General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Why Americans Are Losing Their Religion at a Startling Rate [View all]notadmblnd
(23,720 posts)Maybe some of them just go along with the program to reap the perks. However, I think many more prisoners are sincere while doing time.
I think that for many religion is a crutch. When facing crisis and chaos in their lives, they go back and lean on religion and when things are fairly stable they leave it by the wayside.
My husband's brother spent a couple of years in prison and while there- his letters and phone calls were often filled with "it happened for a reason" and "Gods changed my life" and the " I swear I'll never do it again" BS. But when he got out, he went back associating with the people and doing the things that landed him in prison to begin with. In the end, it was the use of the drugs he sold that killed him.
My grandmother, born in 1924 and raised catholic, totally rebelled in her adult life. She raised both her daughters without any guidance by any religious organization. My Aunt, as far as I ever knew, had nothing to do with religion her entire adult life. My mother on the other hand got religion when she got with a man 25 years her senior who was using the church to regain custody of his children from his ex. She was quite the little fundy nut for a while. She dragged us to church 2x on Sundays, Wednesday nights. Church choir practice, special holiday programs, revival meetings, vacation bible school and Saturday night pot luck dinner at the local fire hall. At home it was bible meetings and religious music played full blast while she made us clean house with her. In her later years, my mother has eased off on religion. she doesn't go to church, nor moralize to us very often anymore. My aunt, when she found out she was dying, immediately got religion and began setting things right with herself and people that she knew she had slighted and hurt over the years.
At the end of the millennium, I think a lot of people bought into the Y2K crap along with rapture ready loons and joined in believing that the end was coming. I think MSM and religion sucked a lot of people in with their rationals. The events of September 11, 2001, and the religious hyperbole that followed only reinforced that belief at the time. Now it's 13 years later and people are seeing that the end is not unfolding as they were told and are no longer feeling that they need religion as the strongest focus in their lives. I won't be around come the end of this millennium to find out if religion makes a resurgence then, so I guess it really doesn't matter what I think. By then I'll have found out for myself.