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Moral and Religious Decline in America Essay

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MORAL AND RELIGIOUS DECLINE IN AMERICA

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?”

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

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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

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Surname 1 Name Professor Name Course Date MORAL AND RELIGIOUS DECLINE IN AMERICA 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?” 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 con ...
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