Christians and “Nones”: Action vs Affiliation

Reverend Roland Stringfellow speaks outdoors in San Francisco at a podium displaying the sign “Love is never wrong”, surrounded by other religious leaders. Photo © 2013 Pax Ahimsa Gethen, Funcrunch Photo.

This week, the Pew Research Center released a study showing that Christians might become a minority group in the United States by the year 2070. If I live to see that day, I will be 100 years old, which is highly unlikely.

Christians in the US could be a minority group by 2070, study finds

As a long-time atheist, you might think I’d rejoice at the decline of Christianity and the rise of “nones” — religiously-unaffiliated people — in the U.S. And in some ways I do, as Christians have been primarily responsible for the oppression of women, queer and trans people, and other marginalized groups in this country.

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Here’s the thing, though. I care much more about people’s actions than their affiliations. There are countries—especially in Europe — with official state churches that are more socially progressive than the U.S., with our supposed separation of church and state.

Society without God

Christians who promote anti-abortion and anti-trans legislation point to Jesus and the Bible to defend their actions. But many other Christians support pregnant people’s rights to bodily…