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| Evolving multi-faith in a secular state | |
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| Topic Started: Jan 7 2007, 12:12 PM (689 Views) | |
| Kahu | Jan 7 2007, 12:12 PM Post #1 |
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Evolving multi-faith in a secular state The Dominion Post Saturday, 30 December 2006 HONEST TO GOD - IAN HARRIS New Zealand is still a Christian country by majority, but only just. In this year's census, 53 per cent of the population still considered themselves Christian. But if the biggest single grouping determines our religious character, we are a God-shaped blank. Nearly one in three of us, a total of 1,297,104, ticked the "no religion" box. That figure has risen by 269,052, or 26 per cent, in the past five years. Any denomination would eat its heart out to net an increase like that. Instead, Catholics nudged up 22,800 to 508,812, Anglicans shed 29,868 to 554,925, and the Presbyterian/Reformed grouping lost 30,102 to 401,445. Methodists were fourth biggest at 122,073, a gain of 1368. Those churches can take some comfort that they account for three in every four of the 2.1 million people who identified themselves as Christian. They will take less from the fact that since 2001 their share of the total population has fallen from 47 to 39 per cent. The trend, evident since the 1920s, continues ever downward. The raw tallies do not tell everything. No census reflects presence in the pews on Sunday. Many people tick a denomination because of family associations, not because they are actually involved. The totals also include youngsters who have yet to decide what religious path, if any, they will follow. The biggest influence on our changing religious make-up is immigration. The Catholic, Presbyterian and Methodist churches are registering a positive spin-off from 200 years of missionary enterprise as new- comers from Asia and the Pacific join their congregations, but this masks the steady erosion of Pakeha and Maori membership. A more dramatic effect of immigration, however, is the silent mushrooming of Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim communities. Since 1996, Hindus have more than doubled from 25,551 to 64,557, Muslims surged from 13,545 to 36,150, and Buddhists grew from 28,131 to 52,392. Together, the three faiths now comprise 3.8 per cent of the population, doubled in 10 years. Each dwarfs Judaism, at 6858. As these religions take root, they pose challenges for the newcomers, the churches, and the growing ranks of those indifferent or hostile to religion.#paraFor many newcomers, their religion is at the core of their being and a link to their heritage. To the society they have moved into, however, it can be a curiosity, or even a cause of alienation. It is essential that they make the New Zealand values of freedom and tolerance their own. Christians should meanwhile be asking themselves the hard questions about their dwindling numbers. It is the Christian West, after all, that gave birth to the secular society, yet so often the churches see the secular as negative rather than something they can find synergy with. The sooner that changes, the better. One factor working against the churches might in time turn in their favour. The great majority of the "no religionists" are under 40. They know little about either traditional Christianity or what a Christianity re-imagined for our secular society might be like. If they ever get around to inquiring about that, at least they should be more open than their elders to new ways of thinking about God, without a lot of unlearning to do first. But the churches seem largely unaware of the opportunities presented by secular society. Also, with new faiths growing strongly around them, they must learn to shed their ingrained attitude of superiority toward other religions, as, too, must the other religions. No religion has a monopoly on truth. The evolving multi-faith reality also poses a challenge to those who are indifferent or hostile to religion. For the census confirms that even in our secular society, religion has a firm place. Secular tolerance demands that it be respected and safeguarded, not the butt of dismissive sneers. There is one over-arching shadow, however, which usually everyone is too polite to mention. Immigrants often find strength in a religious solidarity aloof from the mainstream. Europe's recent history shows that distance can lead to alienation, alienation to discontent, discontent to extremism, and extremism to terror attacks on the host community. That need not happen here, but avoiding it will take wise leadership and understanding all round. |
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| Pilgrim | Jan 7 2007, 03:59 PM Post #2 |
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Kahu, it's such a pleasure to read your thoughtful and lucid contributions to these forums. They nearly always contain good food for thought. Rosemary. |
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| Kahu | Jan 7 2007, 04:22 PM Post #3 |
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Thank you Rosemary, I must admit I was beginning to think there was only desert out there. :): |
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| elkouri | Jan 8 2007, 04:40 AM Post #4 |
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I AGRee with pilgrimage kahu, but I wish you would put it on your own words. To me that would be so much more exciting. Those long drawn out articles can't be half as interesting as your interpretation of them are. Elkouri |
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| agate | Jan 8 2007, 05:49 AM Post #5 |
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This statement says it most for me!!! Not a desert Kahu...i think most don't post as it get to be such a hassle . As we know religion is a topic than can get very heated and to few have tolerance for the other's point of view. As the statement says....*No religion has a monopoly on truth* |
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| Deleted User | Jan 8 2007, 06:27 AM Post #6 |
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| VickiNC | Jan 8 2007, 06:49 AM Post #7 |
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No, I don't agree at all. How self-centered for any religion to think itself above another. |
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| VickiNC | Jan 8 2007, 06:56 AM Post #8 |
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I couldn't agree more with this article, Kahu. Wouldn't it be terrific if the world could be accepting of all people, religions, etc... ? |
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| Deleted User | Jan 8 2007, 07:27 AM Post #9 |
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Well that’s a new concept everyone is correct and no untruths. How can everyone be correct? All believe differently and you are saying no one is wrong. |
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| VickiNC | Jan 8 2007, 07:33 AM Post #10 |
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It's not a new concept at all, OSG. It's called live and let live. |
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| Deleted User | Jan 8 2007, 08:02 AM Post #11 |
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Double posted. Sorry |
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| Deleted User | Jan 8 2007, 08:04 AM Post #12 |
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Well, well there goes the law of perjury with one statement of a do gooder. Rewrite the statute books so that hereafter everyone is correct and science might just as well pack up and leave it to the theorists. How, I would like to know, can everyone be correct? Some say there is one God and some worship a triune. How can they both be correct? One is mistaken however kind anyone would like to be by allowing them both to believe they are correct. Evolutionist are correct just as creationists are correct. Wow what a wonderful world. Who do I thank for this world now? God? Allah? Satan? Darwin? Gimme a clue please. |
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| VickiNC | Jan 8 2007, 10:16 AM Post #13 |
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OSG, if you are calling me a do-gooder, I'm flattered. There are some who might disagree with you! As to my original statement, "live and let live", I stand by it, and will make no further comments, as I do not wish to try to change anyone's beliefs. I only want our forum to be a safe haven for people of all sorts, barring terrorists, mass murderers, etc..., of course. |
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| Kahu | Jan 8 2007, 11:35 AM Post #14 |
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Otherwise known as tolerance....... |
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| Kahu | Jan 8 2007, 11:43 AM Post #15 |
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I'm not a theologian Elkouri, as is the writer, Ian Harris, or some other members of this forum. |
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