By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country
It's ironic that a new survey on the boom in "no religion" Americans arrives right after the death of the journalist who wrote Time magazine's famous 1966 cover story asking "Is God Dead?". The New York Times obit captures the impact of John T. Elson's piece:
The cover itself was eye-catching, the first one in Time's 43-year history to appear without a photograph or an illustration. Giant blood-red letters against a black background spelled out the question "Is God Dead?"
The issue caused an uproar, equaled only by John Lennon's offhand remark, published in a magazine for teenagers a few months later, that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus. The "Is God Dead?" issue gave Time its biggest newsstand sales in more than 20 years and elicited 3,500 letters to the editor, the most in its history to that point. It remains a signpost of the 1960s, testimony to the wrenching social changes transforming the United States.
It's hard to say which is the more significant development since that story ran: that religion in America has continued to thrive—with roughly half the country saying they go to religious services at least monthly—or the surge in Americans claiming to have no religion at all.
Hat tip to Focus on the Family's the Line blog.
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