The USA is not a Protestant nation anymore

This was long coming. The USA has embraced multiculturalism like Australia has, and therefore, have no backbone in the faith the helped the country.

AP starts its news piece this way:

For the first time in its history, the United States does not have a Protestant majority, according to a new study. One reason: The number of Americans with no religious affiliation is on the rise.

So, it's not that they are turning to Catholicism as some have suggested, but those who are not affiliated with a historical church, or those non-denominational churches, are not considered Protestants at all.

The percentage of Protestant adults in the U.S. has reached a low of 48 percent, the first time that Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life has reported with certainty that the number has fallen below 50 percent. The drop has long been anticipated and comes at a time when no Protestants are on the U.S. Supreme Court and the Republicans have their first presidential ticket with no Protestant nominees. 

Among the reasons for the change are the growth in nondenominational Christians who can no longer be categorized as Protestant, and a spike in the number of American adults who say they have no religion. The Pew study, released Tuesday, found that about 20 percent of Americans say they have no religious affiliation, an increase from 15 percent in the last five years.

Just as Europe is turning more and more secular, the USA has also adopted the same approach, and this is alarming for those who have always considered that the USA is an exceptional nation, because it is, as they say, a Christian nation:

Growth among those with no religion has been a major preoccupation of American faith leaders who worry that the United States, a highly religious country, would go the way of Western Europe, where church attendance has plummeted. Pope Benedict XVI has partly dedicated his pontificate to combating secularism in the West. This week in Rome, he is convening a three-week synod, or assembly, of bishops from around the world aimed at bringing back Roman Catholics who have left the church.

As this trend continues, it is sure to affect the politics of the the USA.

The trend also has political implications. American voters who describe themselves as having no religion vote overwhelmingly for Democrats. Pew found Americans with no religion support abortion rights and gay marriage at a much higher-rate than the U.S. public at large. These "nones" are an increasing segment of voters who are registered as Democrats or lean toward the party, growing from 17 percent to 24 percent over the last five years. The religiously unaffiliated are becoming as important a constituency to Democrats as evangelicals are to Republicans, Pew said. 

There was a belief that the USA was different from Europe, because of its religiosity, that although it was a wealthy nation, it still had a faith to rely on. Well, as the Guardian Newspaper reports, that's only an illusion:

Researchers have been struggling for decades to find a definitive reason for the steady rise in those with no religion. The spread of secularism in western Europe was often viewed as a byproduct of growing wealth in the region. Yet among industrialised nations, the US stood out for its deep religiosity in the face of increasing wealth.

Both news sources point to the fact that there are no Protestants in the Supreme Court, and that the Republican presidential candidates, both are not Protestants. That, in the party that is considered the bastion of Protestantism.

Is this a sign that Protestantism as an experiment has failed? Catholics have not done well either. It is very interesting that such a study comes in the month when Protestantism celebrates its birth!!

Regardless of the final assessment we give to this finding, it shows that the thought of the USA as a Christian nation, is now just a myth.