Latinos are leaving the Catholic Church as they assimilate.
Latinos in the U.S., including Latino immigrants, are secularizing as they assimilate, and are now as likely to report “no religion” as Americans with other ethnic backgrounds. That’s eating into the political power of the Catholic church. The Speaker of the California Assembly, Fabian Núñez of Los Angeles, just told Cardinal Mahony to go fry ice (politely, but firmly) after Mahoney linked Nunez to “the culture of death” for supporting a “death with dignity” bill.
As the Los Angeles Times story points out, the Church was all-powerful in the Latino community when prelates were the only high-profile Latino spokesmen. Now there are Latino Speakers and Mayors.
Add this to the statistics on intermarriage, and it’s very hard to see any rational basis for the fear that Latino immigration is going to give the U.S. the sort of bicultural headaches Canada or Belgium have. That’s not the way this place works.
Author: Mark Kleiman
Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out.
Books:
Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken)
When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist
Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993)
Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989)
UCLA Homepage
Curriculum Vitae
Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com
View all posts by Mark Kleiman