Posted on 04/17/2005 3:34:28 AM PDT by Destro
Analysis: Rome up, Protestantism down?
By Uwe Siemon-Netto
UPI Religious Affairs Editor
Washington, DC, Apr. 13 (UPI) -- In their reflections on the ministry of the late Pope John Paul II, few theologians doubt the Catholic Church is currently experiencing a "kairos," or decisive moment in history, as the Rev. Anthony Figueiredo, a former special assistant to the pontiff, believes.
Meanwhile, Protestantism seems spiritually and morally almost finished, according to Peter Jensen, the Anglican archbishop of Sydney, Australia.
"Mainline... denominations are slowly dying. Let them die a natural death," the New Oxford Review, a conservative Catholic journal, recently proposed.
Is this true? Will only Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy and Islam survive the current crisis of faith, as a senior religious affairs adviser to the European Commission predicted some years ago?
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
LOL! And I think the Jews might be a little miffed for having been excluded in the final count. They are the Chosen. V's wife.
Why should Jews be considered? Not that many of them to be considered a world wide religion. The Jews are barely a majority in Israel!
In much of East Asia the Christianity you see are evangelical, if you include Baptists under this banner. In addition, I can count churches like Ling Leung Tang (Bread of Life Christian Church), Christian and Missionary Alliance, Calvary Chapel, Evangelical Free Church, Pentecostal Church, Fuk Lam Church ( http://www.fuklam.org ) under this umbrella. Mainline Protestants aren't unimportant - there are 4 Lutheran organizations in HK, and Anglican and Presbyterians ( HK Council of the Church of Christ in China - which was formed as a merger of Presbyterian, Congregational, Reformed, and London Missionary Society churches) are also active in Hong Kong, but they are not as significant in the number saved.
But there even the mainline Protestants are biblically orthodox (apart from the Presbyterian Church of Taiwan (PCT)). I wonder how the poor author bases his hypothesis?
Ping to Quix!
Most East Asians are soup kitchen Christians.
It is not the case. The ones I know are actually very hell-fire-brimstone type and makes R.C. Sproul sound like a comfortable lukewarm Bible teacher. Over the past 15-20 years it is the evangelical church that has the most growth, and names like So Wing-chi, Leung Yin-shing, Wan Wai-yiu or older Christains like Chan Chung-to and Ng Chu-kwong are all well known.
The Catholic church in contrast is very quiet, and to a lesser degree mainline denominations in HK.
The numbers are still pretty small and like I said in most cases they are there for the free soup.
In 1981 census by Hong Kong government the number og Christians was 200,000 and Catholics 225,000. 20 years later the number of Christians had risen to 314,500 (the number of Catholics stayed about constant). In addition, there are around approximately 300,000 Hong Kong Chinese that had moved overseas because of 1997 and from various government and researchers' estimates, 50% of these Chinese migrants are Christians (that includes 20% Catholics). In other words, there are another 90,000 HK Chinese Christians who now live overseas. If you compare these figures, you can see a lot of people become saved.
It could be true when my mother was young that soup kitchens had attracted many to become Christians, but definitely not now in this age of mass prosperity.
Oh you are using evidence in HK to determine all of Asia? Kind of skewed seeing as to HK's last 100 years history. HK is not typical of East Asia.
That's my point - the original author (or at least the author the gentleman quoted) completely ignores the scene at Evangelical church.
Also in Chinese the exact translation of "Christianity" has a narrower meaning - even in the secular sense it is only used for Protestants, Baptists, Evangelicals, and Charismatics, while Catholics has a specific name. The same is true for other Asian languages such as Korean. this is why Asians will talk about "Christians and Catholics" - becasue it is so in the original language.
My apologies that I could only find this link in Chinese:
http://www.truth-monthly.com/issue85/0010cs02.htm
Feel free to babblefish it. :)
Got this from babblefishing a paragraph:
"In the general English literature, Christianity (Christianity) has included Catholicism in fact (Catholicism), Eastern Orthodoxy (Orthodoxy) with the Christianity protestantism (or orthodox church) (Protestantism). But, in Chinese literature, "Christianity" a word then specially refers to the protestantism or the orthodox church. The Christianity protestantism and Catholicism have the relations in the history which the origin continues, two also has the certain common ground in the belief, but also has the significant difference."
Another:
"English Protestant, the original intention is "protesters", builds the church by them, is the Christianity protestantism which we said today (Protestant Church), in Chinese literature is "Christianity" which distinguishes with Catholicism."
Number of Catholics Rises by 15 Million (Diocesan Priests Increase; Religious Decrease)
Spanish Catholicism still very robust (3 shrines and The Sagrada Familia)
Catholics outsource praying to India
Catholic Priests in India 'Outsourced' to Meet Clergy Shortage in West
Christian Coalition head (in Ala.) becomes Catholic
Church growth continues for Catholic and Pentecostals; six mainline denominations decline
Young people turn against their parents' 'church lite'
Pope calls US Church to repentance and renewal
A father for the 11th time - Widower becomes Catholic priest
Number of Adults Who Don't Attend Church Service Doubles
Huge Christian growth shocks China's leaders
Church Attendance Increased : Protestants have now clearly overtaken Catholics in church attendance
Catholics Trail Protestants in Church Attendance [Gallup]
Church Attendance Linked to Longer Life
Dozens of Episcopalians Follow Leader into Catholic Church
Thousands prepare to join U.S. Catholic Church this Easter
Where Have All the People in the Pews Gone?
More Than 150,000 People to Join Catholic Church Holy Saturday
Thanks. Will try to remember to check it out this afternoon.
Overall, the Roman Church has not been doing at all well in the face of mushrooming Pentecostal/Charismatic growth in South America and around the world. Africa is full of Pentecostal growth as God's Spirit moves across the continent in healings and other dramatic moves.
Being under constant threat of death by Muslims focuses one's attention on God dramatically.
Many in foreign lands are well aware of the demonic daily. Pablum Christianity won't do in the face of satanic powers.
Babelfishing refers to trabslating a page written in one language to another using AltaVista translator. Since it is called babel fish translation I use this term:
http://babelfish.altavista.com/translate.dyn
The article is from the link I provided in post 14. Because it is in Chinese I used babel fish to translate it.
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