Final Project Proposal: Disillusionment: The American public’s loss of faith in Christianity

My final project in Arts Journalism will be a social critical essay about the American public’s gradual loss of faith in the Catholic Church and the growing popularity of Atheism, using anti-Christian pieces of popular media to explore this disillusionment. I will argue for this disillusionment, not from an agnostic perspective, but from a social perspective, examining Christianity’s maleficent effects on the societies and individuals it dominates, using examples from works such as Bill Maher’s recent documentary Religulous, the first section of the Zeitgeist documentary, 2007 film “The Golden Compass”, and Chris Durang’s “Sister Mary Ignatius Explains it All for You,” to demonstrate my views. Dogmatic religions are towering social barriers in progressive civilization, and those in charge of these theocracies are its utmost malefactors. Anti-religious works such as “Religulous” and “Sister Mary Ignatius” are the results of writers and artists coming to terms with the fallacies they have been lead to believe since their childhood, feeling compelled to share their bitter enlightenment with those still under its sway. These works are inevitable products of this disillusionment, and, while frequently one-sided and biting in nature, their percolation is necessary to mankind’s advancement.