We’ve had periods of
expansion and decline in the history of religion. It has been tied to rulers
and governments for centuries. Egyptian Pharos, Roman Emperors and Rulers of
Nations across the world have aligned themselves with the gods. Unfortunately, religion
has been imposed by unwise rulers and woven into cultures.
Before 312 BC,
Christianity was an obscure Jewish sect, but after the Emperor Constantine
declared it the “state religion” it expanded exponentially. The Pope was
suddenly a “royal” and was expected to function as a “peer” to the Kings of
Europe and instead became a “pawn”. The merger of church and state led to the
appointment of “prince-bishops” in the middle ages. The corruption of the
Catholic Church was confronted by Martin Luther in 1517 and the Protestant
Reformation began. The notion of a “personal relationship with God” resonated.
.
Churches have always
been fallible human organizations subject to the same foibles that afflict all
humans. Greek and Roman gods possessed all imaginable human weaknesses.
As believers in human
freedom, our Founders were critical of the fights Protestant denominations were
having over church doctrine and resolved to give US citizens the freedom to
choose a church or not.
Jews and Christians
have introduced the belief that the world and the universe was created by God.
Given the evidence we gather as we learn more about how nature works, It
becomes harder to explain what we see in nature without the existence of an
“intelligent designer”. We have failed to prove that the theory of evolution is
true for anything but viruses. There is now more credible evidence of God’s
existence than ever before, yet our churches are declining.
I can make a case for
church decline based on brutal wars and catastrophic events when I note how God
is thanked for blessings and rejected after disasters.
The Industrial
Revolution from 1850 to 1900 gave hope to the world that our inventions would
make life better. Church attendance was high and the pain of war and economic
upheaval was unexpected. Developed Western countries were hard hit by World War
I from 1914 to 1918, followed by the Great Depression from 1929 to 1939 and
World War II from 1939 to 1945.
World War I caused
37.5 million total casualties. Over 100 million soldiers were mobilized on both
sides. Military deaths totaled 8.5 million. Russia lost 1.7 million, Britain
lost 908,375, France lost 1.4 million and US lost 116,500. On the losing side,
Germany lost 1.8 million and Austro-Hungary lost 1.2 million.
The financial costs
for World War I totaled $125.7 billion from the US allies and $60.6 billion
from Germany and Austro-Hungary.
The Great Depression
hit in 1929 with the stock market crash that rippled across the world and
contracted all economies. Europe had rebuilt after World War I and was just
beginning to get normal. In the US we
also had the “dust bowl” drought in the 1930s.
World War II broke out
in 1939 with Germany’s invasion of Poland. World War II caused 85 million
casualties in over 40 countries including 15 million battle deaths, 25 million
soldiers wounded and 45 million civilian deaths. The Soviet Union lost 24
million lives and China lost 20 million lives. Germany lost 8.8 million lives,
Poland lost 5.6 million lives, Japan lost 3.1 million lives, India lost 2.5
million lives.
The financial cost of
World War II was $1.075 trillion. The US cost was $341 billion, Germany spent
$272 billion, Soviet Union spent $192 billion, Britton spent $120 billion, Italy spent $94 billion and Japan spent $56
billion.
Church attendance
began to decline in Europe after World War I and continued to decline through
the Great Depression and World War II and beyond.
Churches attendance in
the US reached its peak in the 1950s. We had just won World War II and lost
420,000 in deaths. The UK lost 460,000, Yugoslavia lost 450,000 and the Soviet
Union lost 24 million.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody
GA Tea Party Leader
No comments:
Post a Comment