It is understandable and not necessarily bad news that a large majority of Americans say that religion is losing its influence, Pastor Greg Young tells
Newsmax TV.
"I don't think its bad news at all," Young told Ed Berliner on "MidPoint" Monday about the poll released recently by
Pew Research Center which found that 72 percent of Americans believe that religion is losing its influence.
Story continues below video.
Note: Watch Newsmax TV now on DIRECTV Ch. 349 and DISH Ch. 223
Get Newsmax TV on your cable system – Click Here Now
"At least we have people who are waking up to the realization that their Christian liberties and their religious freedom are being taken from them," he explained.
"Individuals are clearly saying that when they look at the rape statistics, the murder statistics, the gang violence statistics, the drug cartels, human trafficking, racial tensions, pedophilia, the destruction of family the model, the destabilization of communities, economic maleficence, the rise of ISIS, more kids born out of wedlock, sexually transmitted disease on the rise . . . suicide rates — these are all signs that led to the conclusion by intelligent reasoning people that religion in America, specifically Christianity, has been driven from the public," he said.
However, he contends that there's good news for Christianity in the Pew poll, as well.
"The Pew Report recently said that 78 percent of Americans still claim to be Christian," he said. "That's a pretty dominant number."
Dan Barker, the Freedom From Religion Foundation co-founder, told Newsmax TV that "America is becoming less religions because . . . we are becoming a more secular society."
"We are putting aside the religious abrasiveness of the past and becoming more moral and less religious," he explained.
He said that all the issues described by Young "are moral issues, they're not religious issues.
"The way to solve them is not by belief in some spook in the sky or committing certain rituals or believing in a contradictory and uninspiring holy book," he contends.
"The way to solve them is by using reason and intelligence," he added.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.