October Pundit 2
- Jylliann Huff
- Oct 27, 2019
- 1 min read
Jylliann Huff
We're Less and Less a Christian Nation, and I Blame Some Blowhards (https://nyti.ms/2WfbnqJ )
Some intolerant conservative evangelicals have tainted the faith.
The New York Times
October 26, 2019
Nicholas Kristof takes an opportunity in his article to expose the misconceptions about Christianity and its ties to conservative values. Kristof begins by explaining that there has been a massive decline in Chrisitian adults in the United States, with a 12% drop in the last decade. Christianity is often associated with bigotry, sexism, and conservative ideas. Kristof then refutes this, explaining how these misunderstandings are wrong. Kristof then claims that Trump’s behavior and character go against the ideas of Christianity. Most of today’s evangelical leaders are conservatives, so liberal youth stray away.
The tone in this article shifts from very shocked to very accusatory. Kristof appeals to logic by including multiple statistics to convey the decline in Christians in the US. He moves on the blame this decline on incorrect notions and Trump, developing that accusatory tone. The exigence appears to be the rapid decrease of Christians in the young adult population. Being a Christian himself, his purpose is to convince his readers that Christianity is not a religion of oppression and hatred because of its leaders and Trump, but a loving one.
I appreciate the somewhat controversial and often avoided topic Nicholas Kristof covers. It is bold and he delivered his claims in an effective way. I sensed no disrespect, even though it was a very personal article. The audience appears to be those who believe Christianity is a religion of hate and bigotry. His purpose is to reach out to those people and explain why there are these misconceptions and how they are wrong.
I commented on the blogs of Tucker, Landry, and Adam.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this article. I found its topic interesting, and I appreciated the statistics Kristoff used to back up his claims. I also noticed how he appealed to emotion at times when mentioning the positive impact many Christians have had in modern-day society.
I feel like a lot of the reasons why Christianity is associated with conservatism is because extremist, intolerant, conservative Christians get the most media attention. This may also contribute to why more and more young people stray from the church- they are the ones who consume the most social media and internet.
Kristof opens his op-ed with a bold statement, claiming that the majority of young people in the United States don't associate themselves with the Church. To back up such a broad claim, Kristof appealed to the logic of his readers, using many statistics to strengthen his argument. Kristof's tone also helps to express his main message throughout the argument by emphasizing specific phrases to readers.