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Murphy Martin Commentary
January 26, 2006

 "Is God Dead in Europe?"

The title of this week's writing was the screaming headline on the Op-Ed page of the USA Today Monday January 9,2006. In parenthesis below that attention grabber was the question: And what will that mean for America?

If one accepts the numbers provided by the PEW Research Center Religion and Public Life survey in July of 2005 and the European Values Study in 1999-2000 church attendance is falling rapidly in Europe and a bit less so in America. The European study involved thirty-thousand respondents and the American study last year involved two-thousand adults.

From those numbers we learn that 85% of those interviewed in America believe in God; In Europe only 41% believe in a Personal God and another 33% believe in a Spirit of life force. In America 11% did not believe in God and 3% did not believe in God but rather in a universal spirit or higher power. In Europe 15% said they did not know what to believe and another 11% said there was no spirit, God or life force.

Church attendance since 1970 has dropped from 40% of the population in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Italy to about 20%. Most declines were sharpest in predominantly Catholic nations. This seems more difficult to explain when we recall the tremendous outpouring of grief at Pope John Paul II's death last April and the enthusiasm that his successor seems to evoke.

Thirty-three-per-cent of those questioned in America said they attend church services at least once a week, the same percentage in Europe said they attend more then once a month. In America 15% said they never attend church and in Europe that number was 29%.

George Weigel, a Catholic columnist and U.S. biographer of Pope John Paul in his new book, says Western Europe the cradle of modern Christianity has become a "post-Christian society" in which the ruling class and cultural leaders are anti-religious or "Christophobic."

Contrast that thinking with what Patrick Buchanan argues in his 2001 book, The Death of the West, when he said that a European-style "de-Christianization of America" is the goal of many liberals--and they are succeeding.

Court decisions that have banned school-sponsored prayer, removed many Nativity scenes from public squares and the effort to erase "in God We Trust" from U.S. currency and "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance, all have emerged from more liberal individuals who seem to have forgotten America was founded on
Christian thinkings.

Back to the question: Is God Dead In Europe? The writer of that story might want to take another look at a more indelible possibility.

God is not dead in Europe or anywhere else! He lives, in Europe and in America and throughout this world. It just might be too many people in Europe, and a lesser number here in America, have become too busy with other things to spend as much visible time with Him in churches on a regular basis, or, to adhere to His teachings.

A reminder from one who believes deeply in Him and His work, don't get so busy trying to achieve your modern-day priorities that you exclude the best friend you can have---God!

The road to Peace and Tranquility is much more difficult without
Him ---whether you live in Europe, America, or the Middle East!


Murphy Martin

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e-mail   murphy@murphymartin.com

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