‘Politics and the future of the Christian faith in Australia‘, Australian Independent Media Network, 8 December 2014
Tracks trends in religious faith and church attendance, using census and polling data. He quotes Tom Frame in his book, Losing My Religion (2009):
Unless there is a turnaround in the fortunes of all community organizations by 2025 the Christian Church will be a marginal player in Australian life with only a few remaining remnants. When the Christian affiliation of the population drops below 50 per cent, projected to happen around 2030, those identifying as Christians will be found in four main clusters. The Roman Catholic Church will continue to exercise sufficient discipline among its people to resist the mutating of popular culture. The Pentecostal/Charismatic churches will flourish in the larger cities, form communities within communities and become more sect like …
Those churches that do not present an attractive and credible alternative to popular culture will disappear. Left leaning cause driven liberal Protestant Churches that lack doctrinal rigor and are preoccupied with the promotion of social justice and cultural inclusion will be the first to go.
Lord looks at changes since 2009 and concludes:
The conclusions he draws would appear to be backed up by the results of the last five yearly Australian census, which showed a remarkable increase of 30% in unbelief. In fact, five of the eight states and territories now have more unbelievers than believers. In country areas, Christian churches are closing at a rapid rate and this is attributable to a number of factors including an aging population. Much research has been done over many years into the decline of belief and church attendance in Australia.
Lord looks at reasons. For other material on this subject, Search this site under ‘Religion’.
