Every year, the Freedom From Religion Foundation gets complaints about graduations in public schools. Preachers delivering sermons, staff and students scheduled to deliver prayers, the graduation being held in a church — you name the violation, we’ve seen it. None of these is an issue for a commencement ceremony at a private religious college, such as Hillsdale College in southern Michigan, which, however, had a problem of its own.
The trouble with Hillsdale’s commencement, which was full of religion, was that it was also full of lies and alternative facts (but perhaps I repeat myself). The source of this problem was Vice President Mike Pence, who addressed the graduating class.
One of Pence’s favorite lines, which he used when he accepted the Republican nomination and trotted out again for the graduates, nicely illustrates the Pence problem: “I’m a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican — in that order.” Pence considers himself a Christian before anything else, including someone who values facts and truth (but perhaps I repeat myself yet again).
Pence’s extremely conservative Christian worldview taints all he sees, even reality. The rest of his speech proves the point.
After some niceties, Pence launched into it. Buckle up.
“And I can personally attest, from my travels across this nation, faith in America is rising once again.”
Pence can attest all he wants, but personal assertions don’t alter reality. Nearly every study in the last decade has shown that Americans are leaving religion behind.
If we focus on those who don’t just check the “none” box, but also consider themselves atheist or agnostic, the numbers are striking. Atheists and agnostics now make up 7 percent of the total U.S. population, which is more than Mormons, Jews, Hindus, Muslims, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Buddhists combined. One recent survey, from the religiously oriented Barna Group, found that 21 percent of Americans born after 1999 are atheist or agnostic. Not just nonreligious, but atheist or agnostic. That’s huge. Another 14 percent have no religious affiliation.
Overall, 23 percent of Americans identify as nonreligious, but that number is three years old and almost certainly higher now. That 8-point increase since 2007 and 15-point jump since 1990 makes the “nones” the fastest-growing identification in America.
Read the full story at Patheos
