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Christianity,
Foreign Religions, and the New Age — Religious Trends in America
A
thousand years ago, in the 990s just before the first Christian millennium
was nearing its close, many of the Christians of Europe thought the world
was about to end—and Jesus would return on or about A.D. 1000. Many
today are expecting a supernatural momentous event to occur as soon as we
near A.D. 2000. Fortunately,
we have several lines of prophecy, as well as certain types, to indicate
that Jesus is, indeed, soon to return. Here
is a brief survey of the religious world as we near the end of the second
millennium since the birth of Jesus Christ. NEARING A NEW MILLENNIUM During
the Dark Ages, bands of peasants expected the millennial reign of Christ
to begin. The 14th century English peasant revolt and the 15-16th century
German peasant revolts were also keyed to millennial expectations. In the
19th century, millennial hopes sprung up even in Islam, which partly
caused a revolt in Sudan in 1881. Buddhists have, for over a hundred
years, declared that the “third Buddha” is to appear at the height of
predicted catastrophes—1,000 years after the nirvana of the second
Buddha. This idea of a forthcoming millennial end is also found in Persian
Zoroastrianism and Brazilian and African cultures. Millennial
expectations are again very strong—especially among Christians. As you
know, a wide variety of beliefs are held as to how the world will end, how
Jesus will return for His people, and what will happen thereafter on
Planet Earth. The
whole world seems to be gearing up for some great excitement that is soon
to occur. GROWING CHRISTIAN CHURCHES Most of
the church growth in Western civilization is among fundamentalist and
alternative religions. Evangelical churches have gained 10 million people
in the past ten years. Every five years since 1965, the Evangelicals have
grown 8 percent, while the staid, mainline Protestants have lost 5
percent. There are nearly 40 million Evangelicals in the United States,
according to the National Association of Evangelicals. In
recent years, Jehovah’s Witnesses have increased from 330,000 to
752,000, and Seventh-day Adventists from 365,000 to 687,000. But the
largest Pentecostal denomination—the Assemblies of God—has quadrupled
from 572,000 to 2.1 million. The Pentecostals emphasize faith healing and
speaking in tongues. Worldwide, there are about 100 million Pentecostals,
including 3.7 million in the U.S.-based Church of God in Christ and 16
million members worldwide in the Assemblies of God. Throughout the world,
in just ten years, the charismatic churches tripled to 277 million. The
Mormons have done very well also. They have grown from about 750,000 in
1940 to 6.2 million today, with 4 million in the United States. They have
30,000 college-age missionaries (more than any other denomination) working
in 95 countries and 20 territories. With 15
million members, the Southern Baptists are now the largest single
Protestant denomination. It is of
interest that several new “Christian” denominations started at or
after our own denomination began in 1844: the Mormons, Jehovah’s
Witnesses, Christian Scientists, and Spiritualism. At the
present time, 84 denominations ordain women, and there are 21,000 female
ministers in U.S. churches alone. Both Catholic women and nuns and
Protestant women are trying not only to gain ascendancy in ministerial
status but also to change the very wording of Scripture, song books, books
of prayer, and church rituals. It is of interest that both Christian
feminists and New Age devotees speak of the “father/mother god.” GROWTH IN EUROPE Youth
for Christ operates teen centers throughout Europe, and drew young people
from 37 nations to a recent European conference and 12,000 to a rally in
Africa’s Upper Volta. Chinese
and former Soviet Union’s young people, and older ones too, are eagerly
attending evangelistic meetings by Western preachers. They are also
getting Western rock music as well. Fundamentalist
Islam is unleashing a powerful revival among the Westernized middle
classes of Turkey, Egypt, and several other Near Eastern and African
nations. Experts are discovering a strange revival occurring
simultaneously, on a worldwide basis, in Islam, Shinto, Buddhism, Judaism,
and Christianity. Yet this trend was unforeseen as little as 25 years ago,
when it was predicted that the religions would wither away before the
onslaught of modernism. People want salvation; they want God. GAINS AND LOSSES But they
are not as interested as getting it from the staid, mainline churches
(the fundamentalist religions). The
United Methodist Church dropped from a high of 11 million members in 1965
to 9.2 million. The Presbyterian Church, USA, has lost nearly a million
members, and is down to 3 million. The Episcopal Church is down from 3.4
million to 2.5 million. The three largest Lutheran denominations have lost
about a million members. It is
known that official Catholic membership records are doctored, and do not
give an accurate picture of how many people are really members of that
faith. The official statement is that there are 53.5 million Catholics in
America. The number of priests and nuns keeps decreasing. In 1968, there
were 176,000 nuns; in 1988, that figure was down to 107,000. In 1987
alone, 5,577 nuns left. Overall,
Christian and Jewish congregations gained 4.1 percent in the 1970s, while
the population grew by 10.9 percent. A Gallup
poll in the late 1980s found that 94 percent of Americans believe in God.
“India, Poland, and the U.S.A. have the most religious people,” says
William D. Antonio, of the American Sociological Association. Sixty-one
percent of Americans say that religion is “very important in their
lives,” according to a 1987 USA Today survey. While 84 percent of
Americans say they believe in the divinity of Christ, 44 percent say they
do not attend church. A Gallup
polls showed 63 percent of Americans called TV evangelists
“untrustworthy,” and 23 percent voted them “trustworthy.” The PTL,
Swaggart, and Oral Roberts scandals have cost all the television
evangelists dearly. Yet one
third of Americans describe themselves as “born-again” Christians. INVASION BY FOREIGN RELIGIONS New
religious groups are springing up in America. Of 206 new groups recently
listed, 28 were new Eastern religious groups, 19 were Pentecostals, 11
were Adventists, 11 Mormons, and 11 “Spiritual, Psychic or New Age”
groups. What
about the “new religions” invading the West? There are many of them.
Many of these are based on Eastern religions, especially Hinduism. Four
percent of the U.S. population is Muslim, Buddhist, or Hindu. There are 4
million Islamics in America; about one fourth of them are Black Muslims.
So there are more Muslims than there are Episcopalians. For example, in
Colorado alone, there are 6,000-10,000 Muslims. There are mosques in
Denver, Boulder, Fort Colins-Greeley, and Pueblo. Then
there are the Buddhists: at least 600,000 in America, from two main
Japanese sects, and thousands from Southeast Asia. The total number of
Buddhists is between 3 and 5 million. There
are more than 40 Hindu temples and more than 500 Hindu religious
organizations in the United States. Many worship in their homes and are
not included in any listing. ENTER THE NEW AGE The
so-called “New Age” religions are actually the Eastern religions
(especially Hinduism) under the guise of Western names. In
difficult times, people run to fundamentalism or ecstatic spiritual
experiences. Millions of Americans have studied
yoga, meditation, or other Eastern disciplines. What they want is a
link between their everyday lives and a higher power. While
fundamentalism offers the teachings and standards of former years, New Age
offers something far different. Claiming to reject outside authority, it
supposedly teaches a turning to inward power. Yet, in reality, it is
teaching men to listen to spiritualist writers, and, through
“channeling,” rely on spirit voices. Researchers
estimate New Agers are about 5-10 percent of the U.S. population.
According to a poll conducted by the University of Maryland, 6 percent of
the people in that state identify with the New Age movement. Though harder
to find in the central and southern states, New Agers could easily total
12-15 percent of the East or West Coast cities. The old
fable of the devil, whispered in Eden, that “you are god,” is the
basis of New Age beliefs. “Human potential” is the name they give it.
The theory of reincarnation is generally included in the package, along
with spirit mediums. New Age is just a mix of Hinduism and spiritism in
new terminology. J.
Gordon Melton, editor of the Encyclopedia of American Religions, estimates
that nationwide there are about 400-500 “channels.” (“Channels” or
“channelers” is the New Age term for spiritualist mediums.) Yet other
sources claim that Los Angeles alone has over 1,000 of them. We are told
that they are especially active in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco,
and other major West Coast and Northeast cities. But they are also doing
well in Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Florida, and northern Illinois. Ninety-five
percent of the readers of New Age Journal are college educated,
with average household incomes of $47,500. In 1989, the circulation of
that magazine was 165,000. Sophia
Tarila’s New Age Marketing Opportunities lists 456 New Age
publications and a total of 7,000 listings. The National New Age Yellow
Pages has more than 450 listings in its 260 pages. Bodhi Tree, a New
Age bookstore in West Los Angeles, stocks 30,000 New Age books. Bantam
Books has increased its list of New Age books tenfold in the past ten
years. Between 1985 and 1989 the number of New Age bookstores doubled to
4,000. Total sales of New Age book titles now exceed $100 million a year.
New Age records sell $50 million a year. Audio and videotapes for “mind
expansion” and the like are a $300 million-a-year business. Perhaps
the most insidious part is the fact that corporations spend an estimated
$4 billion per year on New Age consultants and New Age seminars—which
they require their employees to attend, or be fired. A California business
survey of 500 companies found that more than 50 percent had used
“consciousness-raising” techniques. This includes such giants as TRW,
Ford, AT&T, and General Motors. Krone training was required of
all Pacific Bell’s (in California) 67,000 employees. Fortunately, so many
workers objected—that they filed a lawsuit so they would not have to
attend the classes. The
syllabus of Standford University Graduate School of Business’s “Creativity
in Business” course (taught by Michael Ray) lists meditation,
chanting, and dream work, Yoga, Zen, and tarot cards. According to the National Opinion Research Council, a full two thirds of Americans say they have had an ESP experience, and 42 percent say they have had “contact with the dead.” In 1973, those percentages were only 58 percent and 27 percent respectively. |
