{"id":1379,"date":"2013-06-12T09:07:00","date_gmt":"2013-06-12T09:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/06\/faith-in-values-god-versus-godless-a-false-choice.html"},"modified":"2013-06-12T09:07:00","modified_gmt":"2013-06-12T09:07:00","slug":"faith-in-values-god-versus-godless-a-false-choice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/06\/faith-in-values-god-versus-godless-a-false-choice.html","title":{"rendered":"Faith in Values: God Versus Godless\u2014a False Choice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
Depending on which pundits you follow, America is either a nation that\u2019s drenched in religion and hostile to nonbelievers, or a severely secular place that hates people of faith. On either side you\u2019ll find plenty of examples to support your claim.<\/span><\/div>\n
You may be convinced that we\u2019re becoming a theocracy, pointing to religion\u2019s steady intrusion into public policies in the fields of\u00a0science<\/a>,\u00a0public health<\/a>, and\u00a0foreign aid<\/a>, just to name a few. Add to that the\u00a0stigma<\/a>\u00a0many atheists claim to face, and it\u2019s clear that America is on the verge of dumping the Constitution and making the Bible its governing document.<\/span><\/div>\n
Or maybe you\u2019re certain that we\u2019ve abandoned the spiritual values and moral principles that made this nation great. Just look at the high numbers of\u00a0children born out of wedlock<\/a>, theattacks on religious liberty<\/a>, and the attempts to\u00a0erase God from the public sphere<\/a>. Check out the\u00a0hostility toward religion<\/a>\u00a0from elites in journalism, universities, and the media, and it\u2019s obvious that people of faith are being victimized for their beliefs.<\/span><\/div>\n
If you resist choosing a side in this debate, however, you\u2019re not alone. Such simplistic extremes don\u2019t begin to reflect the way actual people live in the real world. Sure, these views make for lively theatrics, but they ignore the dynamic complexities of behavior and belief.<\/span><\/div>\n
In the real world people don\u2019t fit into such tidy boxes. Morality can be in the eye of the beholder. Good and evil are rarely simple. And faith and doubt are most often intertwined.<\/span><\/div>\n
Read the rest here<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Depending on which pundits you follow, America is either a nation that\u2019s drenched in religion and hostile to nonbelievers, or a severely secular place that hates people of faith. On either side you\u2019ll find plenty of examples to support your claim. You may be convinced that we\u2019re becoming a theocracy, pointing to religion\u2019s steady intrusion […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2251,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nFaith in Values: God Versus Godless\u2014a False Choice<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Depending on which pundits you follow, America is either a nation that\u2019s drenched in religion and hostile to nonbelievers, or a severely secular place\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/06\/faith-in-values-god-versus-godless-a-false-choice.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Faith in Values: God Versus Godless\u2014a False Choice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Depending on which pundits you follow, America is either a nation that\u2019s drenched in religion and hostile to nonbelievers, or a severely secular place\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/06\/faith-in-values-god-versus-godless-a-false-choice.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rhetoric Race and Religion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-06-12T09:07:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Andre E. 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