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What Is Happening to the Churches?Awake!—2007 | February
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Europe Turns Its Back on the Churches
For more than 1,600 years, most of Europe has been ruled by governments that claimed to be Christian. Is religion in Europe prospering now as we advance into the 21st century? In 2002 sociologist Steve Bruce, in his book God is Dead—Secularization in the West, said of Britain: “In the nineteenth century almost all weddings were religious.” However, by 1971, only 60 percent of English weddings were religious. In 2000 it was only 31 percent.
Commenting on this trend, the religion correspondent for London’s Daily Telegraph wrote: “All the main denominations, from the Church of England and the Roman Catholics to the Methodist and United Reformed Churches, are suffering from long-term decline.” He said concerning one report: “Britain’s Churches will be well on the way to extinction by 2040 with just two per cent of the population attending Sunday services.” Similar statements have been made about religion in the Netherlands.
“In recent decades, our country appears to have become decidedly more secularized,” noted a report by the Dutch Social and Cultural Planning Office. “It is expected that by 2020, 72% of the population will not have any religious affiliation at all.” A German news source says: “Increasing numbers of Germans are turning to witchcraft and the occult to provide the solace they once found in churches, jobs and family. . . . Churches across the land are forced to close for lack of congregations.”
Those who still go to church in Europe do not usually go there to find out what God requires of them. One report from Italy says: “Italians tailor their religion to fit their lifestyles.” One sociologist there says: “We take from the pope whatever suits us.” The same might be said of Catholics in Spain, where religiosity has been replaced with consumerism and the search for an economic paradise—here and now.
These trends stand in stark contrast with the Christianity that Christ and his followers taught and practiced. Jesus did not offer “cafeteria” or “buffet” religion, where you pick and choose what you like and reject what you don’t like. He stated: “If anyone wants to come after me, let him disown himself and pick up his torture stake day after day and follow me continually.” Jesus taught people that the Christian way of life was one of personal sacrifice and effort.—Luke 9:23.
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What Is Happening to the Churches?Awake!—2007 | February
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“THE SUPER-MARKETING OF RELIGION”
The director of the National Vocation Service of the French Catholic Church was quoted as saying: “We’re seeing the super-marketing of religion. People consume, and when they don’t find an institution they agree with, then they go somewhere else.” In a study of European religion, Professor Grace Davie of Britain’s Exeter University said: “Individuals simply ‘pick and mix’ from the diversity on offer. Religion, like so many other things, has entered the world of options, lifestyles and preferences.”
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