[scholarship] [international-scholarship] [Islam and Muslim] America religious trends in the 21st Century
- From: "A. Fatih Syuhud" <fatihsyuhud@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: international-scholarship@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 6 Jan 2007 13:06:17 -0800 (PST)
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=20 Church infrastructure, numbers, demographics
From Catholic to Orthodox, = From (Nominal) Christian to Islam - U.S.
religious trends in the 21st Centu= ry
By Sean Scallon
Saturday, January 6, 2007
Demographics= is destiny and that's true not just in politics but business,
education, s= ports, entertainment, culture and religion.
Especially religion.
=
That's because numbers and numbers of adherents determine whether or no= t
your faith is taken seriously or is just another kooky cult.
There are two demographic trends that may occur in the = 21st Century inside
the U.S. that could alter several faiths in the process= . Those trends are
from Catholic to Orthodox and from (nominal) Christian t= o Islam.
We start with the Catholic Church. It's no secret the U.S. = Catholic Church
is in a deep crisis. The numerous sexual molestation scanda= ls and the
classaction lawsuits that have followed are draining diocesan t= reasuries
dry. Many such dioceses are selling off buildings like closed chu= rches and
schools and other real estate properties they own. On top of that= , the
shortage of priests and nuns in the U.S. mean more such closures are = on
theway. And because of that shortage, the Church's institutions, its co=
lleges, hospitals and other charitable foundations, will become completely =
secularized within the next 20 years. The whole infrastructure of the Churc=
h within the U.S. could be almost gone by within that time period.
T= he U.S. Catholic Church will survive however. It has faced worse
challenges= in its history and has always survived. But to survive means to
adapt and = adapting means change and the U.S. Catholic Church will be
transformed by t= his process. The transformation will come demographically
as what once was = a European-ethnic church will become a predominantly
Hispanic and Third Wor= ld immigrant church.
This is also a process that's going on world wi= de as well. Philip Jenkins,
the Penn State University theology professor an= d writer for Chronicles,
hasdocumented this coming transformation of the C= hristian world thanks to
demographics in numerous articles and books. Numbe= rs mean power and such
power within the Church will come from its Third Wor= ld adherents. There's
no doubt the next pope will be probably be from the T= hird World, perhaps
Latin or South America first (with a bishop of European= immigrant descent)
followed by an African pope after that. We've already s= een the Third
World's power within the Anglican community already. Several = Episcopal
churches in the U.S. have left their local dioceses in schisms to= align
themselves with Anglican dioceses in Third World locations because t= heir
bishops are more traditional than their Western counterparts, who are =
ordaining women and homosexual bishops.
What is fueling the change i= n the U.S. Catholic Church is immigration.
MoreHispanic immigrants and oth= er Catholic immigrants from the Third World
are filling the pews and in man= y cases what were once empty pews,
especially in big cities. Now as immigra= tion spreads from big cities and
the coasts to small towns in the Midwest a= nd South, such change will take
place in churches in these locations as wel= l. It's the Catholic Church
thatwill absorb most of the new immigrants. Al= though a good chunk of
Hispanic immigrants are Pentecostals, they tend to f= orm their own churches
separately. Hispanic Catholics are moving into exist= ing communities and
existing churches.
All this leaves the European = ethnic in a quandary. The term "Catholic"
means universal and as such it sh= ould not matter what race or ethnic group
anyone who calls themselves Catho= lic is. All are welcomed. Yet such
churches were the anchors of previous et= hnic communities. Such change can
be quite jarring, especially when you add= it onto change within the
neighborhood, change in the business community a= nd change within the
schools thanks to unlimited immigration. It doesn't ta= ke long for one
Hispanic mass to become all masses at some point.
Be= cause of this change, some European ethnic Catholics wish that the
bishops = would either take a stand against immigration or least not be
noisypromote= rs of it like Los Angeles Archbishop Roger Mahoney.
Unfortunately they are = whistling past the graveyard. Not even the most
conservative of bishops, li= ke Omaha's Roman Bruskewitz, are going to
opposeunlimited immigration nor = will any be recalled by Rome for such
support like Mahoney. The Catholic Ch= urch in the U.S. is an immigrant
church. Always has been. Always will be. T= o its bishops and
administrators,seeing one immigrant group coming into th= e church and
overtaking another is simply the natural wave of history. It w= ould be
unthinkable of them to turn oppose immigration, especially when suc= h
immigrants and their money are going to be ones to keep the Church afloat=
during its time of transformation. Opponents of unlimited immigration must=
understand that is how the church thinks and operates and it perfectly fit=
swith its history. It not a "Popish" plot to undermine the United States. =
This writer (and Catholic) nearly deleted VDARE.com from his list of favori=
te websites last year because some of its writers began waving the bloody s=
hirt of "rum, Romanism and rebellion" until Peter Brimelow thankfully set t=
hem straight and also pointed out Protestantism's many contributions t= o
ournation's immigration problems.
But again the quandary for Euro= pean ethnic Catholic remains. His numbers
have been reduced by intermarriag= e, by the destruction of ethnic
neighborhoods by urban renewal and the inte= rstate highway system, by
suburban sprawl, by the church's own problems and= divisions within it and
byhis or her own laziness and sloth. If you don't= show up for mass or to
volunteer or be a part of the community, you will l= ose power and influence
to those who do. Whoever said that life is all abou= t showing up was dead
onin this regard. So what to do? Join the Orthodox C= hurch.
The Orthodox Church has a number of appeals to the European e= thnic
Catholic. It is a church that is ethnically conscious and fuses the i= dea
ofthe church to that of the nation and the culture. That's why there a= re
Greek Orthodox churches, Russian Orthodox Churches, Romanian Orthodox ch=
urches and so forth. (Only the Polish Catholic Church and Uniate churches l=
oyal to Rome are that way amongst Catholics). It is a decentralized church,=
which means its doctrines and practices of worship are not subject to the =
whims of a whole Vatican Council. It's a church that has avoided a lot of t=
he doctrinal disputes that has divided the Catholic churches because it sta=
ys true to its traditions and doctrines which it traces back to the origina=
l Christian church. Its mass has gone unchanged for=C3=8Amany centuries and=
one doesn't have to worry about whether the new priest is going to allows =
guitars and drums during the worship service, disallows bells or kneeling o=
r whatever fashion of mass is in vogue from the seminary. It's a church who=
's priests are married which means the problems the Catholic Church has had=
with homosexual priests (the one's that don't take their vows of celibacy =
seriously anyway) aren't a problem with the Orthodox. It is the Orthodox th=
at is going to be more suspicious of mass immigration (especially immigrati=
on from Islamic nations) than other religions.
Of course, if you are= an Irish, Italian, French or German Catholic, you
justcan't pop into Serb= ian Orthodox Church and say "I'm a new convert!"
unless you marry a Serb. I= t just doesn't work that way. To solve that
problem, the Orthodox Church of= America (OCA) exists. Formed in the early
1970s by the Russian Patriarchy = and separate from it, the OCA is an
Americanized version of the of the Russ= ian Church with its services in
English and with pews and so forth (the Ort= hodox church who's fall
festivalI annually attend in Clayton, Wisconsin, H= oly Trinity, is part of
the OCA.) Many of the churches are old Russian ones= like Holy Trinity, but
the OCA also incorporates other ethnic groups like = Albanian and Romanian
Orthodox that never had separate ethnic bishoprics li= ke the Greeks or
Serbsdo. The OCA could very easily incorporate ethnic Eur= opean Catholic
refugees in their own churches. Right now the OCA has over 1= 00 churches
anda million members, slow but steady growth that I think coul= d easily
accelerate in the 21st Century. Conservative writer Rod Dreher of = Crunchy
Cons fame has already made the switch from Catholicism to Eastern O=
rthodoxyand I think others will to.
The other trend that will take = place will be those from nominal Christian
backgrounds converting to Islam.= Such conversions have taken place among
African Americans for long time an= d famous ones like Lew Alcindor to
KareemAbdul-Jabbar and Cassius Clay to = Muhammad Ali. The Nation of Islam,
an organization of Black Muslims, has do= minated the Islamic discourse
within U.S for many years. However, the NOI's= racist rhetoric against
whiteshas kept Islam's numbers in the U.S. down f= rom what they could
potentially be.
This will change too in the 21st= Century. Growth in Islam will come from
Third World immigration of course.= But it will also come from white
convertsas well and they will come from = two sources of thought.
Islam always has had an ideological appeal t= o those on the far left and
right. To a cultural Marxist, Islam is the God = that hasn't failed (unlike
Communism), at least not yet. Its diverse, multi= cultural following and the
fact that it is the religion of the Third Word i= .e. it was founded there
and expanded there outside of Europe and the West,= makes it a perfect
vehicle for cultural upheaval and egalitarianism. Marxi= sm derided religion
which limited its appeal while Islam is a religion and = has mass appeal.
Andwithin an adversarial culture, converting to Islam bec= omes the perfect
vehicle to shock one's parents and friends and peers. Inde= ed, Jean-Paul
Sartre himself became more and more fascinated with Islam as = the communist
left declined in his later years. This has more of chance of = happening
withthe nominal baptized or secular Christian than anyone else. = Think of
John Walker Lindh, the Marin County, California teenager who got f= ed up
with empty secularist lifestyle of parents and neighbors and converte= d to
Islam and joined the Taliban in Afghanistan, and you'll understand the=
type.Since 9-11 and since George Bush II give Islam his stamp of approval=
bycalling it a "religion of peace," there's been a growing study of Islam=
within in the media and with others who are curious to know more about it.=
Such study, no doubt, will increase the size of the pool of converts for I=
slam within the U.S.
On the other side, Nazis have always appreciate= d Islam's marshal spirit
andascetic, non-bourgeois lifestyle along with it= s ability to submit the
will of the mass towards one deity or person. They = found it far superior
toChristian piety which they found to be nothing mor= e than religion for
wimps, not the supermen they were supposed to be. Those= who are not
inclinedtowards Nazism still find these same qualities admira= ble, along
with Islam's male-dominated patriarchy. Women and men do not pra= y
together.If you are a fellow who is unchurched right at the moment becau= se
you think the modern church in the U.S. is too female dominated and has = no
place for you, then Islam may be your scene. Think of guy who used to at=
tend Promise Keeper rallies in football stadiums and spent his time crying =
on the shoulder of another guy while being told what an awful person he was=
. When he realized the whole thing was nothing more than a religious versio=
n of 1990s male bonding without the tom-tom drums, campfires and war paint =
and when he realized his wife and her friends were laughing their heads off=
at him down at the solon, then you'll know the kind of person I'm talking =
about. In fact the crisis of the maleless church has become such a concern =
that, according to religious news reports, that certain pastors have gotten=
to the point of parking Harley Davidson motorcycles out front of the entry=
ways of their churches and putting on football uniforms and using football =
metaphors to attract males back into the pews again. But Islam's call may b=
e more enticing than that just more passing Christian fads.
Islam an= d Eastern Orthodoxy have never played major roles within the
cultural, poli= tical or economic milieus of the United States largely
because their number= s have never been large enough to do so, let alone
attract any attention. B= ut in this century, that could change as numbers
and demography head in bot= h faiths' direction.
Sean Scallon is a writer and freelance journali= st living in Arkansaw,
Wisconsin. His weblog is Beating the Powers that Be = at
www.beatingthepowersthatbe.blogspot.com.
Courtesy: canadafr= eepress.com
--------------------------
Islam Musli= m Islamic banking finance insurance marriage clothing fashion
software qurb= an Makkah Madinah.
--
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Situs Lowongan kerja dan Beasiswa - Free Job Vacancy and Scholarship Info
1. Job Vacancy Indonesia
http://karirkerja.blogspot.com
2. Situs Info Lowongan Kerja Indonesia
http://infokerjas.blogpsot.com
3. Free Scholarship info for international students
http://scholarshipz.blogpsot.com
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http://informasi-beasiswa.blogspot.com
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http://beasiswas.blogspot.com
6. Cara Membuat blog - Tutorial blog
http://kolom-mario.blogspot.com
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