Undoubtedly to coincide with Easter, this week's cover story in Newsweek has a title that is both provocative and overstated. It is “The End of Christian America,” where author Jon Meacham analyzes the 10 point percentage drop in the last two decades of Americans who self-identify as Christians.

Meacham notes, “ This is not to say that the Christian God is dead, but that he is less of a force in American politics and culture than at any other time in recent memory. To the surprise of liberals who fear the advent of an evangelical theocracy and to the dismay of religious conservatives who long to see their faith more fully expressed in public life, Christians are now making up a declining percentage of the American population.”

He writes, “While we remain a nation decisively shaped by religious faith, our politics and our culture are, in the main, less influenced by movements and arguments of an explicitly Christian character than they were even five years ago.”

Writers John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge of The Wall Street Journal responded to Newsweek in an article “God Still Isn't Dead” and said, “The decline of religion in America has been predicted again and again.” They wrote, Look closer and the new poll numbers are not quite as simple as headlines suggest. For one thing, they show that America remains remarkably religious by the standards of other advanced countries -- with three-quarters of the country still firmly Christian. And a significant number of Americans are becoming more godly, not less so: The increase in the number of atheists is going hand in hand with ever more conservative Christians and Pentecostals.

Read Newsweek article here.

Read the Wall Street Journal article here.