Strayer ch 24 pp 740 - 747

Science and and socialist ideologies such as Marxism put a dent in the hold of religious belief in the minds of many early 20^th Century people. Science and socialism seemed to hold new answers that religion couldn’t answer old superstitions and beliefs were swept away. The new cause célèbre was Modernity with a capital m. However, religion did begin to change in terms of demographics. By the end of the 20^th Century Christianity had spread across wide swaths of Asia and Africa, but Islam also made inroads into China, where it represents 7% of the population and parts of north America, especially amongst African Americans. There was a sense of pluralism that pervaded the world, that confronted people to make choices to their beliefs and lives that once before they might have considered more fixed and inflexible.

In some ways however, religious groups, particularly Evangelic Christians thought that science and secular values had gone too far, so there was a backlash in which a certain amount of anti-modernity prevailed amongst these religious groups, most ardently opposed to Darwinism. They also reacted negatively to more liberal denominations of Christianity. They were also opposed to homosexuality, and abortion rights, believed that there would be a physical resurrection of Christ, and a heavy emphasis on miracles. They also tended to coincide with political parties that were opposed to “big government.” At first, more of a Libertarian stance, and solidly conservative. Some thought the U.S. was on the edge of a cliff and that these gains in science and culture had to be turned back somehow. Fundimentalists sought to create separate schools, churches and other institutions separate from the mainstream religious and secular institutions. And were called the religious right. People like Pat Robertson advocated that Evangelicals become more involved in the political process to impose their views on America at large. At the same time there was a rise in Hindu and Muslim nationalism in Asia.