OPINION:
Gallup just released its World Poll that found America is shedding religion like a bad habit — or, in the words of the pollsters, that there has been a “17-percentage-point drop in U.S. religiosity over the past decade” and that is “among the largest Gallup has recorded in any country over any 10-year-period since 2007.”
Well, that doesn’t sound good.
After all, if the core of American exceptionalism is the idea that individual rights and liberties come from God and that government only exists to secure and safeguard those God-given rights and liberties — then a country that’s stopped believing in God, worshipping God, recognizing God, reading about God and applying godly principles to the day-to-day is fated, it would seem, to lose the concept of God-given. Out with the God-given; in with the government-granted. Out with the individualism; in with the collectivism.
No wonder socialism is on the rise and communists are winning U.S. elections.
Marxists and communists and socialists are largely secularists and atheists. Their government is their god.
As America moves away from religion, government grows in size and power and becomes the provider — as well as the taker.
“The 17-point drop in the percentage of U.S. adults who say religion is an important part of their daily life — from 66 percent in 2015 to 49 percent today — ranks among the largest Gallup has recorded in any country over any 10-year-period since 2007,” Gallup wrote in a press release. Gallup went on: “About half of Americans now say religion is not an important part of their daily life.” And one more point, as Gallup put it: “Such large declines in religiosity are rare. Since 2007, only 14 out of more than 160 countries in the World Poll have experienced drops of over 15 percentage points in religious importance over any 10-year period.”
Fantastic. Insert sarcasm here. America the elite.
This is not what this nation should be known for — losing her religion.
There is a good side to the story, however, and it goes like this: “Religion still more important in U.S. than in many OECD countries,” Gallup wrote, in reference to Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development comparisons.
So America’s losing her religion — but not to worry because other nations are still less religious than America?
Not comforting.
“Only a small number of mostly wealthy nations have experienced larger losses in religiosity, including Greece from 2013-2023 (28 points), Italy from 2012-2022 (23 points) and Poland from 2013-2023 (22 points),” Gallup wrote.
The difference is not one of those countries has a foundational and governing principle that goes like this: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights …” — and that is used as the primary compass for how politicians should behave.
Without God, America is just another parcel of land.
Without God, America has no God-given.
Without God, America is on a perilous path to socialism, communism, Marxism, collectivism.
And according to Gallup, that’s where half of America now stands — without God.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “God-Given Or Bust: Defeating Marxism and Saving America With Biblical Truths,” is available by clicking HERE.
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