The Distortion of Faith

In last month’s column we discussed the struggle between Christianity and two ideologies: communism and capitalism. This month, concluding the series on issues relating to Church history, we examine the state of Christianity in our time, referring in particular to Europe, America and Africa.

Churches in secularising Europe are mostly empty now. In Africa, materialism and secularism pose a threat to mainline Christianity.

A Southern Cross report (January 4) cited a study which shows that the population of Christians in the world increased from 600 million in 1910 to 2,18 billion in 2010 of whom about 50% (1,1 billion) are Catholics. On the face of it this is a phenomenal growth which should cause Christians to rejoice at the number of people turning to the Lord.

However, the same study shows that the population of the world rose from 1,8 billion in 1910 to 6,9 billion in 2010. Consequently the proportion of Christians has actually fallen slightly from 35% in 1910 to 32% in 2010.

To have a clearer picture of the success of Christianity in our time we should see these figures in relation to Jesus’s command to his followers to go and make disciples of all nations (Mt 28:16-20). Much has indeed been achieved, but the harvest is still large and the labourers few.

What is concerning is that there are some disturbing developments today, so much so that Pope Benedict has expressed the fear that faith is in danger of extinguishing.

A major indication of this loss of faith is the rapid development of secularism starting with the second half of the 20th century. Secularism can be defined in simple terms as the banishing of religion from public life, and the fact of people turning away from God and consequently stopping going to church.

Just before 2000, it was reported that 54% of the population of Britain practically never go to church. Today only about 6% of Britons attend church regularly. This trend is also true of countries like France and Sweden.

In his book Christianity (2008), Michael Keene reported that less than 10% of Europe’s population now attend church regularly, and there are clear signs that people have not only rejected the religious teachings of the Church, but are also refusing to accept its guidance in matters of personal and social morality(p 86).

The situation in North America is quite different. While secularism is also growing there, Americans are still very religious people. Keene estimates that the percentage of Americans who attend church regularly is about 45%, with the biggest denominations being the Catholic, Baptist and Methodist churches, in that order. But apart from the growing secularism, America has other problems.

The first is what one writer has described as fast-food Christianity. This is a reference to the Faith Movement which preaches a very attractive form of Christianity which, among other things, teaches that you become rich by becoming a Christian.

The second is a conservatism among the religious and political Right which causes them to ignore issues of justice and peace.

The third is that many of the youth in America have a distorted view of Christianity.

One researcher gives the following statistics:

63% don’t believe Jesus is the Son of the one true God;

58% believe all faiths teach equally valid truths; and

51% don’t believe Jesus rose from the dead.

Many religious leaders are proud of the rapid growth of Christianity in general and of Catholicism in particular on the African continent. It was recently estimated that about 50% of all Africans are Christians and that by 2010 the number of African Catholics would rise to 120 million.

Against this growth we should note the following: First, a significant percentage of African Christians (over 30 million) belong to African Independent Churches whose theology is only loosely Christian.

Second, fast-food Christianity is beginning to make a big impact on urban Africans, leading them away from orthodox mainline churches.

Third, because of globalisation and the power of electronic media, young Africans are now exposed to the influences that have had a negative effect on Christianity elsewhere in the global village.

All these developments challenge committed Christians to think seriously about how to build a church that can withstand the effects of secularism and materialism.