In order for the country to address these problems, it must be willing to accept the contributing causes of these challenges. In this researcher paper it will address the following question, "Is moral and religious decline in America, the contributing factors to the social dilemmas that plague America today?"

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Is America in a state of moral decline? This can be a challenging question to answer without taking into consideration the definition of morality. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, being moral is defined as 'concerning or relating to what is right and wrong in human behavior.' Therefore, based on this definition, a moral person is the one who is behaving in a manner that is perceived to be right in accordance to human behavior. However, the political and social environments in America are changing rapidly (Beinart 1). There are moral debates such as legalization of same-sex marriage in all states, legalization of drugs that were once considered to be illicit such as Marijuana, revision of gun laws, high rates of divorce, and abortion, what qualifies to be sexual abuse, and other issues. In a diverse society such as is the case in the United States, is it possible to have moral standards or laws that are acceptable by people of different ethnic, social, economic, and religious backgrounds?

The undeniable truth is that in every society, there are existing laws that need to be based on a moral system. These systems are founded on religious or spiritual beliefs (taking into consideration the communities that consider themselves atheists). The laws that govern any society are based on what is considered to be right (acceptable) and wrong (forbidden). As has been pointed out before, morality is based on religious or spiritual beliefs (Flannelly 147). The challenge that arises is whose morality will the society ascribe to, that of the majority or minority? In the event that it decides to follow the laws based on the majority beliefs, what happens to the few in the society that follows a different morality pattern? Should they abandon their beliefs in order to follow those of the majority? To answer these questions, it is important to study the foundation of the United States.

Analysis of the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, Constitution, and other important US documents that were written immediately after the country's independence illustrate that the founding fathers were believers of a Judeo-Christian creator and the Bible. This means that the moral foundation of the country was founded using Christian beliefs. George Washington in his Farewell Address in 1796 stated the following; "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and Morality are indispensable supports (Matthews 2). And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that National morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle (Matthews 4)." Even the founding father of the nation, during the country's infancy, realized the importance of religion and morality in the society and cautioned Americans against believing that they can be able to maintain a sense of morality without having a religious foundation. Therefore, is there a religious decline, and if so has it contributed to high immorality rates in the US?

There are people who believe that practices such as churchgoing, and religious adherence are on a widespread decline in the United States. The U.S. Vice president, Mike Pence was quoted in The Atlantic stating that; "Religious faith in America is going the way of the Yellow Pages and travel maps, we keep hearing. It's just a matter of time until Christianity's total and happy extinction, chortle our cultural elites (Stanton 1)." He is insinuating that Christianity in the country is on a decline. Why does the country's second powerful person hold this belief? Sarah Pulliam Bailey in an article that was published in the Washington Post May 12th, 2015 notes that there is a decline in America in terms of people who ascribe to Christianity. Bailey uses a survey that reported by the Pew Research Center in 2015 that noted from 2007 to 2014 there had been an eight percent drop to 71 percent of people who described themselves as Christians (Bailey 1). According to the American Religious Identification Survey, after conducting a study for 18 years found out that there was an increase from 16 to 23 percent of people were not affiliated to any form of religion.

Lyman Stone believes that a decline in attendance of the mainline churches is as a result of the cultural and political changes that are taking place in the US (Stone 1). Mainline churches are defined as the white-majority churches. He goes on to state that while the mainline churches are on the decline, the evangelical churches are slowly and steadily growing. He illustrates this by providing the following examples. The Presbyterian 'mainline' Church has over the last 20 years been on the decline in terms of attendance. On the other hand, the Presbyterian 'evangelical' Church has been growing. This has also been witnessed in the Lutheran and Methodist churches.

In another study that was conducted by the Harvard University and Indiana University, Bloomington researchers found out that churchgoing and religious adherence in the United States is still higher than the case in the other developed countries. For instance, the research findings of this study indicated that one in three Americans prays on multiple occasions on a daily basis. This is in contrast to one in 15 in other developed nations (Stanton 1). The study also found out that one-third of Americans believe that the Bible is the actual word of God, while less than 10 percent of the population in the other developed countries believe this notion. The study also revealed that the percentage of Americans who hold strong religious beliefs has increased from 39 percent in 1989 to 47 percent in 2017 (Stanton 1). It is important to point out that while the Mainline churches are reporting a reduction in attendance, a majority of the people leaving these churches are not converting from Christianity, they are choosing to attend different churches.

There is an explosive growth of megachurches in the United States. The small community-driven rectangular churches that had sprouted in different parts of the country are being replaced by the big round churches. The authoritative pastors such as Billy Graham and John Hagee that preached to their congregation about the importance of salvation, abstinence from sin, Heaven and Hell, are being replaced by charismatic pastors such as Joel Osteen who focus on success and being happy. These churches are highly appealing to the Millennials and younger generations who are highly unconcerned about the moral implications that have been brought about by commercialized faith. These churches are addressing some of the needs that are unavailable or not encouraged in the traditional or mainline churches. For instance, they have good praise and worship teams that make praising God to be an entertaining venture, which is not the case in the traditional churches. They also have diverse programs meant for different groups of people and enough resources to run them concurrently. A majority of these churches are led by successful pastors, and a majority of the worshippers aspire to be as successful as them. In addition to that, the quality of the programs, books, and videos is high, and they can be accessed through the social media platform, which makes them trendy.

However, while a religious decline in America is not true as has been evidenced in the previous paragraphs, there is an increase in immorality. As has been noted in the previous paragraph, there has been a shift from the traditional to the mega-churches (Jones 382). The problem with these churches is that even though they are Christian-based, a majority of the people who attend them worship the pastor. This can be devastating for both the church and its congregants in the event that the main pastor is caught in a scandal. For instance, on January 7th, 2018, Andy Savage a pastor at a Memphis megachurch was forced to resign after a case of sexual misconduct that he was involved in 1998. In such a case, the church is highly likely to have a reduced attendance because the congregants came to church to listen to the pastor preaching, and not to worship God (Kahm 356). A majority of the megachurch pastors have a rock-celebrity status instead of being viewed as a servant of God. Megachurches also discourage social interactions and fellowships because they have a large number of congregants. Christian beliefs are emphasized by regular fellowships and prayer meetings in small groups, which are still practiced in the traditional churches. They are also cult-like because the pastor instead of God, or the word of God is the center of attention (Keane 1).

Moral decline has been propagated by the rise of megachurches and other forms of churches whereby its congregants feel that they are not affiliated to any religious denomination. A majority of the attendants of these churches feel that they do not have a moral obligation to the society, and care less about the moral implications of being in a commercialized faith (Levy and Razin 135). The result of this has been a slow but steady erosion or decline of the country's moral foundation. Things that were in the past considered to be morally wrong and unacceptable such as divorce, abortion, and same-sex marriages are being accepted. For instance, in 1900 only 1% of marriages in the US ended in divorce, today more than 50% of marriages will end as a result of a divorce (Matthews 3). A majority of the people in the society feel that individual happiness as long as it does not affect the majority in the society should be accepted, despite being considered as immoral in relation to American foundation or Biblical beliefs. Arguments such as homosexuality, abortion, or divorce are private decisions are encouraged and supported by people who want to be politically correct. They feel that by denying these 'individual rights,' it is similar to oppression (Twenge, et al. 28). However, the problem with such beliefs is that it encourages other dangerous and violent vices in the country. For instance, there is an increase in hate crime, and racially motivated crimes in America and other developed countries. The remedy to this is simply going back to the moral foundations that were set by the founding fathers of the country.

Conclusion

In conclusion, although it seems that there is an increase in people who consider themselves as religious, there is a decrease in moral values in the country. This has been facilitated by a majority of Christians abandoning the traditional churches and attending churches that they feel favor their lifestyles. They feel that the traditional church teachings such as Catholic Church against same-sex marriage, divorce, and abortion are not appealing. The new and trendy churches allow these things, but still, provide them (congregants) with the opportunity to 'worship' God. The word worship has been put in quotes because of a majority of the attendants in reality 'worship' the main pastor. Also, a majority of p...