By Jim Denison
These are tough times for Christianity in the West. The Catholic Church in Germany is embroiled in an expanding sexual-abuse scandal. The head of Ireland’s Catholic Church has apologized for his role in mishandling the case of a serial child abuser. And a former teacher at a Roman Catholic school in Spain has been arrested on suspicion of sexually abusing children. Responding to this crisis, the chief exorcist of the Roman Catholic Church states that priests who are pedophiles are tempted, not possessed, an assurance which must be small comfort to the victims of such tragedy.
Christianity is in the American news these days primarily because of its critics.
Glenn Beck alleges that Christian commitment to “social justice” embraces the same philosophy as Nazis and communists, and claims that the phrase is a code word for both. Jon Stewart recently took on the latest Vatican scandals and ridiculed a Catholic school in Colorado that expelled a preschooler because his parents are lesbians. In this Lenten season, Jesus’ followers have many opportunities to experience humility.
A look at religious trends in the Western world is not encouraging. According to the latest American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS), the number of Americans who describe themselves as “Christian” has dropped from 86% to 76% since 1990. At the same time, the number who say they have “no religion” has nearly doubled to more than 15%. The number who call themselves “atheist” or “agnostic” has quadrupled, and is now almost twice the number of Episcopalians in our country.
The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life recently released their “U.S. Religious Landscape Survey.” The survey reports that more than one-quarter of American adults (28%) have left the faith in which they were raised in favor of another religion, or no religion at all. Among Americans ages 18-29, one in four say they are not affiliated with any religion.
Spiritual trends in Europe are even more troubling. Harris Interactive conducted a large survey of religious beliefs on the Continent. Its results: in Italy, 62% say they believe in “any form of God or any type of supreme being;” in Spain, 48% of the population agrees; in Germany, 41% affirm the existence of God; 35% in England and 27% in France concur.
By contrast, my recent study tour of Israel and Egypt bore testament to the ongoing explosion of Christianity in other parts of the world. We traveled to St. Catherine’s Monastery at Mt. Sinai, the most remote Christian monastery in the world, and were told that a thousand people visit every day. In Cairo our group visited Manshiyat naser, also called Garbage City, a slum whose residents recycle the city’s garbage. The area often lacks running water, sewage service and electrical service. Its people are among the poorest on earth. And yet their community is home to the largest Christian church in the Middle East.
The Cave Cathedral, also known as the Church of the Virgin Mary and St. Simeon, houses two worship centers. One amphitheater seats over 20,000; a second was secretly built inside a cave. Both are packed with worshipers each Sunday.
According to David Barrett, author of the World Christian Encyclopedia, every 24 hours 72,900 people become Christians, the largest number in history. Of that population, however, only 7,200 are in Europe and North America, combined.
Why this stark contrast between Christianity in the West and in the rest of the world? For many in our culture, God is a hobby. Christianity is for church and faith is for Sunday. Religion is to be kept private and personal, never intruding on the public square.
For many in Garbage City, God is the King of his people, their Lord every day. In South Korea, home to five of the ten largest churches on Earth, massive crowds pray every morning at 4 a.m. and all night every Friday. In Cuba over the last decade, a million people have become Christians and Baptist churches have grown 15-fold. I’ve made seven trips to the island, joining their packed prayer meetings and marveling at the joyous and sacrificial commitment of so many to their Lord.
As the Lenten season continues, this question is gaining urgency in my soul: Is God our hobby — or our King?