War on Christianity

[Art Vandelay]

The second coming of Jesus. Turns out he's not as spry as he used to be.

[Barbarella]

There's a sudden rise in Christians accompanied by a drop in "nones" in 1997-1998. Any idea what happened there?

It was a more "innocent" time and not too many knew the extent of the Far-Right's insanity.

Also, many Millennials weren't born yet.

The antics of Bush & Co. & the Mad Tea Party has a way of turning off folks.

[niam2023]

There's very, very little way for a more politically savvy, fact checking generation to be taken in by; "We need to return to the 1950's, everything was good back then!"

[Sigmaleph]

There's a sudden rise in Christians accompanied by a drop in "nones" in 1997-1998. Any idea what happened there?

I've been asking myself the same thing, but I have no idea. Looking at the numbers, all I can get is this:

The increase in Christianity is only really noticeable in Protestants (go from 53% to 58%), accompanied by a decrease in "other" and "none".

The variations are unusually noticeable because 1997 saw a drop in Protestants and a small rise in other and none, and then the directions of the changes reversed. 1998 was very similar to 1996, on individual categories, but the combination of different kinds of Christianity amplifies the effect.

I suppose it could just be random noise? A bunch of minor variations which happened to all add up in the right direction to create a stark contrast? I don't know. The five-point increase in Protestants is big enough that I'm not comfortable calling it a fluke, but being as it is the largest category it should probably have the most variation.

[rookie]

Wasn't that around the time of the Republican Revolution or whatever they called it back when Clinton was facing a congress just as adversarial as Obama now? It was a long time ago and I've had some fun between then and now. But it seems to me Newt and Co. where there. And Columbine. And I remember Pat Robertson was all over the place sometime around then.

[Random Gal]

There's very, very little way for a more politically savvy, fact checking generation to be taken in by; "We need to return to the 1950's, everything was good back then!"

Of course, the people promoting that idea probably shit their pants if we brought the tax rates back to what they were in the 50s.

[Ultimate Paragon]

There's very, very little way for a more politically savvy, fact checking generation to be taken in by; "We need to return to the 1950's, everything was good back then!"

Of course, the people promoting that idea probably shit their pants if we brought the tax rates back to what they were in the 50s.

Or the unionization rates.

[rookie]

Or segregation. Or learning to hide under your desk in case of nuclear war.

[Askold]

Or segregation. Or learning to hide under your desk in case of nuclear war.

Some of them might even like the segregation and considering how popular the survivalist mentality is in USA the only problem they would have with the nuclear threat is that they would be supposed to build their own bunker rather than just hoard more guns.

[RavynousHunter]

There's a sudden rise in Christians accompanied by a drop in "nones" in 1997-1998. Any idea what happened there?

I've been asking myself the same thing, but I have no idea. Looking at the numbers, all I can get is this:

The increase in Christianity is only really noticeable in Protestants (go from 53% to 58%), accompanied by a decrease in "other" and "none".

The variations are unusually noticeable because 1997 saw a drop in Protestants and a small rise in other and none, and then the directions of the changes reversed. 1998 was very similar to 1996, on individual categories, but the combination of different kinds of Christianity amplifies the effect.

I suppose it could just be random noise? A bunch of minor variations which happened to all add up in the right direction to create a stark contrast? I don't know. The five-point increase in Protestants is big enough that I'm not comfortable calling it a fluke, but being as it is the largest category it should probably have the most variation.

My guess is that it was an outlier caused by a conglomeration of various factors.  Wasn't that the time that "born again" Christianity was becoming the hip, new fad?

[mellenORL]

The "born again" thing was well established by then. I'm gonna bet without researching that it was the crest of the first televangelists wave, post Jim and Tammy Baker, and yeah - Pat Robertson was campaigning politically. Also, that could be a bump up from the "prosperity" doctrine mega churches first reaching critical mass. Then factor in a fairly big trend in "other"/alternative such as "tribal" talismans, "spiritual" or "therapeutic" crystals and other pseudo pagan stuff. I remember lots of shops and boutiques popping up in trendy 'hoods that sold crystals, geodes, glass unicorns, incense, a-Buddha-for every-occasion, etc. This would have coincided with the baby boomers being old enough for a midlife crisis, yearning for their hippie peace-and-love days in the sixties and seventies.

[Barbarella]

The "born again" thing was well established by then. I'm gonna bet without researching that it was the crest of the first televangelists wave, post Jim and Tammy Baker, and yeah - Pat Robertson was campaigning politically. Also, that could be a bump up from the "prosperity" doctrine mega churches first reaching critical mass. Then factor in a fairly big trend in "other"/alternative such as "tribal" talismans, "spiritual" or "therapeutic" crystals and other pseudo pagan stuff. I remember lots of shops and boutiques popping up in trendy 'hoods that sold crystals, geodes, glass unicorns, incense, a-Buddha-for every-occasion, etc. This would have coincided with the baby boomers being old enough for a midlife crisis, yearning for their hippie peace-and-love days in the sixties and seventies.

Frankly, I'd rather see people embrace the "Hippie Crystal Unicorn Incense Buddha" than the "Raging Mid-East Desert Demiurge Of Doom". You might not believe in it but don't knock it. I wouldn't blame those Boomers for wanting to go back to "The Summer of Love" again.

I mean.........The Beatles or Carman? NO CONTEST! The former beatles the latter by a long shot! 

[Eiki-mun]

Unpopular opinion time: The Beatles were only slightly above average, and the main reason they seem so popular and "good" is because they happened to be the big pop band in the 60's, and people these days love to bring up when "music was good!" like their parents didn't say the exact same thing about music from the 30's and 40's. Combine that with the large amount of Baby Boomers and it's easy to see why the Beatles are so popular and well-loved.

Now Black Sabbath on the other hand... great music there.

[RavynousHunter]

Unpopular opinion time: The Beatles were only slightly above average, and the main reason they seem so popular and "good" is because they happened to be the big pop band in the 60's, and people these days love to bring up when "music was good!" like their parents didn't say the exact same thing about music from the 30's and 40's. Combine that with the large amount of Baby Boomers and it's easy to see why the Beatles are so popular and well-loved.

Now Black Sabbath on the other hand... great music there.

I disagree.  The Beatles were mostly complete shit.  Even as hippie rock, instead of the generic 60s British pop they were, they were far outclassed by the likes of Donovan.

[Ironchew]

There's a sudden rise in Christians accompanied by a drop in "nones" in 1997-1998. Any idea what happened there?

Satanic pikamen games.