Tag Archives: decline of religion

Secular Times: Best for Christians?

“Although some religious conservatives warn that the retreat from faith will lead to a collapse of social cohesion and public morality, the evidence doesn’t support this claim. As unexpected as it may seem, countries that are less religious actually tend to be less corrupt and have lower murder rates than the more religious ones.” (Ronald F. Inglehart, “Giving Up on God; The Global Decline of Religion,” Foreign Affairs, September/October 2020)

Inglehart cites several factors in the noticeable decline of religion in the United States and other developed societies.

One is the greater security people may feel when their material needs are more easily met. They don’t feel a need to depend on a divine being to protect them from material want.

Also, as gender and sexual norms are relaxed, religion becomes less important in enforcing those norms.

However, Christianity began in the more secular society of the Roman empire. The Roman empire was fairly moderate in terms of religious freedom, so long as no religion advocated the overthrow of Rome.

Jesus taught his disciples not to worry about material things but to be more concerned about seeking God’s kingdom and righteousness. He did not, however, seem to forbid wealth in itself and even enjoyed fellowship with some who were well-off.

Though the early Christian communities taught care of the poor, some of the early Christians were well-off and shared their wealth. They also included the learned, like the apostle Paul.

The attraction to the religion of Christ has, throughout the centuries, included those who care for the poor, such as many religious communities in the Middle Ages. Material support for these communities often came from the well-off.

Christianity often spreads through a minority, but a minority that encourages practices that benefit society as a whole. In America, some Christians advocated for the abolition of slavery. Others advocated for universal access to education. Still others began missionary societies that cared for the poor and the sick even as they evangelized.

A belief in the worth of all people also contributed to the growth of more democratic forms of government.

Christianity is not necessarily limited in ultimate results by being a minority.

Religion, including Christianity, can be corrupted. Yet, throughout the centuries, each failure within the Christian community has birthed a minority who not only overcame the failures but found new ways to grow.

Decline of Religion

According to one academic study, religious practice in the world appears to be declining:

“From about 2007 to 2019, the overwhelming majority of the countries we studied—43 out of 49—became less religious. The decline in belief was not confined to high-income countries and appeared across most of the world.” (Ronald F. Inglehart, University of Michigan, “Giving up on God; the Global Decline of Religion,” Foreign Affairs, September/October 2020)

A previous study analyzing 49 countries from 1981-2007 had found that 33 of the 49 countries had become more religious. The 33 countries included most former communist countries, most developing countries, and even a few high income countries.

The more recent study, however, showed that religion was practiced less even in many lower income countries.

Inglehart concluded: “Modern societies have become less religious in part because they no longer need to uphold the kinds of gender and sexual norms that the major world religions have instilled for centuries.”

What is interesting for me, however, in a personal look into Christianity’s place in the world today, is how it is, this moment, continuing its tradition of breaking new barriers.

In times past, religion in western societies usually revolved around families and communities. Schools, politics, and other forms of civic life tended to uphold norms held by the majority. Religion included a kind of civil religion, generally Christian or Jewish.

Mass migration of young people away from birth communities as well as modern inventions like social media have played havoc with community norms. The multi-generational family long ago gave way to the nuclear family which gave way to young people setting up single person households or with a significant other. Religion as encouraged by family suffered greatly.

Now, however, a next generation Christianity is proving that Christianity is not dead but evolving, perhaps closer to the model lived by Jesus.

A minority, but a significant minority, are espousing issues like racial reconciliation and care for the struggling—the homeless, the mentally ill, and the migrant, to name a few.

From the time the disciple Peter struggled to accept Gentiles into the Jewish Christian community, Christians have broken bounds, sometimes willingly, sometimes after fallow periods—but the conquest first named in a letter from the missionary preacher Paul continues today: “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you all one in Christ Jesus.”

Saving the Churches?

Religion is declining, according to an article in Foreign Affairs (“Giving Up on God; The Global Decline of Religion,” Ronald F. Inglehart).

Among Christians in the United States, church attendance is down. Some churches are closing. Religious schools are cutting staff. Will the Covid-19 pandemic finally sound the death knell on religion, including Christianity?

Inglehart touches on many reasons for religion’s decline including replacement by newer, more inclusive sets of values. He cites “human rights, tolerance of outsiders, environmental protection, gender equality, and freedom of speech.”

Yet, reaching these goals is not a given were religion to become extinct. Plenty of non-religious people fail to practice them.

Perhaps, as G.K. Chesterton is often quoted: “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.”

When we come close to trying Christianity, we may find the results casting doubt on its uselessness or actual harm.

For centuries, the cast down, enslaved, and violated, black Christians found the Christ that their white masters claimed to worship but did not know.

It’s no coincidence that the civil rights movement was led by black preachers. As long as injustices permeate a society, Christianity has the potential to be a worthy opponent.

Religion is not dying. It is reborn in the faith of black churches and all those treated unjustly. They are the ones who revive it.

A Post-Religious Society?

A couple of years ago, an article in The Economist emphasized the decline of religion in Britain. (“This sceptic isle,” August 13, 2016)

Churches are being sold. The percent of those describing themselves as “religious” has declined from 80 percent for those born before 1980 to 40 percent for those born after.

In the United States, the article pointed out, the nonreligious portion of the population rose from 16 percent in 2007 to 23 percent in 2014.

Who, the article asked, is going to take over the functions previously performed by religious institutions? Jobs like feeding the poor and counseling the grief stricken?

Of course, in the two millennia since the birth of Christianity, it has risen and fallen a number of times.

Byzantium, bastion of might and Eastern Orthodoxy, endured for over a thousand years before its military defeat by the Ottoman Empire.

But Ottomans failed twice to conquer Vienna and the rest of Europe. The European Renaissance and then the Reformation unfolded, movements both secular and religious.

After Christendom lost its way and became embroiled in barbarous wars, it declined, and the Age of Reason followed. However, Christianity eventually revived. Missionaries carried it to Africa and Asia. Other Christians were active in social issues, including the movement to abolish slavery. In the twentieth century, Christians took leadership roles in the civil rights movement.

Though the Christian faith now is going through a bad patch in Western countries, it is growing in Asia and Africa.

Somehow, one or way or another, resurrection seems to happen.