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Only registered users can see links on this forum! Register or Login on forum! By Dale Hurd CWNews CWNews.com– Welcome to Post-Christian Europe, a land filled with beautiful monuments to an ancient religion that few Europeans practice anymore or know much about. While Christianity is still very relevant in the United States, and is exploding in the developing world, Europe today has sunk below unbelief, and is now labeled "Christophobic" and "anti-religious." An American might look at a church building and think nice thoughts; that is rarely the case with a European, especially here in France, where religion is more likely to be associated with oppression, irrelevance, or simply the past. In France, as in much of Europe, only five percent of the population go to church on a weekly basis, and most of them are the elderly. Only 10 percent of the French think religion is "very important"; for all Europeans, that figure is only 21 percent. Journalist Richard Miniter told us, “As an American in Europe, when you tell Europeans that you go to church on Sunday, they look at you like a museum piece—something strange.” Near Brussels is Christian Center, an Assemblies of God church. There, Belgian Pastor Paul Devos ministers to a culture in which Christianity is largely irrelevant. Pastor Devos said, “In the United States, people would more quickly turn toward at least Christ—in general—and Christianity because it's still somewhat part of the culture—in general. Here in Europe, we have gone beyond that point and we do not expect anything from religion—apart from some very abstract hope that there is something after this life.” Among the clergy in Europe’s state churches, unbelief is extraordinarily high. Baylor Sociologist Rodney Stark explained, “It's easy to have a negative religious experience, going to church in Europe. The one place unbelief is rampant is in the churches.” A recent study named "Fragmented Faith?" found that, in Britain, 1 out of 5 Anglican pastors do not believe in the bodily resurrection of Christ. Only 60% believe in the Virgin Birth—that's a lower level of belief than among church goers. Sociologist Stark further explained, “It's the churches they don't go to; and one of the reasons they don't go is the people running them don't care if they don't go.” There have been reports recently that although church attendance in Europe is low, belief in God is actually very high. But belief in what sort of God? Judging from surveys, it's a new age faith with a large dose of moral relativism. Vince Esterman is a Frenchman who grew up in Australia. He has been a French Pastor for almost 20 years, and has a dynamic street ministry in Paris. Although he has led a lot of Frenchmen to Christ, he doesn't talk much about ‘revival.’ He speaks of a Europe that is still moving away from God. Pastor Esterman said, “Europe, that was the custodian of the Gospel in the very early decades, now is the continent that is rejecting the Gospel and Christianity. And so we have seen France go into decline and with it, Europe generally.” Instead of looking to faith for answers, the European media continue to mock America's high church attendance as weird. The British Economist magazine writes "To Europeans, religion is the strangest and most disturbing feature about [America].” Esterman says, So, for evangelicals, it’s open season, but absolutely nothing can be said against Muslims, of course, because there's always retaliation.” Rodney Stark writes in The Victory of Reason, that Europe owes everything—its culture, its freedom, its science and its wealth—to Christianity. But European leaders, today, are defiant in their efforts to keep God and the Christian faith out of public life. A sociologist at the Sorbonne in Paris sums it up this way: "We are not going to sacrifice women's equality, democracy, and individual freedoms on the altar of a new religion." So wrote Patrick Weil, University of Paris-Sorbonne, in the Christian Science Monitor. But some would say Europe has “a new religion.” Italy's Culture Minister Rocco Buttiglione, a devout Catholic, calls it, "A nihilistic fundamentalism against truth." Sociologist Stark simply calls it “hedonism,” and says it's why Europe is dying—no Western European country is having enough babies to replace its current population. Journalist Richard Miniter said, “The loss of faith in Europe is like an unseen black star that still has a tremendous gravitational pull. They don't understand why their culture is failing. They don't understand why divorce rates and suicide rates are so high. They don't understand why so few European women have more than one child, and why on most European streets, you see more dogs than children. This is the impact of the death of real Christian belief in Europe.” ... Pastor Esterman said, “I have been an eyewitness to France becoming increasingly Islamicized. There is no longer an ability to morally resist a strong culture like Islam coming into the country.” Stark ventured to say that, “Europe is going to get more religious than it is: either because of a revival of Christianity or because they go Muslim—you can't sit there with no babies for ever.” Because belief impacts everything: from culture to economics to the war on terror, Religious America and anti-religious Europe are likely to drift farther apart, unless or until Europe returns to God.

the apostasy in America is bad, i couldn't imagine living in Europe.