Earlier this year, I wrote an article about a growing discontent with church-based Christianity in the United States. A study due for release in January in the U. K. has reached some very startling and disturbing conclusions. Unlike an earlier study by the Pew Forum finding that people are stitching elements from various faiths together to make a religion they can be comfortable with, the UK study found that people there may actually be dropping out as noted in an article by Martin Beckford of the Telegraph.co.uk.
Professor David Voas, the data analyst of the UK study stated that an increasing number of people are losing interest in religion while expressing an acceptance of its apparent inevitable demise according to the survey. The Telegraph noted that the study by the National Centre for Social Research was taken from nearly 4.500 interviews.
Among the striking conclusions that fell out was a decline in people calling themselves Christians. He noted that their numbers declined to 50% today, down from 66% in 1983. But as if that was not bad enough for the church to hear, it gets worse. The number of Britons who say they “have no religion” increased from 31% to 43%. (It should be noted that during this same time frame, non-Christians increased 5% and now make up 7% of the population).
Another worry was surfaced in the data that compared how many people attended services in 1983 to 2007; attendance fell 18.5% from 1.2M to 978K. The losses were 232,000 people mostly from the Church of England. In stark contrast, the Roman Catholic Church lost one percent. And not surprisingly, a whopping 37% are not completely sure God exists. A mere 7% said they were devout believers. And I don’t want to lose sight of survey respondents sending a strong signal that priests meddling in politics are a contributing factor to their discontent with religion in general. They must be watching too much American television.
For the record, I disagree with one conclusion Prof. Voas made that children no longer brought up in a ‘traditional’ (family) religion are a large contributor to the overall decline in church attendance – let alone believers. I believe it is an undeniable signal that church leadership is no capable of giving spiritual guidance. In other words, the church leaders require members to conform to them…regardless! The rank and file preachers have not figured out that the notion of a church being a family has been broken apart by the psychology of what it takes to survive in today’s highly complex societies. With a decline in family size, with a widening of economic gaps and with an increasing arrogance of big business ripping them off under the collective noses of their political representatives, there is a new rugged individualism of self-emphasis that compromises the belief that the church can actually make a difference.
In my opinion churches of every faith today have a disconnect because they are oblivious to the fact that news sources such as CNN are educating people in remote parts of the earth to the fact that our religions are very, very much alike. Couple that with corrupt politicians like Chavez and Ahmadinejad justifying what they stand for as being consistent with their respective religions and I think you get the message. The most learned of clergy in the major faiths know the doctrines of their religions have at their core, 60% commonality. Citizens of countries allowed to acquire an education know it also. Educated people are simply losing interest in religions that are self-serving and ineffective! What’ya think? Want to know more, try our Christian blog.
