by Tom
Wacaster
This past
week I was in Muncie, Indiana on a fund raising trip with brother Nehemiah
Gootam. The two of us have been visiting congregations in Oklahoma and Indiana
and telling brethren about the good work in India and Russia. One of the
“perks” of staying in a motel is the free newspaper we get every morning (as if
50 cents a day amounts to a whole lot – you can’t even buy a cup of coffee with
the meager savings – but then the coffee is free of charge too). Typically the
paper provided for the motel guests is USA Today. On August 11th the headline
read, “Religion takes a back seat in Western Europe.” OK, so what’s new?
Religion has taken a “back seat” in Europe for decades. In fact it has taken a
back seat in most of the Western world for the better part of a half century.
The fact of
the matter is, most folks in the Western world have become so affluent that God
no longer matters, religion is irrelevant, and the church, at least in the
minds of many, is a non-entity. The church buildings have become museums, relics
of a bygone era that is rapidly becoming ancient history. I then read the
subtitle of the article (that little catch phrase that is designed to “pull you
in” and read further): “Attendance is sliding; attitudes toward God and church
authority are changing.” That caught my attention. So I read on.
Church
attendance in Ireland, still among the highest in Western Europe, has fallen
from about 85% to about 60% between the years 1975 and 2004. This drop in
attendance is most apparent in France, Sweden, and the Netherlands, where
church attendance is less than 10% in some areas. Those are interesting
statistics, but certainly not surprising. It has been a little more than a year
since I read that churches in America are having the same decline in
attendance. But it was not the statistics that compelled me to use this space
in my weekly column to comment on this USA Today article. It was something
more; something much more: “Every major religion except Islam is declining in
Western Europe, according to the Study on Global Christianity…The drop is
evident in France, Sweden and the Netherlands.” Since 9/11/2001 the
public has been exposed to Islam with increasing regularity. In spite of the
fact that the Koran teaches conversion by the sword, in spite of the fact that
we witnessed on national television the fruits of Islam at its purest form, and
in spite of the fact that every Islamic nation is a nation of repression,
poverty, radical theology, and hatred for the Western world, our political
leaders and mass media seem to be falling all over themselves to promote and
glorify this ungodly and unholy religion. Be that as it may, there must be SOME
reason why Islam is growing and Christianity is declining. So I read further in
the USA Today: “The forces driving the decline include Europe’s turbulent
history, an increasing separation between the church and government – and
perhaps most of all, the continent’s unprecedented affluence.” Changing
attitudes toward abortion, homosexual marriages, divorce and remarriage, and
stem cell research indicate an ignorance of God’s word on some of the most
fundamental moral issues of our times. The combination of these factors
(Biblical ignorance, the secularization of society, and affluence) have proven
to be the greatest enemy of the church. It is not Islam that threatens us. As
one author lamented: “We have seen the enemy, and it is us.” Islam is growing
in the Western world because the citizens of Europe, and the United States no
longer feel the need for God.
The so
called “separation clause” in our constitution is being used by the God-haters
to purge America of religion. Meanwhile our economy continues to grow at an
unprecedented rate. We have more than our parents ever dreamed of having. The
average man on the street lives longer, resides in a bigger house, wears better
clothes, drives a far better automobile, and has more in the bank than
preceding generations. He enjoys the conveniences of modern technology, is better
educated, and enjoys unprecedented freedom. He has been taught from the time he
first entered public school that he is no different from a monkey, except in
molecular sequence. Is it any wonder that Christianity is declining? One
hundred years from now historians will ask, “Whatever happened to
Christianity?” Too bad they are not asking that question now, while there is
still time.