www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Christian Number-Crunching reveals impressive growth

The annual "Status of Global Mission" report is unfailingly interesting, sometimes jarring, and occasionally provocative. This year it's all three.

http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/facts/fm0146.htm

Very interesting. It certainly lays to rest the notion, prevalent among many so-called "traditional" Catholics and fundamentalist Protestants, that Christianity is dyeing (Catholicism in particular), and that secularism/atheism is on the rise. Often times we here in our little American bubble forget that, although Christianity may be on the decline here, it is certainly alive and healthy in many other parts of the world. Africa is a great example.

The problem is there are many more zealous Muslims than there are zealous Christians. The key metric is how many people show up in church, mosque, temple or synagogue on a regular basis. Practically everybody in Sweden is Lutheran; hardly anyone in Sweden goes to church. And practically everyone in Italy is Roman Catholic, but only 5% of them go to Mass on Sunday. Almost all Greeks are Orthodox, but fewer than 10% attend the Liturgy regularly. The list goes on. . .