What has happened to Christianity in the American Public square ?

[jojoju1998]

There used to be a time; when Christianity used to be a public force, a intellectual force. It wasn't reactionary, fundamentalism. And it wasn't trying to force beliefs; but it created a intellectual framework, on which to engage the wider public, society.

Now ? Mainline Protestantism is dead. Fundamentalist Evangelicaism is popular. And the Catholic Church is polarized.

[DaleCooper]

It turned into a partisan political movement, and now it's ruined.

[riceowl]

People like to be mean, Trump made it ok for evangelicals to be mean, so now evangelicals are mean and they like it.

[OSR stands with Israel]

The reason is  coalition politics , so they had to work along side economic conservatives and national security conservatives to advance some of their goals and the same is true for the other parts of the conservative coalition too .

[DaleCooper]

People like to be mean, Trump made it ok for evangelicals to be mean, so now evangelicals are mean and they like it.

They were always horribly mean, lol. I'm not surprised at all that they worship Trump. He's practically identical to all the gluttonous, mean-spirited, wealthy, ignorant, and adulterous televangelists they worshipped in the past. The difference is that Trump is a political figure rather than a televangelist.

[Darthpi – Anti-Florida Activist]

I can't speak for the country as a whole, but I can recount the exact moment I realized that American Christianity was going down a path that felt deeply, deeply uncomfortable to me. It was either late 2002 or early 2003, in the lead up to the Iraq War but before the bombing had actually started. The pastor at the church I attended then gave a sermon explicitly defending the idea of pre-emptive war as consistent with the Bible. At that point I had mixed feelings about the idea of starting another war while still at war in Afghanistan, but I was undecided on the issue rather than really opposed - I was 13 at the time, my parents had Fox News on a lot, and I didn't know enough to realize that the government might lie about something as important as the reasons for going to war. That being said, the idea that a religious leader who claims to believe in "thou shall not kill" would support a war in circumstances other than self-defense after being attacked seemed deeply, shockingly hypocritical to me. From that moment on I increasingly felt estranged from that church, and that sense of alienation would only grow stronger as the national debate over gay marriage really kicked into gear during Bush's re-election campaign in 2004.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Due to fact of income inequality is exacerbated in this country the wealth gap is huge it's not about getting a degree anymore, it's about who you know and inherited wealth on getting a white collar jobs my cuz is one of the only person to break thru in my maternal side to get a white collar job and he got it thru the military, my Dad could of started his own business but he worked for his boss for 20 yrs instead of starting a family business

Christianity too many pastors get rich and same with Catholic church the hierarchy is very inherited related like white collar job I tried to get a Job with my old Church and they wanted me for Security

Jesus said he would return one day and it's been 2Knyrs no Jesus, we don't know when he will return but the world is getting worse not better

[John Dule]

It went out of style along with neoconservatism and crocs.

[Del Tachi]

There still is a Christian intellectual movement that lives in established seminaries and the like, it's just what they're putting out isn't able to compete in a cable news + social media type environment. 

[PSOL]

Christianity has always been a reactionary tool in US politics, and it has been a negative feature consistently since our founding.

The declines being witnessed now is what happens when most people don’t want the chains to be as tight on their necks.