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Who will inherit the earth? Not the secularists

From Desert News:

“In the race for souls, demography counts for more than eloquence. And demographic reality is very much slanted against secularism: what no one has noticed is that far from declining, the religious are expanding their share of the population because secular birthrates have plunged below replacement,” says Kaufmann’s website regarding his research.

Others have also noticed these trends. “The world’s Muslim population is expected to increase by about 35 percent in the next 20 years, rising from 1.6 billion in 2010 to 2.2 billion by 2030,” says a summary of a Pew Forum study.

“Despite the rapid growth of Islam, Christianity seems set to remain the biggest religion in the world for the next 20 years. There are currently more than 2 billion Christians — 30 to 35 percent of the global population — making it very unlikely that there will be fewer than 2.2 billion Christians in 2030,” says a post on CNN’s belief blog, based on the Pew Forum’s findings.

I would echo the last paragraph and add to it that Christianity should increase ground against Islam in the next 20 years. Read more here. 

The New Pro-Life Surge

Check out this article at Christianity Today.

“About 40 new anti-abortion laws were on the books by mid-April. They include:

• expanding the waiting period requirement in South Dakota from 24 hours to 72 hours, and requiring women to visit a crisis pregnancy center in the interim.
• requiring a physician who performs an abortion in South Dakota to provide counseling on all risk factors related to abortion.
• allowing any hospital employee in Utah to refuse to “participate in any way” in an abortion.
• making it a felony in Arizona to perform or provide money for abortions sought because of a baby’s race or sex.
• prohibiting insurance plans that participate in the state insurance exchange from including abortion coverage in Virginia, Arizona, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Tennessee
• prohibiting the abortion of a fetus capable of feeling pain in Nebraska, Kansas, Idaho, and Oklahoma. The organization National Right to Life has drafted a model bill for pro-life lawmakers to use.

Republican victories in the 2010 mid-term elections account for much of the legislative surge. Republicans won control of the House of Representatives and made gains in the Senate. But their success at the state level was more significant. They took 29 governorships and 680 seats in state legislatures, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

It’s the largest gain in modern history.”

Persecution of Christians Grows In Egypt

Egyptian Shaykh Incites Muslims to Burn Down Churches

Surprise.

 

 

 

 

 

-Mitch Stokes, Galileo

 

 

 

Galileo, Faithful Catholic

- Galileo, reflecting on his conflicts with the church

What is the ‘Fastest Growing Religion’?

It is very common to hear that Islam is the world’s fastest growing religion. Here is an article on cnn stating this.  This case is made by studies (such as one by U.S. Center for World Mission) that show that as a percentage of the whole Islam is growing at a rate of 2.9%  and Christianity is growing at a rate of 2.3%. From there it is easy to throw a projection out into the future and show that if the rates of growth remain the same that Islam will surpass Christianity at some point. But this is really not a helpful way to look at things.

In terms of numbers, Christians add more to their numbers every year than Islam. Multiply 2.9% times the total number of Muslims (1.3Billion) and multiply 2.3% times the total number of Christians (2.1 Billion) and you will see that every year Christians add about 11 million more people to our ranks than Islam does.

But what about the rate? Islam is much smaller than Christianity. The smaller you are the less people you need to add every year to grow at a faster rate. If you want to use growth rate as the judge of the fastest growing religion (not adjusted for size) than Islam is nowhere near the fastest growing. Some cult you and I have never heard of is growing at a rate of 100% because Jimmy Joe Cult leader from a suburb of Saginaw just convinced another couple to join him and his wife at their compound in the woods. At that rate, the cult of Jimmy Joe will be the world’s largest religion by far in 100 years!

So what do I expect to happen over the next century? It is very difficult to predict what will happen to birth rates and conversion rates in the future. Islam has higher birth rates in many areas right now but certainly not everywhere. For example, the highest birth rates in the world are in Sub-Saharan Africa where Christianity is much more prevalent than Islam. Further more, Christianity tends to win converts at a much higher rate. So, what is with the lower growth rate in the world today? I would point to Europe. For the last 1000 years Europe was Christendom. That is where the stronghold of the Christian numbers were. But today, many countries in Europe have lost large numbers of adherents. Western Europe is now only 60% self proclaimed Christians. Further more, Europe has incredibly low fertility rates. As a continent, they are well below the replacement rate (2.1) at 1.5 babies per adult female.

And while this situation in Europe may be discouraging, I think this should be a huge encouragement when reflecting on the overall growth of Christianity. Think about it: Christendom collapsed in terms of adherents and birth rate and yet Christianity grew dramatically in the 20th century. It is unlikely that another cultural shakeup like we saw in the 20th century will happen in the 21st. Further more, there are indications that Europe’s slide into secularization may be slowing. From the Wall Street Journal:

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.

And the fertility rates are tied directly to religious fervor. From the European Journal of Population:

By every available measure, American women are more religious than European women. Catholic and Protestant women have notably higher fertility than those not belonging to any denomination in the US and across Europe. In all European regions and in the United States as well as among all denominations the more devout have more children.

So, in places like Europe, you are seeing a slowing of secularization and higher birth rates among the devout Christians. This doesn’t indicate to me that the 20th century slide will continue in the 21st. Further, the rest of the world helped maintain Christian growth in the 20th century and this growth is giving every indication of continuing. The church continues to make unbelievable gains Southeast Asia, Africa and South America.

Amazingly, despite the heavy persecution, Christianity is even making gains in some Islamic nations. Time Magazine reports:

More surprising, though, is the boom in Christianity[in the Islamic nation of Indonesia]…..the number of Asian Christian faithful exploded to 351 million adherents in 2005, up from 101 million in 1970, according to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, based in Washington, D.C.

All of this indicates to me that Christianity is going to continue to be the largest religion and that far from losing this position, it will expand greatly in the 21st century.

Their Own Faces

All writers on Jesus have to live with the old jibe that the historian is inclined to see his or her own face at the bottom of a deep well and mistake it for the face of Jesus. – NT Wright

Nietzche and Hitler

“Hitler visited the Nietzsche museum in Weimar many times, and there are photos of him posed, staring raturously, at a huge bust of the philosopher. He devoutly believed in what Nietzsche said about the “will to power”. Hitler worshiped power, while truth was a phantasm to be ignored; and his sworn enemy was not falsehood but weakness. For Hitler, ruthlessness was a great virtue, and mercy a great sin. This was Christianity’s chief difficulty, that it advocated meekness. ” – Eric Metaxas, Bonhoeffer

An Unblemished Record

“One sometimes hears that Hitler was a Christian. He was certainly not, but neither was he openly anti-Christian, as most of his top lieutenants were. What helped him to aggrandize power, he approved of, and what prevented it, he did not. He was utterly pragmatic. In public he often made comments that made him sound pro-church or pro-Christian, but there can be no question that he said these things cynically, for political gain. In private, he possessed an unblemished record of statements against Christianity and Christians.” – Eric Metaxas, Bonheffer