Christianity on the decline under Obama, pop media, and atheist persecution
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Atheism and agnosticism gained a boost during Obama's presidency as the number of people claiming no religious affiliation rose during his administration.

A church is burned in full-scale effigy at the Burning Man festival, an expression of pop culture.
Highlights
Catholic Online (https://www.catholic.org)
1/13/2017 (8 years ago)
Published in U.S.
Keywords: Pew, Religion, Obama, Christianity, decline, atheism, agnosticism
LOS ANGELES, CA (California Network) - The Pew Research Center has released a report which states, "When it comes to the nation's religious identity, the biggest trend during Obama's presidency is the rise of those who claim no religion at all."
In 2008, when Obama became president, only 16 percent of the American population claimed to be atheist or agnostic. Now, 1 in 4 Americans makes the same claim.
The number of Americans who pray daily and who attend regular church services has dropped.
The number of Christians in America dropped from 78 percent to 71 percent during the past eight years.
Protestants and Catholics have suffered the greatest declines while Evangelical Protestantism is the only faith community that has not suffered a decline. Black Christian denominations have also remained steady.
There is no clear reason why this shift has occurred. It is widely agreed that the Obama administration viewed religion as an adversary, often taking hostile positions on the question of religious freedom. His administration fought against the Little Sisters of the Poor, Hobby Lobby and other Christian entities.
In the popular media, Christians standing for their faith were labeled as homophobes, sexist or racist.
Rather the repudiate this anti-Christian rhetoric, the Obama administration continually doubled down. By inventing rights for some subsets of the population, Obama stripped rights from Christians. This move was reinforced by the mainstream media and pop culture. As a result, religion has been portrayed as a bullying.
There's little wonder why people have left religion, it has been maligned in pop culture, eschewed and attacked by our president, and mocked by militant atheists.
It now remains to be seen if Christianity will fare better under a friendlier administration.
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