Anxious white Protestants

Religious people have been their own worst enemies in recent weeks. 

First came a study from the journal Current Biology showing that children from religious families are less generous and more punitive than their peers, and that the more exposure to religion they received, the worse they behaved.  

It gets worse, especially for white Protestants, of which I am one. Two weeks ago, the Public Religion Research Institute released its 2015 American Values Survey, “Anxiety, Nostalgia, and Mistrust.” In it, we learn that more than half of white Protestants agree that “America’s best days are behind us,” while more than half of black Protestants, Catholics, people who aren’t Christian, and people who aren’t religious think that America’s best days are head of us.