Posted on 07/14/2007 6:39:46 AM PDT by Alex Murphy
[snip]
In a country where barely 3% of the population goes to church each week, the affair seemed just another step in Christian Europe's long march toward secularism. Then something odd happened: A national furor erupted. A conservative bishop announced a boycott. A leftist radical who became a devout Christian and talk-show host denounced the biblical purge in newspaper columns and on television. A young evangelical Christian organized an electronic letter-writing campaign, asking Scandic: Why are you removing Bibles but not pay-porn on your TVs?
Scandic, which had started keeping its Bibles behind the front desk, put the New Testament back in guest rooms.
"Sweden is not as secular as we thought," says Christer Sturmark, head of Sweden's Humanist Association, a noisy assembly of nonbelievers to which the Bible-protesting hotel guest belongs.
After decades of secularization, religion in Europe has slowed its slide toward what had seemed inevitable oblivion. There are even nascent signs of a modest comeback. Most church pews are still empty. But belief in heaven, hell and concepts such as the soul has risen in parts of Europe, especially among the young, according to surveys. Religion, once a dead issue, now figures prominently in public discourse.
[snip]
"Monopoly churches get lazy," says Eva Hamberg, a professor at Lund University's Centre for Theology and Religious Studies and co-author of academic articles that, based on Swedish data, suggest a correlation between an increase in religious competition and a rise in church-going. Europeans are deserting established churches, she says, "but this does not mean they are not religious."
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Sometimes I think that people have the opinion that Our Lord will always be there for them, so why bother?
It’s give and take.
These are the same people who would be crushed if their child didn’t call for a month.
Liberal theology triumphed. Church attendance plummeted.
“In the U.S., the American Revolution ended ecclesiastical hegemony in the 11 colonies that had an established church and unleashed a raucous tide of religious competition. As Methodists, Baptists, Shakers and other churches proliferated, church-going rose, reaching around 50% in the early part of the 20th century, he says.
Europe never developed such a religious bazaar. The Church of Sweden, the Church of England, the Catholic Church in Italy and France, state-funded churches in Germany and others lost their de-facto “monopoly” status to other denominations over a century ago. But they retained their ties to the state and economic privileges.”
The article clearly states that when taxes pay for church programs, churches stop growing. The government would make it easy for the churches to do their good works, taking the sacrifice out of the sacrifice, and more importantly, the Blessings of giving. But what does this mean in regards to the President’s funding church programs with federal tax money? Will it have the same effects here as in Europe?
Funding wasn't increased. The rules that the monies could only be used by nonreligious groups is the only thing that changed.
But will our churches that recieve federal money stop giving themselves, and die?
Good question. Will they stop thinking of themselves as churches & instead think of themselves as social service providers?
Before & at the time our nation was founded, many states had state churches & they were supported by tax dollars, though I think the actual funding was on the local level.
Most churches survived as churches while they were supported by tax dollars, so is funding the danger or is there more danger due to mission creep? The funds come with strings, with the state defining who is in "need", so it stops being a moral decision & becomes one based on specified categories.
Church participation is voluntary. I think the churches that change their primary mission could be at risk, while the ones that don't will withdraw from the programs, before they are harmed.
I think it’s a combination of the two honestly. There is little doubt about the impact of the 18th Century Enlightenment. We are still feeling the aftershocks on this side of the pond. But part of what allowed us to weather the storm better in America was the existence precisely the sort of market system mentioned in the article.
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