| Editorial
Religion
Resurgent
By Robert Maynard
Last week in an article entitled
"A
New Dark Age?", I explored the notion presented in Mark Steyn’s book
"America
Alone: The End Of The World As We Know It". According to Mr. Steyn,
the combination of a demographically prolific Islam, coupled with their
strong cultural confidence, presents a major long term threat to a western
civilization that is in demographic decline and is paralyzed by self doubt.
He considers the cause already lost in Europe and sees America as standing
alone in defending the values of a civilization that brought us the notion
of human rights, technological progress and unprecedented economic development.
This is a battle of demographic numbers and will, which could result in
a coming dark age if America is to lose it. As Steyn points out, while
the developed world used to have a 30% to 15% edge in demographic numbers
as a percentage of total world population, the numbers are now about equal
at 20% each. The trend is tilting even more in favor of radical Islam as
time goes by.
This picture does tend to
look a little bleak until one accounts for other demographic trends not
explored my Mr. Steyn. In an article in the current edition of "First Things"
magazine entitled "Secularization Falsified", Peter L. Berger, director
of the Institute for the Study of Economic Culture at Boston University,
explores these trends. Mr. Berger points out that:
"Looked at globally, there
are two particularly powerful religious explosions—resurgent Islam and
dynamic evangelical Protestantism. Passionate Islamic movements are on
the rise throughout the Muslim world, from the Atlantic Ocean to the China
Sea, and in the Muslim diaspora in the West. The rise of evangelical Protestantism
has been less noticed by intellectuals, the media, and the general public
in Western countries, partly because nowhere is it associated with violence
and partly because it more directly challenges the assumptions of established
elite opinion: David Martin, a leading British sociologist of religion,
has called it a "revolution that was not supposed to happen." Yet it has
spread more rapidly and over a larger geographical area than resurgent
Islam. What is more, the Islamic growth has occurred mostly in populations
that were already Muslim—a revitalization rather than a conversion. By
contrast, evangelical Protestantism has been penetrating parts of the world
in which this form of religion was hitherto unknown. And it has done so
by means of mass conversions."
In addition to being a match
for Islam in the demographic trends, evangelical Protestantism is also
a match for them in the area of cultural confidence. It has been observed
by the group "Christian Freedom International" that there have been more
Christian martyrs in the 20th Century than all the other 19
combined. Today’s Christians in what is called "The persecuted Church"
see themselves as the heirs of early 1st Century Christianity,
who grew rapidly despite heavy persecution and martyrdom. In fact, groups
like "Voice of the Martyrs", sees their rapid growth as a result of patiently
suffering martyrdom for their cause. As Burger points out, this movement
has strong ties and origins in America, which is its major funding base.
This trend is also attested
to by Philip Jenkins,
Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies and History at Penn. State.,
in his book "The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity
" While, as Mr. Steyn points out in his book, worldwide Islam makes
up 20% of the world's population, Christians make up 30%. They are
mostly growing in what Jenkins refers to as The Global South. Another
interesting book is one by former senior correspondent for Time Magazine
David Aikman entitled "Jesus in Beijing: How Christianity Is Changing
the Global Balance of Power". Aikman points out that Christianity
is experiencing strong growth as an underground movement in China.
Many of the pro-Democracy demonstrators from the late 1980's have become
Christian and a growing number of Chinese intellectuals are coming to see
Christianity as the source of the success of western civilization.
They are coming to believe that China must adopt Christianity if it ever
wants to match the west. This penetration is even starting to reach
into the Communist Party. The book predicts that, in a generation
or two, the rise of Christianity in China could make that country an ally
of the U.S. in the struggle against radical Islam, as Christians gain more
influence there.
Military Intelligence expert
Ralph Peters wrote a book entitled "New Glory: Expanding America's
Global Supremacy". In that book he talks not only about the
growing decline of Europe, but the coming importance of places like South
Africa and the countries of South America. In regards to the countries
of South America, he believes that the explosion of a charismatic/Pentecostal
form of Christianity, which is somewhat individualistic and prone to favor
free markets and democratic politics, will make them a natural ally of
the U.S. I think that a similar argument could be made with respect
to South Africa, which seems to be ready to make at least a regional impact.
Berger also mentions that:
"Religious dynamism is
not confined to Islam and Pentecostalism. The Catholic Church, in trouble
in Europe, has been doing well in the Global South. There is a revival
of the Orthodox Church in Russia. Orthodox Judaism has been rapidly growing
in America and in Israel. Both Hinduism and Buddhism have experienced revivals,
and the latter has had some successes in proselytizing in America and Europe."
The resurgence of Russian
Orthodox Christianity in Russia is a wild card. Right now, Putin
is channeling this energy into support for a resurgent Russian nationalism
which could be another threat to our freedom in addition to radical Islam.
In the long run though, it is hard not to see a resurgent Orthodoxy in
anything other than a confect with Islam.
Finally, there
are movements within Islam, such as neo-Sufism that we might want to
consider partnering with. It seems that there is no way that a secular
response to the threat of Islam has any chance of succeeding. In
order to successfully combat this threat, we need to steer the natural
human religious impulse in a pro freedom direction.
Robert Maynard is the
Editor of the True North website
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