What place for God in Europe?

The Christian Science Monitor ^ | 2/22/05 | Peter Ford

[nonsumdignus]

Across Europe,the conflicting currents of secularism, Christianity, and Islam are compelling Europeans to wrestle with their values as never before. In this first installment of a three-part series, the Monitor examines the forces that are shaping European identity - and explores why the Continent is debating what role, if any, religion should play in public life.

...snip...

Today, just 21 percent of Europeans say religion is "very important" to them, according to the most recent European Values Study, which tracks attitudes in 32 European countries. A survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found that nearly three times as many Americans, 59 percent, called their faith "very important."

Although a Gallup poll found last year that 44 percent of Americans say they attend a place of worship once a week, the average figure in Europe is only 15 percent, although the picture varies widely across the Continent.

"The new soft totalitarianism that is advancing...is an atheist, nihilistic religion - but it is a religion that is obligatory for all," Mr. Buttiglione adds.

[nonsumdignus]

As long as the Church hierarchy remains effeminite and continues in its weak moral stances and modernistic leanings (ie, ecumenism), people will continue to see the Church as an inert force in the world and in their own lives. That is because it ultimately demands nothing of them, and doesn't sufficiently motivate them (either with the reward of Heaven or the pains of Hell) require them to change ("just have a good heart, be merciful, be socially concious!"). Why should one need to go to Church or receive Sacraments in such an environment?

[stuartcr]

I would think that God already has a position, regardless of how or what people think. I doubt He is dependent on what people think. What does it matter to God?....He already knows what the people are thinking and are going to think.

[jwalburg]

Sounds like it's going to take more than a change in hierarchy to see a European revival.

[nonsumdignus]

Obviously God isn't "dependent" per say on what man thinks, but God cares infinitely about what man believes and how man acts. God cares infinitely whether man worships himself and blasphemes God (see: The Ten Commandments). He is not mocked.

[stuartcr]

Doesn't God know what any particular man will think and act, even before that man is born?

[nonsumdignus]

Doesn't God know what any particular man will think and act, even before that man is born?

Being an omnipotent God, yes, He has all knowledge of which men shall return their Souls to Him in a damnable state and which ones deserve to return to Him for the crown of everlasting glory. That He allows us the will to do so is part of the ineffable mystery of His Love.

I don't understand your what your argument is and how it relates to the article.

[stuartcr]

The article mentions forces that are shaping Europe. I believe, that since God already knows the outcome, then the forces that are shaping Europe, are really of no consequence to God. As what will be, is already known, and everything is going as He planned.