The latest Harris and Pew polls indicate that the fastest growing religious belief is no religious belief at all. For the first time since these polls have been taken, “no religion” is even with Catholicism and Evangelical as the dominant religious belief in America.
Mike Pence must be furious.
In addition, a Research Center poll reported that 34 to 36 percent of millennials indicate “no religion” when asked about their affiliation, meaning that soaring red line on the poll is likely to continue soaring.
While I’m not anti-religion, I’m always disturbed by the way that religion attempts to both inform and direct government policy and force itself into our everyday life.
This country is blessed with the freedom of religion, but there are a great many people in America who would be willing to mitigate or eliminate this freedom entirely in order to promote their Judeo-Christian beliefs and restrict the rights of women, Muslims, Jews, LGBTQ folks, and many more.
These people – folks like Mike Pence’s wife, who works at a school that bans LGBTQ students and faculty – place the Bible over the Constitution and basic human decency when it comes to governing, legislating, and educating Americans.
They are rotten human beings who seek to make their beliefs the law of the land and reject religious freedom on the basis that their God is the only God.
They will not stop in their attempts to gain power and force their beliefs down our throats through both rhetoric, policy, and the gathering of power.
Happily, it looks like they are on the path to minority status. When this final happens, perhaps we will stop the prejudice, discrimination, and violence that takes place in America every day in the defense of religious belief.