Australia’s latest census data has just been released with headlines in the press proclaiming that there are now fewer Christians than non-Christians in the nation. I had a rueful smile at this. Jesus once told a deeply disturbing parable. (A parable is a story that teaches a spiritual truth). He spoke of there being two gates. One was wide, and an easy path led through it. The majority of people went down that path. But there was another gate, a narrow gate, which led to eternal hope. Only those who sought it out, found their way through it and found life. So, the reality is: authentic Christianity has never been in the majority, even in times when “church-going” was the social norm in society. Authentic Christianity involves asking Jesus for forgiveness, and it involves making him the leader of your life. Being a Christian is no easy option. Jesus made that plain. This is particularly the case now that Christianity is no longer “on trend”. Christians today have to expect to be scorned and maligned – particularly in films and in the media.
According to Jesus, only a minority will discover the truth behind the order we see in the cosmos. Only a few will discover a hope that lies beyond the harsh realities of this life. Some will be convinced that there is a higher power, but that the truth is too hard to fathom. Others have an ideological difficulty with any one religion being right – which, of course, is a neat way of not allowing any truth to exist at all. Everything is reduced to being a construct of the human mind. For others, God is inconvenient to their lifestyle choices. They want sexual freedom and the ability to lie-in on a Sunday morning. So they wrap themselves in poorly researched atheistic clichés, and roll towards the wide gate.
The unconscionable behaviour of sexual predators who have infiltrated the Christian church, has greatly encouraged people’s distrust of the institutional church… and if that has affected you, I’m more sorry than I can say. If it is of any comfort, God hates it too. The vile, addictive compulsion of predators is not what characterises Jesus Christ. Jesus is the guy who hung on a cross for you. Do please see the difference. If you’ve not checked Jesus out and discovered why he came – I invite you to do so.
There is a sense in which I welcome the census data. The reality is: God is refining his church. He is clearing out the dead wood of those who are merely religious rather than those who love Jesus and are obedient to him. The traditional denominations are quickly losing their nominal Christians, as well as (sadly) losing some of their elderly saints due to old age. But other denominations are growing. The reality is, there are many churches that are faithfully preaching the Christian gospel to those who really want to know. The trick is to find one and be part of it.
But I must also confess to a growing sense of sadness at the census results. The reasons for this are two-fold. The first is: it risks a secular society pointing to the numbers and saying that Christians are now so insignificant that they don’t deserve special status as school chaplains (something which has already happened), or have tax breaks because of the social work they do, or have the Christian ethos of their schools protected. (The fact that there are record enrolments of students at faith-based schools – presumably because parents view the state’s secular morality with some alarm – should, however, cause governments to think a bit!)
The second reason I view the “unchristianising” of Australia with concern is that Christianity has revolutionised the world’s thinking about justice; obligations to the poor, education for all, gender equality, working for peace and hospital care. All of these things are a product of a Christian culture. The trouble is, these values have been around for so long that we take them for granted. Please don’t. (If you doubt this, you will discover a study of pre-Christian Rome enlightening.) A brief glance at the autocratic despots around the world is also instructive. One of their defining features is that they reserve to themselves the right to determine what is true (irrespective of reason or facts). The reason they can do so is that they see no greater authority beyond themselves. They have no God to guarantee what is good and true. It would be tragic indeed for Australian society to lazily disintegrate into a values-free “dark age” or become a society ruled by despots. It’s not a future I want for my grandchildren.
The census data says that the dominant generation in society is now “Millennials”. As I recently said to someone very dear to me: There are some things that are easier to ignore when living with the flush of youth. But there will be a time when you will wonder about your meaning, about why the universe bothers to exist, and whether there is such a thing as eternal hope.
If you look through the narrow gate, you will see a man dying for you on a cross in order to give you that hope. If you look through the wide gate, you will see nothing at all.
