Empty Churches, Also in America

American conservatives have always mocked Europe for its lack of religiosity.  The US is superior to Europe because Americans are more religious and attend church.  The empty churches in Europe reflect the post-modernist "relativism" of Europeans, as the European continent (Eurabia) is overrun by fervent Muslims.  The Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney recently mocked European godlessness as he put forward his vision of a faith-based presidency:

"Europe’s cathedrals are indeed "so inspired, so grand, so empty," as
Mitt Romney, a Mormon, put it …. Some do not survive at all. The Continent has
paid a heavy price in blood for religious fervor and decided some time
ago, as a French king once put it, that "Paris is well worth a Mass."

Romney, a Republican candidate for the presidency and former
Massachusetts governor, was dismissive of European societies "too busy
or too ‘enlightened’ to venture inside and kneel in prayer." In so
doing, he pointed to what has become the principal trans-Atlantic
cultural divide."

But Romney failed in his bid for the presidency, and American churches – according to a new poll – are emptying out:

"A new map of faith in the United States shows a nation constantly
shifting amid religious choices, unaware or unconcerned with doctrinal
distinctions. Unbelief is on the rise. And immigration is introducing
new faces in the pews, new cultural concerns, new forces in the public
square.

Key findings from the survey:

Faith
is fluid: 44 percent say they’re no longer tied to the religious or
secular upbringing of their childhood. They’ve changed religions or
denominations, adopted a faith for the first time or abandoned any
affiliation altogether.

"Nothing" matters: 12.1 percent
say their religious identity is "nothing in particular," outranking
every denomination and tradition except Catholics (23.9 percent) and
all groups of Baptists (17.2 percent).

here are as many self-proclaimed pagans (0.3 percent) as there are Disciples of Christ, Orthodox Jews, or Greek Orthodox.

Nearly 20 percent of all men and 13 percent of all women are unaffiliated. So are 25 percent of adults under age 30.

The
major Christian denominations are losing numbers fast. Only
nondenominational Christian churches showed growth outpacing losses.
"Two in three people who say they grew up as Jehovah’s Witnesses have
left the faith. Any one of 10 people you meet is a former Catholic,"
Lugo says.

The two groups who identified with "Nothing
in particular" now match or outstrip the two largest mainline
Protestant groups. The percentage of "secular unaffiliated" (6.3
percent), who say religion is unimportant to them, is statistically the
same as Methodists (6.2 percent).The "religious unaffiliated" (5.8
percent), who say they believe religion is at least somewhat important,
now outnumber Lutherans (4.6 percent).

The good news here is that there really is no longer a  monolithic "Religious Right" in the US: that group of gay-hating, war-loving Americans that propelled George  W. Bush to the presidency.  Evangelicals are now a far more  diverse group, with  younger Christians now much more concerned about  issues like poverty, global warming and social justice.  The candidacy of Republican Mike Huckabee also shows that there is some support in America for the concept of Christian Democracy, although its time may have passed as more and more Americans turn away from religion altogether.  In this development, America looks more and more like Europe.