Despite the fact that numerous researchers and studies show that the share of believers in the total population is steadily declining in America, Vice President Mike Pence is very optimistic about the faith in the United States. Actually, he shared his words of encouragement about the state of faith to a group of graduates and their families at a conservative Christian college.
“The percentage of Americans who live out their religion on a weekly basis — praying, going to church, reading and believing in the Bible — has remained remarkably consistent over the decades, even as the population of the United States has grown by leaps and bounds. I mean, think about it, today, relative to the population, four times as many Americans go to church on a regular basis than at the time of our nation’s founding. Religion in America isn’t receding. It’s just the opposite. Faith is gaining new life across America every day,” Vice President Mike Pence said at Hillsdale College commencement ceremony on May 12, 2018.
Josh Grubbs, college professor and researcher, reacted sharply to these claims by Vice President on Twitter: “This is demonstrably false. Like, I’ve coauthored two of the dozens and dozens of papers demonstrating this to be false.”
"Faith in America is rising again because President Trump and our entire administration is advancing the very principles that you learned here in the halls of Hillsdale College," Pence said, referring to the Trump administration's defense of religious freedom.
He also pointed to the country's growing economy, unemployment reaching a 17-year low, the U.S. withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal, moving a U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and ongoing discussions with North Korea as positive steps renewing faith in America under Donald Trump's presidency.
An article from the April edition of the journal ”Social Psychological and Personality Science” entitled “How Many Atheists Are There?” and another article, “The Number of Americans with No Religious Affiliation Is Rising” by Will M. Gervais and Maxine B. Najle, both psychologists at the University of Kentucky, contend that there may be far more atheists than pollsters report because “social pressures favoring religiosity, coupled with stigma against religious disbelief ... might cause people who privately disbelieve in God to nonetheless self-present as believers, even in anonymous questionnaires.”
Maybe Mike Pence is reading other kind of studies, but data shows that the number of Americans with no mainstream religious affiliation has been rising. Pence is certainly not telling only lies, but he is telling only one side of the story because the percentage of the population who believes in a literal Bible and attends church weekly has stayed relatively steady for the last 25 years, while the number of people with no faith is going up.
Photo Credits: Images Express
