Europe’s Christian revolution – and why the UK isn’t part of it, by Campbell Campbell-Jack.
‘Everybody knows’ that Christianity in Europe is dwindling away, merely a few old codgers clinging to the beliefs of their childhood like overgrown infants with a comfort blanket.
The reality is very different. Christianity is resurgent throughout Europe.
In Spain … between 2011 and 2012 the proportion of the population attending Mass grew by nearly a quarter from 12.1 per cent to 15 per cent. The number attending on a weekly basis grew by 23 per cent between 2012 and 2013. … Spain’s Evangelical churches are growing. According to a report from the Spanish government’s Justice Ministry, in 2016 a new Evangelical church opened in Spain every two and a half days. This does not include the many unregistered house churches or Bible study/prayer groups.
We see the same in Germany where there was a 6 per cent growth in Protestant churches in 2016.
France repeats the pattern. Despite its strong tradition of laïcité, or secularism, there is a growth of evangelical Christianity in France. According to a report by the National Council of Evangelicals, in France a new Evangelical church opened every ten days that year. In the last 60 years the number of evangelicals has increased tenfold. … The French are still 34 per cent atheist. However, as in Germany and Spain, the spiritual ‘tectonic plates’ are shifting.
The same shift is seen in Eastern Europe. Ground down by atheistic communism for decades, freedom has brought growth to Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox churches. …
Why?
Secular globalism’s chickens are coming home to roost. Globalism’s anti-cultural, anti-traditional thrust threatens a sense of place, identity and security. Confronted by this, people instinctively tend to resist by re-asserting their traditional identity. Secular globalism’s anti-traditional dynamic has produced a counter dynamic. …
The UK:
There is one major exception to this European renewal of Christianity: the UK. There are signs of recovery such as an increase in numbers training for ordination, but these are little more than straws in the wind.
Why? Culture and faith are inseparable, they interact and influence each other. In the UK the mainstream denominations have completely bought into the progressivist globalist vision. …
Where progressivists preach multiculturalism, the mainstream churches hold inter-faith worship. For the sake of diversity, the mainstream denominations downplay the distinctiveness of Christianity. To accommodate ever-expanding sexual mores, the churches ordain homosexuals and push homosexual marriage. Aping the world, they declare themselves irrelevant, and decline in numbers and influence.
Well, unless you’re on the big government gravy train you’re not going to get any satisfactory answers from the PC atheists.
The Christian church has a very long history of persisting and eventually overcoming excessive and pernicious government power, such as in the time of Moses, the time of Jesus, or the time of Stalin.
If you were looking for the one institution in our society that can best withstand and beat back PC and the postmodern socialists, the Church would be it. Maybe that is part of why people are joining? The exception that proves this is the UK, where churches became PC and people are leaving in droves.
hat-tip Stephen Neil
