Sunday, December 23, 2007

Churches come tumbling down

A rather dismal assessment of the state of Christianity north of the border. This includes Pentecostals as well. Money quote:
As Peter Beyer puts it, Protestants leave their churches and don't go anywhere else. With Catholics, nobody leaves the church but no one comes.
h/t Mac, who asks the salient question: why is America so different? Of course, I want us Americans to remember, things may be different, but it's best not to take anything for granted, and be complacent. Which is why I am, like our friends at the Catherine of Siena Institute, focused on intentional discipleship. The article's favored sociological explanation is that Canadian women, influenced by the sexual revolution and liberated gender roles, rejected the patriarchy of Christianity, and since women are the bastions of institutional religion, it collapsed. This is a fascinating explanation (of course, like all sociological explanations, it isn't sufficient). I've no idea about its merits. It certainly isn't a trend that occurred south of the border. And, if true, it should also be remarked that all the collapsing Protestant denominations had ordained women clergy. That, in of itself, didn't seem to matter.

1 comment:

WordWench said...

I find it interesting and kind of sad that in 2007 it seems every time there is an article about the general decline of something, the reasons given always seem to trace back to the fact that women were given the chance to have more of a role in life than stay-at-home baby machines. Whether it's the "decline" of Christianity or the decline of the "traditional" family or whatever, why does it always seem to be blamed on the fact that women were finally allowed to have more of a role in society? As a single intelligent woman who already feels marginalized by my faith of choice, this just serves to sadden me more.