Secularism on the Rise in the West

[Dr-Pepper]

According to pew research center Christianity is declining in the West and increasing in the East. Will Christianity make a comeback in the west? I just hope I the US isn’t gonna be more and more secular like the UK or Australia. I can’t see myself living in a country like US where I live being more secular than Christian and being the minority.

 

[OddBird]

Will Christianity make a comeback in the west?

No one can tell for certain. There are sociologists who think that such phenomenons are cyclical and that we’re reaching the low point of the curve – so the next phase would logically be upwards.

Ultimately, that’s in the hands of God.

I can’t see myself living in a country like US where I live being more secular than Christian and being the minority.

I’m European and living in a secular country.

It is not all bad. Sometimes you feel quite close to the Early Church – and living in a secular society really helps driving home the radicalness of the Gospel, of the moral choices that go with being a Christian, and of the importance of being the best witness for your faith that you can be.

 

[0Scarlett_nidiyilii]

We seem to be in a societal shift.

Christendom is definitely at a nadir—as an institution, churches and Christian schools and structures like hospitals and social service are at their lowest point in centuries.

At the same time, some people seem to be aware that the secular institutions such as journalism are also in deep trouble.

But it’s too early to see how this will all shake out.

I don’t believe the Catholic Church will die, however.

 

[brown_bear]

It is difficult to live in a country where secularism is largely prevalent among Christians themselves.

For young people it is much more difficult.

Many of us look to the US as a slightly better place to live as a Christian, at least Christians are not looked upon as Martians, this is the impression we have of your country.

At my age it matters less, but a young person feels the need for the approval of his peers, this is their Cross and consequently ours.

 

[0Scarlett_nidiyilii]

At my age it matters less, but a young person feels the need for the approval of his peers, this is their Cross and consequently ours

I suspect this is a huge factor in the falling-away of young people from formal religious belief.
It’s not that secular arguments are stronger. I think they’re just better at marketing themselves.

 

[ZemD]

I think secular arguments and ideas are also just more prevalent.

I remember learning in middle school and then again in high school learning in history (global studies) that all “religions are equal.” I didn’t question that until as a young adult I read the catechism and compared it to other beliefs.

 

[FiveLinden]

I can’t see myself living in a country like US where I live being more secular than Christian and being the minority

So what is it you don’t like about us secular people that you would not want a lot of us around? How would that make your life in the US worse?

 

[arvo]

I welcome rationality (and some kind of secularism including), because it is must for keeping human factors in the Church in check. History is full of negations what happened when human factors in the Church were without bounds.

Beside - there are opposite trend in some countries, e.g. in Easter and Central Europe. And also - US evangelical kind populism is raising. People have simply forgotten what the harsh life is - how much hard work had to be done and how much technology was welcome some half century ago. Now, the science and technology are given factors and people have not idea what it took to get here. So - many are becoming lazy and neglects the rationality, the science and liberal culture that is necessary for development. And it gives a lot of power to faith-based populism.

 

[commenter]

Secularism has changed. It used to mean fighting for individual rights such as free speech. “I may not agree with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it”. There also was an emphasis on Reason.

I knew one of the founders of the modern Secular Humanism movement. In his Philosophy classes he insisted on students reading the classic works, including conservative writers, even if only to refute them.

In his later years he was trashed by the Left, both verbally and his property, for daring to assign politically incorrect works. His organization was revamped, quit their civil liberties focus, moved to Washington, to support big government. He is turning over in his grave now with the Free Speech zones that today’s secularists enforce on campus, the last thing he would have wanted.

A century ago the Church had to defend Faith against secularists who insisted Reason alone was sacred.
Today Christians must defend Reason in a secular media, anti-Reason culture - Cancel Culture. In the name of Diversity, diversity is getting crushed.

 

[ReaderT]

Will Christianity make a comeback in the west?

That depends on all of us living as holy lives as possible:

“Acquire the Spirit of Peace, and a thousand souls around you will be saved.” (St. Seraphim of Sarov)

 

[Tis_Bearself]

Good points.

“Christianity” to me means, what am I, me, myself, personally, doing to be a better Christian today?

The fact that most of the people I know don’t believe or even actively trash religion/ Christianity/ the Church does not matter to me in carrying out my mission. There have been unbelievers, naysayers, and haters throughout most of history. So what? We are called to pray for them and set a good example.

 

[Dan_Defender]

It is a troubling trend. People tend to be only nominally believers, their life is in practice the same as that of atheists. Sometimes I try to talk to them sometimes all I can do is pray for their conversion.

 

[commenter]

Dr-Pepper:

Will Christianity make a comeback in the west?

That depends on all of us living as holy lives as possible:

“Acquire the Spirit of Peace, and a thousand souls around you will be saved.” (St. Seraphim of Sarov)

True, but holiness includes not only the Spirit of Peace but also the Spirit of Reason and the Spirit of Action.

There may have been times when many Christians were too quick to take up the sword and the podium, but we are not living in those times.
In the US we are flooded with attacks on Reason, attacks on Christianity, attacks on Life itself. The rampant passivity of the great majority of Catholics is a scandal.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

The rampant passivity of the great majority of Catholics is a scandal.

I don’t see how blaming and complaining about other Catholics helps one become more holy or helps the overall problem. Maybe those Catholics are doing all that they can do, or the best they can.

Such statements can’t help but come off as “I’m doing so much more than those scandalous bad Catholics over there.”

 

[Sarcelle]

commenter:

The rampant passivity of the great majority of Catholics is a scandal.

I don’t see how blaming and complaining about other Catholics helps one become more holy or helps the overall problem. Maybe those Catholics are doing all that they can do, or the best they can.

Such statements can’t help but come off as “I’m doing so much more than those scandalous bad Catholics over there.”

Kind of reminds me of the Pharisee, who points out others says “Thank God I am no like one of those (fill in the blanks).”

 

[Benadam]

I think there is a large and growing effort to eliminate the Catholic voice. The people that support the effort hate it like a guilty conscience. There is a different rule of life, with different concepts of good and evil. With different definitions for marriage and sexual relations. The
laws differ radically and are usurping the laws that structured culture in the west.

These novel ideas of good and evil form the conscience of the average Joe these days. What a westerner would defend 75 years ago as good makes a westerners feel guilt today. If conscience is the sanctuary where God speaks to man, who are these people listening to?

 

[ReaderT]

ReaderT:

“Acquire the Spirit of Peace, and a thousand souls around you will be saved.” (St. Seraphim of Sarov)

True, but holiness includes not only the Spirit of Peace but also the Spirit of Reason and the Spirit of Action.

You’re not gainsaying Saint Seraphim of Sarov, are you?

 

[TK421]

I’m of the view that the Church in the West is declining with God’s permission (he permits everything to happen, including all the great persecutions) and this is for purification and to move her closer to the Gospel than she has ever been before.

I don’t know about the US but there are signs that W. Europe has already hit its low point. Countries that have been protestant for centuries are enjoying an under-the-radar resurgence in Catholicism. The UK is the most obvious one but extremely secular places like Sweden, for example, has had a surge in religious sisters that it hasn’t seen in a very long time.

I don’t think it will ever go back to earlier centuries long before globalization when the Church had a lot of temporal power and when being Christian was the default for social/economic survival. I think those days are gone forever.

 

[0Scarlett_nidiyilii]

The prevailing approach is is simple: my way, or the highway !

But here’s the problem.
Christianity posits itself to be based on Truth, which is not up for a vote.

So, for instance, if everybody rejected the idea that 2+2=4 except for a few mathematicians , would you accuse the mathematicians of being all “my way or the highway”, as if they were being mean and bossy?

 

[Tis_Bearself]

St Dominic Savio predicted that England would return to the Church. He saw a vision and asked that St John Bosco tell the Pope. So it’s just a matter of when.