5.13.2008
A Peek Into The Post-Christian Future
Ruth Gledhill of The Times examines new survey data on religious attendance in Britain, and the results aren't looking too good for Christianity.
"Church attendance in Britain is declining so fast that the number of regular churchgoers will be fewer than those attending mosques within a generation, research published today suggests ... Churchgoing [Christians] across all denominations in England will fall from about 3 million today to about 700,000 in 2050. In Wales it will tumble from 200,000 to 42,000 and in Scotland, from 550,000 to 140,000. The figures take into account the recent boost to Catholicism from the number of Polish immigrants to Britain, particularly in Scotland."
The new data comes from UK-based Christian Research, who regularly publish updates on church attendance and adherence in their "Religious Trends" studies. While the Times article gives special focus to Muslim fortunes in this brave new (projected) Christian-minority world (at least in terms of attendance), the rising tide of declining Christian attendance raises all religious minority boats.
"The forecast to 2050 shows churchgoing in Britain declining to 899,000 while the active Hindu population, now at nearly 400,000, will have more than doubled to 855,000."
So if Muslims and Hindus are going to benefit, what about the Pagans? According to the last British census, there were around 40,000 Pagans in the UK. But many Pagans believe there are a lot more, from conservative estimates of nearly 300,000, to (un-sourced) articles claiming there are a million Pagans. If census growth rates hold steady in the next fifty years (and if these latest projections hold true for all non-Christian faiths), religion in Britain won't be taken over by Muslims, instead we can look forward to a Britain locked in a precarious balance between the remaining Christians, Muslims, Hindus, and Pagans.
Aiding the growth of minority faiths will be the economic decline of Christianity in Britain. As attendance drops, the large institutional structures maintained by the Church of England and the Catholics will become unsustainable. Something that could happen in less than thirty years.
"The fall - from the four million people who attend church at least once a month today - means that the Church of England, Catholicism and other denominations will become financially unviable. A lack of funds from the collection plate to support the Christian infrastructure, including church upkeep and ministers' pay and pensions, will force church closures as ageing congregations die."
Of course, predictions of future events could always be altered by factors yet unforeseen. However, it does give us a glimpse of how a post-Christian world might look, and what our place might be in such a world. Will we be ready for a time when modern Pagans hold political office (and pandered to by politicians looking to get into office), are looked to for social guidance, and considered completely mainstream? We in America may get a preview of such a world sooner than we think in the UK.
Labels: census, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Paganism, post-Christian, Religion, survey, UK
Comments:
The problem is the Muslims and Pagans especially won't co-exist. Many Mosques in England are Wahhabist, the denomination of Islam practiced in Saudi Arabia where they routinely burn Witches. Studies show that young Muslims aren't assimilating in the same way previous generations were, so you have more religious conflict, not less.
We see a similar trend here where several schools banned Halloween celebrations because it offended Muslims and Christians. I blogged a story from New York where a Muslim students were attacking Sikhs and the desecrations of Jewish Cemetaries and Synagogs in NY are being attributed to Wahhabi influenced Muslim youth.
My point is that it's more likely there will be conflict, not co-existance, between Pagans and Muslims (and Buddhists and Hindus etc) when Christianity is gone and the universalist religons see their chance to become top dog.
Remember, in the Koran the main oppnents of "Truth" are pagans and jews. As fundamentalism sweeps western Muslim communities they will treat us the way they the the Animists in Darfur and the Druze in Lebanon.
I don't know how much I agree with HellFireBlogs. Certainly we should expect some conflict in the near future and that conflict will certainly continue for some time, however, just as many minority groups have formed and conflict has formed around them (let's remember that warring between denominations of Christianity has been and continues to be a problem, that when the Irish and Chinese came to America they were treated inhumanely) eventually this dies down, the majority becomes more tolerant and people become more assimilated into the surrounding culture.
I think what's key here is to remember that the problems of the past were that often minority groups were persecuted and misunderstood. Even if Wahhabists are taught to hate us, well, so are Christians. And yet many Christians accept us.
Embracing the Wahhabists may not solve the problem but treating them with fear and resentment definitely won't.
I believe, firmly, that what we need to do is create a culture of understanding. These kids (and many adults for that matter) feel as if they're hated and persecuted. Show them otherwise. Will they all suddenly lay down arms? No. But there will be some who do and those few will be the pebble in the lake, affecting ripples of change.
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The problem is the Muslims and Pagans especially won't co-exist. Many Mosques in England are Wahhabist, the denomination of Islam practiced in Saudi Arabia where they routinely burn Witches. Studies show that young Muslims aren't assimilating in the same way previous generations were, so you have more religious conflict, not less.
We see a similar trend here where several schools banned Halloween celebrations because it offended Muslims and Christians. I blogged a story from New York where a Muslim students were attacking Sikhs and the desecrations of Jewish Cemetaries and Synagogs in NY are being attributed to Wahhabi influenced Muslim youth.
My point is that it's more likely there will be conflict, not co-existance, between Pagans and Muslims (and Buddhists and Hindus etc) when Christianity is gone and the universalist religons see their chance to become top dog.
Remember, in the Koran the main oppnents of "Truth" are pagans and jews. As fundamentalism sweeps western Muslim communities they will treat us the way they the the Animists in Darfur and the Druze in Lebanon.
I don't know how much I agree with HellFireBlogs. Certainly we should expect some conflict in the near future and that conflict will certainly continue for some time, however, just as many minority groups have formed and conflict has formed around them (let's remember that warring between denominations of Christianity has been and continues to be a problem, that when the Irish and Chinese came to America they were treated inhumanely) eventually this dies down, the majority becomes more tolerant and people become more assimilated into the surrounding culture.
I think what's key here is to remember that the problems of the past were that often minority groups were persecuted and misunderstood. Even if Wahhabists are taught to hate us, well, so are Christians. And yet many Christians accept us.
Embracing the Wahhabists may not solve the problem but treating them with fear and resentment definitely won't.
I believe, firmly, that what we need to do is create a culture of understanding. These kids (and many adults for that matter) feel as if they're hated and persecuted. Show them otherwise. Will they all suddenly lay down arms? No. But there will be some who do and those few will be the pebble in the lake, affecting ripples of change.
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