What's left of Rievaulx Abbey, North Yorkshire (Capture Light/Shutterstock)
Rod Dreher, "British Christianity Death Watch" (The American Conservative, May 29, 2016):
This is grim:[Hat tip to JM]A landmark in national life has just been passed. For the first time in recorded history, those declaring themselves to have no religion have exceeded the number of Christians in Britain. Some 44 per cent of us regard ourselves as Christian, 8 per cent follow another religion and 48 per cent follow none. The decline of Christianity is perhaps the biggest single change in Britain over the past century. For some time, it has been a stretch to describe Britain as a Christian country. We can more accurately be described now as a secular nation with fading Christian institutions.Read more >>
There is nothing new in the decline of the church, but until recently it had been a slow decline. For many decades it was possible to argue that while Christians were eschewing organised religion, they at least still regarded themselves as having some sort of spirit-ual life which related to the teachings of Jesus. Children were asked for their Christian name; conversations ended with ‘God bless’. Such phrases are now slipping out of our vocabulary — to wear a cross as jewellery is seen as making a semi-political statement. Christians are finding out what it’s like to live as a minority.
Just 15 years ago, almost three quarters of Britons still regarded themselves as Christians. If this silent majority of private, non-churchgoing believers really did exist, it has undergone a precipitous decline. Five years ago, the number of people professing no religion was only 25 per cent.
The future of the UK is bleak indeed, but it has a lot to do with the collapse of civil society itself. Aspects of the British soul which were inherently corrosive to religion were once kept in check by a highly developed social etiquette. This has all but been erased. Islam's growth is entirely through birth rates, and they are heading towards majority-minority status in many big cities.
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