Posted on 08/22/2016 2:06:48 AM PDT by Cronos
The number of people who say they have no religion is escalating and significantly outweighs the Christian population in England and Wales, according to new analysis.
The proportion of the population who identify in NatCen’s British Social Attitudes survey as having no religion, referred to as “nones”, reached 48.5% in 2014, outnumbering the 43.8% who define themselves as Christian – Anglicans, Catholics and other denominations. In 2011 the BSA survey found 46% identified as having no religion. The 2011 census gave a much lower figure of 25%, but phrased the question differently.
“The striking thing is the clear sense of the growth of ‘no religion’ as a proportion of the population,” said Stephen Bullivant, senior lecturer in theology and ethics at St Mary’s Catholic University in Twickenham, who analysed data collected through British Social Attitudes surveys over three decades.
“The main driver is people who were brought up with some religion now saying they have no religion. What we’re seeing is an acceleration in the numbers of people not only not practising their faith on a regular basis, but not even ticking the box. The reason for that is the big question in the sociology of religion.”
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
What has happened with the Anglicans can happen with the OPC, the Catholics, etc. -- we need to study and learn from their mistakes, not just gloat and/or say "it can't happen to us"
And what about muslims ?
Just wondering !
One example? The Jubilee Church:
http://jubileechurchlondon.org/
Others:
http://www.fpchurch.org.uk/location/london-congregation/
https://mortonbaptist.org/
Just shameful how people in the West don’t value their Christian religious heritage and have tossed it out with the garbage in order to pursue laxer sexual moral standards, essentially.
Seems to me there have always been people "going through the motions" that never had any faith at all, all around us. If we had the same tools during the 1700s, we probably would have found the same proportions or worse among everyone at that time.
We simply have to a better job of getting the faith to everyone.
4.4%
It is worse that it sounds. Only 1.4% attend Anglican services weekly. This is 1/3 the number in the early sixties.
(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/12095251/Church-of-England-attendance-plunges-to-record-low.html)
The Church of England has been anything BUT Christian for more than a generation. I’m not surprised by these numbers at all. I’m praying that those who have had the good sense to cut ties with that horrible institution find their way to Christ through real Christian churches.
I’m not surprised by these numbers, either. Christianity has multiple problems over a range of issues. I would include near the top, the Church’s failure to deal meaningfully with the increasing credence given by modern cultures to so-called “scientific reason.” Scientific reason is turned to by a large segment of society for answers to everything from abortion to global warming.
Jesus and his teachings are not used to address issues at all, unless they align with the current political needs of folks.
Of course this is wrong thinking and leads to wrong actions, but it is happening and is having devastating effects on the lives of individuals and our Western nations.
That’s just one problem Christianity faces. And THAT’S just my personal opinion.
I’m not surprised by these numbers, either. Christianity has multiple problems over a range of issues. I would include near the top, the Church’s failure to deal meaningfully with the increasing credence given by modern cultures to so-called “scientific reason.” Scientific reason is turned to by a large segment of society for answers to everything from abortion to global warming.
Jesus and his teachings are not used to address issues at all, unless they align with the current political needs of folks.
Of course this is wrong thinking and leads to wrong actions, but it is happening and is having devastating effects on the lives of individuals and our Western nations.
That’s just one problem Christianity faces. And THAT’S just my personal opinion.
We need the Lord to raise a new generation of Celtic Christians to save Europe again.
I lived in Britain in the mid-80’s. It was quite a-religious back then. I chalked it up to the fact that it is a Socialist country. Even then, in most circles, if you were religious, you were perceived as stupid. I tried going to church there but it was just depressing.......I would sit in a stone church, constructed in the 1400’s, with one other person and the minister up front. The ‘enlightened’ ones all made fun of anyone who had faith.
we need to send missionaries to England
It is not just a situation of “no religion vs. Christians”, because the Christian religions in the UK are weak and corrupt.
The semi-official religion in England is the Church of England, that is nominally Anglican, but in fact is nothing like the vibrant, growing and strong-in-their-faith Anglicans of Africa, the largest portion of that faith.
So why should Christians want anything to do with a religion that has lost its faith and spirit, lost its belief, lost its will to live? A sect whose former leader claimed to also be a Druid priest? A sect that embraces perversion in its clergy, at least some of whom even question the divinity of Jesus?
Certainly there are other Christian denominations in England and Wales, but how many of them are strong and steadfast in their faith, unwilling to soften their beliefs to fit the tepid and uncertain culture in which they practice?
There are some churches doing a great job, but I agree with you - and I'd include many, many European countries growing dim spiritually and being invaded by the forces of darkness.
The Celts saved Europe twice. We need new Celts.
One of the best worship services I've ever attended was Equippers Church, Auckland, NZ.
I don't really believe that people have ever changed. The Cain and Abel syndrome was always with us, IS with us now and will be forever. I mean SIN.
What differentiates individuals is their own personal morality and how they live it.
Nation states may have whatever faith they have but the individuals live out their lives by their OWN faith in God. They may wear kilts, ghutras or lavalavas but we all pray to our God, try to do the best we can and await His judgment.
Celts:
members of a group of peoples inhabiting much of Europe and Asia Minor in pre-Roman times. Their culture developed in the late Bronze Age around the upper Danube, and reached its height in the La Tène culture (5th to 1st centuries BC) before being overrun by the Romans and various Germanic peoples.
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The Celts drifted farther and farther west until they eventually ended up in what is now Ireland. I've been there and have heard the "Irish." It's as different from English, to my ears, as Arabic is from Swedish.
It’s funny: I have encountered some people who were irreligious and even some who claimed to be atheists and they did seem to think that they had some elevated intelligence.
They couldn’t be more wrong. We are just little, temporary creatures in a universe, a cage, whose limits we can barely comprehend. We can only pray that we have wisdom - enough wisdom.
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