OPINION
Bob Jones should stay in his lane. I’m not sure why he is attacking the divine authority upon which the monarchy granted his knighthood but I was surprised that he trumpeted the decline of religion in the Western world without any statistical data or an understanding of the situation.
First, the Western church is not a united one. How you measure the population depends on how you define an ‘Anglican’ or ‘Irish Catholic’. It is quite possible he is referring to the ‘mainstream’ churches. This is the official church recognised by the state and by society as the true church. Therefore it is more accurate to say that the mainstream Anglican and Irish Catholic churches are in decline, which is actually a good thing.
The decline of the mainstream church is due to a major schism in the Western church. Leaders and members are leaving the ‘mainstream’ church and starting new churches that return to the Christian traditions, customs and values upon which they were founded, due to the ‘mainstream’ churches moving away from their traditions and embracing woke ideas and theology.
The mainstream Anglican church is in decline not because of disillusionment, but because members and priests are leaving the mainstream church to join a new Anglican church. This new Anglican church is creating a new communion and diocese that will not recognise the Archbishop of Canterbury as the ‘greater among equals’ and representative of the Church because they disagree with the Archbishop of Canterbury’s blessing same sex marriages. This move has been a long time coming. It started with a meeting in Jerusalem, which led to the Jerusalem Declaration, signed by a number of Anglican clergy who vowed to preserve the traditional liturgy and the traditional institution of marriage between man and woman. Recently this group, known as GAFCON, passed the Kigali Commitment, which proposed to reset the communion and to break away from the Archbishop of Canterbury along with the other instruments of communion. This will lead to a new Anglican church being formed that will follow and preserve the orthodox traditions.
The same can be said for the mainstream Catholic church, which is seeing a decline for the same reason. It is due to modern, liberal and woke theology penetrating the church along with a concerted effort to eliminate anybody who speaks against it. This has actually been happening for a long time. Originally, it was traditional Catholics who saw this coming with the second ecumenical council of the Vatican in 1962, more popularly known as Vatican 2. Traditional Catholics see this declaration as the introduction of modernism, liberalism and globalism into the Catholic church.
Traditional Catholic organisations have split over their response to this: some continue under the Vatican but others have chosen to no longer recognise the authority of the Pope and the Vatican. The most famous is the Society of Saint Pius X and the Sedevacantists. Other traditional organisations such as CitizenGO and Tradition, Family, Property are trying to fight the culture war within the Catholic Church. Recently, an organisation called Ex Surge Domme Association has been formed as a support network for traditional Catholics who feel suppressed by the Vatican and to combat what its founder Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano calls the ‘Deep Church’: an extension of the deep state referring to the elites within the Church.
So how have these traditionally oriented churches fared? GAFCON have reported huge growth in their churches. In Africa and Asia, studies have found more and more people are identifying as Anglicans. The Catholic church has also reported huge growth in Europe. In the rural parts of Europe, according to one study, 30% of those attending are young people. The Catholic church is also reporting an increased interest in the traditional Latin Mass, with the average age of attendees being 25.
What explains this growth? There have been a number of theories. Sociologist Eric Kauffman believes this is due to the religious having higher birth rates than the secular. The average birth rate for the secular community is 1.2 while the average birth rate for Catholics is 3.5. In fact, the most fertile are the Amish. Kauffman’s demographic research suggests that due to the difference in lifestyle choices, the secular are not sufficiently replacing themselves while the religious community as a whole have widely expanded in population.
Another theory is the immigrant factor. In America, many Spanish-speaking churches are being launched in the suburban areas by Hispanics, who are predominantly Catholic. In the inner cities, the growing population of African migrants has contributed to the increase in churches in these areas. Asian churches are also on the rise, with an increasing number of Chinese, Indian and Korean language churches appearing in the West.
A final theory is the death of new atheism. New atheism was popular post 9/11, but since we have seen what the liberal international order is capable of, new atheism and postmodernism have lost their appeal, leaving the next generation in an existential crisis. It is quite possible that Generation Z is seeing the absurdity of modern culture and are creating a new counterculture that returns to traditions and rejects the modern progressivism of the millennials. This definitely is supported by data: in Europe a quarter of the people who voted for conservative parties were young people. In the Czech Republic, more and more young people are exploring traditional family values.
In a world of chaos, people are looking for stability. Instead of a house on sand, people are looking for a house on rock. What Bob Jones fails to mention is that Marxism and its descendant communism have collectively killed 100 million people. China is an example of a country with no religion. It has no freedoms, more authoritarianism, a broken justice system and is committing genocide. What else to expect? If laws are just a social construct, so are the rights guaranteed by those laws.
And what about New Zealand? Religion is on the decline in this country. When Franklin Graham finished his ‘God Loves You’ tour here, he commented that New Zealand was spiritually bankrupt. If Bob Jones is willing to celebrate then I imagine he is happy with its results such as the rise in suicide rates, ram raids being committed by children and violent crimes on our streets, including two mass shootings in the past few years. Additionally, we have a government that is increasingly taking away the freedoms and rights that we once took for granted, led by a Cabinet that does not seem fit to govern. This might be the New Zealand Bob Jones wants but it is definitely not for me.