What to do with Churches?

Geriant Lewis for Newsweek

Peter Parkinson, manager of Zizzi, an Italian restaurant occupying a 19th-century Anglican church in Cheltenham, England

From a Newsweek article on what to do with Christian Churches in Europe (now that Xty is dead in Europe):

Across much of the continent, churchgoing is in long-term decline, while a swelling—and devout—Muslim immigrant population needs ever more places to worship. According to a forecast by the British-based group Christian Research, practicing Muslims will outnumber practicing Christians in England within a few decades. More than 1,600 churches—about 10 percent of the country's total—have been formally declared redundant by the Church of England. And the English have recognized the new reality: if church buildings are to survive, new uses must be found. While a handful serve as mosques or Sikh temples, many more have found roles as cafés, concert halls, warehouses or chic apartments. The pious may fret but pragmatism will often prevail.

However,

the drift to secularism is far from universal. Some of the 90 churches in central Dublin owe their survival to the massive influx of staunchly Catholic Polish migrants in recent years. And Russia has seen the construction of 11,000 new churches and chapels since the collapse of communism. "The further you head east into the Orthodox world, the more you will find church buildings being repaired and new ones going up," says the Rev. Darrell Jackson of the World Council of Churches.

Tertullian (2nd c. Church Father) wrote that the blood of the matrys was the seed of the church. Actually in Latin the word he used was seminorum--the blood of the martyrs was the semen of the Church. The Soviet persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church shed the blood of martyrs, hence the Church is growing there.

As has been documented by others, free market capitalism and liberalism is free of the tyranny of totalitarianism, but seeks control through less obvious means. Hence Xty as well as Eastern religions & New Age, have been co-opted into individualist trips that no longer can get away from the solipsism of modernity and hence really have no deep witness (martyr means witness).

Immigrant groups, however, will bring with them the so-called work ethic (guess we can't call it Protestant anymore)., stronger communal ties and generally more religious connection. Again I think an eventual alliance (at least in America) between Muslims and so-called conservative Judeo-Christian value groups.

In Europe, the Muslim theologian who could have the most effect is Tariq Ramadan (grandson of Hassan al Bana, founder of the Muslim Brotherhood). He is not without controversy, both within and without Islam, but he has called for a EuroIslam. Muslims to be Europeans meaning to live with pluralist society even though he advocates Muslim values as a counterweight to secular European nihilism. Again, future possible alliance with North Americans calling for a return to traditional values, whatever those may or may not be.