Watch the United Methodist Church, currently one of the most liberal denomilnations around.
A year or so ago, when they had a General Assembly, participants selected to represent each group within it, 40% of the delegates were from western Africa.
At the time, 40% of all United Methodists in the world were western African; in fact, while membership from western societies has dwindled, membership from western Africa has skyrocketed.
I'm not sure how often the United Methodist Church has a General Assembly--perhaps every three years or something--but it was predicted at the next one, western Africans would be the majority, rather than just a substantial minority.
The western Africans don't care for this gay marriage stuff, this women ministers stuff, this peace-at-any-price stuff, this intolerance for God stuff, this government-replacing-God stuff. They made plenty of noise about it.
I think we're going to see a shift in the United Methodist Church, from being one of the most liberal denominations to one more, uh, traditional.
Western Africans want that old time religion, onward Christian soldiers, stuff; stuff on which the Methodist Church was originally founded, and stuff that helped the Methodist Church flourish and prosper until the liberals took it over (after which it began declining).
Rome of course moves at the speed of a glacier--perhaps the reason for its sheer endurance--and as there aren't many here who are Roman Catholic, I wonder if anyone has noticed something.
In his three and a half years as Pope, Benedict XIV has issued exactly one--exactly one--message to those of European extraction (i.e., European and North American Roman Catholics). He's talked a lot, but he's said very little to the "traditional" base of the Catholic Church. In fact, he's actually talked to the Islamic world more than he's talked to Europe and North America combined.
Pope John XXIII (1958-1963) was perhaps the last "European pope," as his successor, Paul VI, broke open new doors by paying attention to Asians; and then of course John Paul II was all over the place.
When it comes to defining Christianity, Christianity seems to instinctively moving southward and eastward, growing by leaps and bounds in non-European, non-North American, places. We're counting for less and less, but it's our own fault.
I'll bet this drives the malicious cartoon character primitive and the nocturnally foul one rabid with rage, that Christianity is here to stay, and will be around long after all of us are dust, and dust of dust.
God Is, and there's not a damned thing the anti-Gods can do about it.
Christianity is Eternal
