“It’s time to chase out of the house of God all the unbelievers”

Christian protestor demonstrator at the state capitol on Sunday.

Pastors Ken Hutcherson and Wendy Treat launched salvos against atheists on Sunday, demanding they get lost — that we get out of political activity, the government, and the state capitol, as if we have no rights to be involved in government. There was a lot of sentiment expressed that Christians are being persecuted, and need to form a movement to counter that persecution — that they’re not going to roll over and “take it”. 

Hutcherson said, “The number one thing is, we want the state of Washington and the governor to represent everyone in the state,” said the Rev. Kenneth Hutcherson, the pastor of Antioch Bible Church in Redmond. “But just because you must represent everyone in the state doesn’t mean that you put up with intolerance from the people that you represent.” Of course, he said this while asking for the FFRF sign to be torn down.

Ken Hutcherson's church placed signs mocking the Atheist sign on Sunday at the state capitol.

Hutcherson’s church placed another sign, and a few more had shown up during the day, mocking the atheists’ sign, adjacent to the nativity display.

Rep. Jim Dunn spoke at the rally as well, and said, ”It is time to chase out of the house of God all the unbelievers and evildoers.” Said while standing on the steps of the state capitol — is this the “house of god” he’s speaking of? Does Rep. Dunn actually think that the capitol is the house of god?

They may have good reason to be worried, as the number of people who profess a religious affiliation are shrinking, according to the 2007 Pew study on religion in America. For Atheists, the results are encouraging, but that’s no reason for Christians to feel persecuted, by any means, as they still represent the vast majority.  

More than one-quarter of American adults (28%) have left the faith in which they were raised in favor of another religion - or no religion at all. If change in affiliation from one type of Protestantism to another is included, 44% of adults have either switched religious affiliation, moved from being unaffiliated with any religion to being affiliated with a particular faith, or dropped any connection to a specific religious tradition altogether.

The survey finds that the number of people who say they are unaffiliated with any particular faith today (16.1%) is more than double the number who say they were not affiliated with any particular religion as children. Among Americans ages 18-29, one-in-four say they are not currently affiliated with any particular religion.

Although there are net “winners” and “losers” in the U.S. religious marketplace, the survey underscores the fact that all groups are gaining and losing individual adherents. Even groups that are net losers are attracting new members – just not enough to offset the number who are leaving.

A member of Open Air Seattle at the capitol on Sunday.

The fact that they are losing membership speaks to the inadequacy of their message, and not to being persecuted. What they are selling is increasingly making less and less sense to people. Maybe if they tried moderation, they wouldn’t be losing such numbers, but anytime you move toward fundamentalism of any kind, you undermine broad support for your movement.