Tag Archives: Diversity

The Decline of Christians in the U.S.

10 Tuesday Apr 2018

Posted by in Commentaries, Faith

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Gallup Poll just released some numbers yesterday on Christian weekly attendance in the United States. Let’s examine the numbers:

In 1955, 3 out of 4 Catholics regardless of age went to Mass. A change occurred in the 1960s which indicated a drop off from younger Catholics (21-29) less likely to attend, a drop that hit approximately 35% from 73% in 1955. The trajectory has been down with all groups in the United States since 1955 with a small bump in the 80s, perhaps due to the pontificate of John Paul II.

Overall, the decline has been sharper in the  Protestant denominations which in 1955 had 71% identify with being Protestant, whereas today it’s at 47%. The Catholic Church has held steady from 24% identifying to 22% due to a rise of Hispanics in the United States. The Protestant denominations have held a better percentage of those who attend church weekly.

Gallup indicates that it believes the trend will continue due to the rise of 33% of the younger generation identifying as ‘no religion at all.’ What the data doesn’t inform readers, which would be both telling and helpful is whether the rise of these ‘nones’ are from children whose parents were “Spiritual but not Religious” in the 1990s.

The poll doesn’t address nations such as the United States and in Europe who have now accepted multiculturalism and diversity ideology in comparison to those nations such as Poland who have rejected the ideology and have a high percentage of practicing Catholics in their nation. Naturally, compared to such data, that has been found that roughly the devout faithful have always been in the 20% range, during any period; is there a correlation with the rise of diversity ideology that many who were nominal in their faith no longer feel the need to identify as Christians?

If the devout range has held firm, does it preclude that clarity of Christian beliefs should be preferred over a watering down to attract those who find diversity identity ideology more attractive?

http://news.gallup.com/poll/232226/church-attendance-among-catholics-resumes-downward-slide.aspx?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=Catholics%27%20Church%20Attendance%20Resumes%20Downward%20Slide&utm_content=o_social

Spirituality?

24 Tuesday May 2016

Posted by in Anglicanism, Faith

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Diversity isn’t about uniformity – we’re not trying to find one way that suits everyone – the only thing that is uniform is God – and we offer a variety of ways people can come to Him. Because I love older liturgical forms, and a certain amount of austere literary beauty, I like the 8 a.m. Communion service; as I like sung services, I’ve been known to grab a coffee and go back for the 9.30 Mattins. I didn’t think I’d become a regular at the 10.30 sung Eucharist, but I like the diversity of people I meet there – though I don’t find the service itself touches me as the 8 a.m. one does – but I am impressed by the way it reaches the large number of people who come to it. Each of these services offers something to those who consider themselves ‘spiritual’.

It is easy (which is why I have done it) to poke gentle (or sometimes not so gentle) fun at ‘spirituality’, which indeed seems to be a way for some people to signal that they have a mystical side, but don’t want anyone to confuse them with one of those ‘religious’ nutjobs. But if that brings them into a Christian Church, then it is important we can speak to that feeling that there is more in the world than science and materialism can explain. One of my priests says he has found that such people often make the best converts, as they come to see that Christianity isn’t about what happens on Sunday in a building, but is much bigger than that, and that it offers the most comprehensive view of what life is given to us for.

In this treatment of diversity there is, of course, nothing new, it is what St Paul wrote about in 1 Corinthians 12-14 – except for the fact of women reading – but there we are, we are a very large part of the church, and what was unseemly in Paul’s day is not so in our own. One of the greatest strengths of our faith has been its ability to adapt itself (without changing the essentials) to different times, places and cultures. Some, of course, object to any form of expression of the faith which is not approved by their own particular tradition, and this can be a great obstacle to the Great Commission.

Back in 2010 the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, said that in the world today Christ was being put on trial again, and being judged because of the actions and words of the people who claim to be his followers. The world, he told a meeting in Edinburgh, is in desperate need of an example of reconciliation, of people who are willing and able to lay aside their differences, even considerable differences, for no obvious reason or personal gain, other than to show love to neighbour. The implied question was ‘is that us?’ If it isn’t, why is that? The Holy Spirit has not ceased working in this world of fallen sinners, and we have to work with Him. If we seem to have nothing to say to those who are not like us, or if what we say to those who are like us is unintelligible, it is not enough, not at all enough, to suppose that we should simply wait until they will come to us on our terms. Not only will they not come, but some of those who are here now will cease to come. The gospel is not our gospel that is to be translated from our language and experience to others for their benefit; rather, the gospel is that good news of Jesus Christ that all are privileged to hear, and the unity of what we hear overcomes the diversity of who we are. If it doesn’t, we might ask what it is we are doing wrong in our time, when in past times it did indeed overcome the differences between us?

Here, as in the off-line world, we have had our own difficulties, and even the idea of approving a different form of liturgy has led someone to talk in highly coloured terms about ‘debauching the liturgy’. No doubt when those Romans began demanding a text and a liturgy in their own language, there were those who wondered why they wanted to change what had been there from the beginning – the Greek and Syriac versions of the liturgy. But the faith survived and flourished – as it will because if we respond to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, we know it will be so. If however we respond to the pride and despair of our own egos, then it is best we go find a ‘safe space’ where we can stop thinking and bewail the evil of the times. But when were the times other than evil? We are an Easter people, and as John Paul II put it ‘alleluia is our song’.

Diversity?

23 Monday May 2016

Posted by in Anglicanism, Faith

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In some circles you only have to mention the word and eyes will roll, but what of it? Whether we like it or not, our society is marked by a greater degree of diversity than that of our parents of grandparents. When I was a little girl in Wales my father was the only ‘European’ in the village, although there were some English ‘incomers’ and even some North Walians. There were three channels we could get on the TV – and then only with some effort; the telephone was fixed and you could get it only on a waiting list from the nationalised telephone company; and you could have any meal you wanted at the one restaurant in the nearby town as long as it consisted of meat and two ve. No doubt there were some homosexuals, but if there were, although it had been legal since 1968, no one was ‘out’. It was not atypical of the area. Last time I was there, there were many different types of places selling a variety of foods, you could get your mobile phone from at least two shops in town, and on any tariff you cared; and there was a ‘gay bar’, as well as a lot of Poles and some people of colour from I don’t know where. Diversity. Talking with some older people who had known my daddy, they weren’t much enamoured of the changes, but the changes weren’t going away – although it turned out two of the chapels had, and the Church of Wales church had about it a neglected air although it was, I was assured, still open.

As in my old hometown, diversity is a reality in modern life, and however little or much we like or dislike it, it isn’t going away. Moving from an isolated rural environment to Edinburgh, I am at times almost overwhelmed by the range of diversity on offer here – and I’d not be telling the truth if I didn’t say there were times when I just want to be back in an environment with which I am familiar, and where diversity amounts to taking the high or the low road to the next village. My congregations then were all white, mostly female, and wholly middle class; an environment I felt very much at home in, fitting all three categories. Here I find myself offering the kiss of peace to and this is just thinking on the last four Sundays) a female Nigerian student, a Scottish woman, an American tourist, a German tourist, a Malaysian student, a woman from the Hebrides, a Danish woman, and a couple of English students, as well as a Scotswoman who lives in the same tenement as I do. At coffee afterwards, I had a chance to ask what they were doing there, and the answers were interesting.

They’d look at our website and found it looked welcoming in terms of the language we used and what we said about ourselves. Some had come from other churches in the city because they’d heard ‘good things’ about us. One young woman said she’d heard we welcomed ‘people like me’. I didn’t need to ask what she meant. Sometimes I go to the 8 am Communion service, and there I find a congregation more like the ones I am used to – mainly white, mainly Scottish and mainly middle class – and mainly women. We don’t have coffee, but on the way out I speak to people, and the story is always the same – the 10.30 sung eucharist is a little too ‘lively’ for them, and they love the old Scottish prayer book – so they go to the early service, or to Mattins at 9.30. The same Church, two diverse congregations. I even manage to get to Evensong occasionally, and that’s an entirely different story, many students, many tourists, and quite a lot of people who go to it because they ‘like the peace and the calm’ and they don’t feel ‘left out’ because there is no Communion service – even though in practice we’d welcome them if they wanted to come. I have not yet managed Mattins myself, but am told that is yet another diverse group.

That is our way of dealing with the fact that diversity exists. We try to offer everyone something they might want in terms of style of worship – all directed to the same Holy Trinity. In this way, at least, we can be all things to all men. Some of the implications of this I shall come to presently.