I recently read this article about the decline of the mainline Protestant religion in Minnesota. It also talked about the Catholic Church. The three Protestant groups it mentions are the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, the United Methodist Church, and the Presbyterian Church.
Here is the article:
http://www.startribune.com/as-minnesota-churches-close-a-way-of-life-fades/486037461/
I paid deep attention to the Catholic and Lutheran statistics. I’m not a Lutheran but my dads family is Lutheran. Both of my paternal grandparents died as practicing Lutherans, and to this day my dad will claim to be a Lutheran though non-practicing. Our family is German from the Volga region of Russia. Many Volga Germans settled in Minnesota so I feel a bit of a kinship here.
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When we look at these statistics, we see that the Catholic Church is doing well in America. It has 14.4% more members in 2017 than it did in 2000. That’s certainly something to be happy about. At the same time, the amount of child baptisms has dropped 33.7% in that same time period. What does this mean? I don’t think that there is a significant influx of converts to Catholicism. I simply think that immigrants are making up more and more of Catholicism in America. This explains the growth and lack of child baptisms. These immigrants are most likely from Mexico, the Philippines, and Africa. I should also point out that these are the same people that the alt-right would like to see deported to create their demonic ethnostate.
I see the same thing in Canada. The Catholic church here is largely full of immigrant communities. God bless these people. The white Canadian Catholics don’t seem to care about Church. In fact, apart from Poland and maybe one or two other countries in Eastern Europe, the white population of Catholics globally aren’t very practicing. It’s outside of Europe where Catholicism is the strongest.
The mainline Protestants haven’t really expanded out of their traditional countries in Europe. The possible exception is the Church of England, but apart from that, Lutheranism and Presbyterianism have stayed as European religions, whether that’s in the home countries our ethnic European communities in America, Canada, or Australia.
Why haven’t they expanded? These churches were founded to be national churches. Nationalism has always been the enemy of religion. It might become a temporary friend but more often than not, it’s a firm enemy. Lutheranism is tied in with a German and Scandinavian identity. Presbyterianism is tied in with a Scottish identity. The Reformed churches of the Netherlands and Switzerland are tied into national identities as well. All of these countries were once Catholic but they traded in a universal religion for a national one.
I don’t see the decline of mainline Protestantism as a tragedy. I see it as an opportunity. Nationalism is no longer popular in Europe with the exception of sketchy anti-Christian Identitarian groups. The mainline churches no longer serve a purpose. I believe that we should encourage every mainline Protestant we can to abandon these national religions. At one point in time, they at least served a secular purpose, but they don’t anymore. They’ve even largely abandoned the standards of their founders. I think Luther or Knox would faint if they saw the state of their churches today.
As Catholics, we should reach out to these people. Most Catholics should be able to do this since it doesn’t require one to be a guru in theology. It only requires a basic appeal to history which most mainline Protestants will concede. It’s only community that keeps them there, nothing else. I’m not saying that this isn’t a big obstacle, but this group would probably be the easiest for the average Catholic to convert. I think it’s a goldmine.
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