ZIONICA.com

Culture War and the Global Church

Global Christianity is thriving, with one out of every 3 people on earth professing Christian faith, according to a Pew study released last month. But Christianity is shifting south. Two percent of global Christians 100 years ago lived in sub-Saharan Africa. Today, nearly a quarter do, equal to Europe’s percentage, and soon surely to surpass it.

Insulated secular elites in the U.S. remain largely clueless about thriving religion even in America, much less globally. To the extent they notice domestic religion, it is often the echoing voices of liberal Protestant elites who preside over increasingly empty churches.

The Presbyterian Church (USA) and the Episcopal Church, both of which are now likely below 2 million members, will have their governing conventions this summer. They will probably solidify their liberal trends, especially in deconstructing traditional marriage. United Methodism, unique among the major liberal Mainline denominations for having not compromised its sexual teaching, will convene its General Conference in late April in Tampa. Its U.S. membership of 7.6 million is shrinking, while is overseas membership of 4.5 million, mostly in Africa, is surging.

Meeting at the same convention center where Republicans will nominate their presidential candidate a few months later, the United Methodists perhaps will offer a little more excitement than the GOP. Church liberals, as they have for 40 years, hope they will finally overturn the denomination’s prohibition against same-sex unions and clergy sexually active outside heterosexual marriage. But 30 percent of the nearly 1000 delegates this year will come from Africa, and another 10 percent from the Philippines, Europe, and elsewhere overseas. The overseas churches, especially Africa, are overwhelmingly conservative.