Reading the Culture: Will America join the global awakening?

John Micklethwait is editor in chief of The Economist, and his writing partner, Adrian Wooldridge, is its Washington bureau chief and columnist. One is Roman Catholic, the other an atheist; both are Oxford graduates. In God is Back: How the Global Revival of Faith is Changing the World (New York: The Penguin Press, 2009) they document the staggering spiritual awakening sweeping the world and speculate about the future of religion, culture, and war.

Facts about the global explosion of Christian faith:

• A million people become Chris-tians every week, the largest number in history.

• In 1900, there were roughly 10 million Christians in Africa; today there are 400 million, 45 percent of the population.

• Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul, South Korea, began in a tent in 1956 and now claims 830,000 members; 3,000 join every week. Five of the 10 largest churches in the world are in South Korea.

• Pentecostalism, founded in a Los Angeles ghetto in 1906, now claims 500 million followers around the world.

• In 1900, 80 percent of the world’s Christians lived in Europe and the United States; today, 60 percent live in the developing world. More Roman Catholics attend church in the Philippines than in Italy. Churches in the developing world now export 100,000 missionaries.

Facts about the demise of Christianity in Europe:

• A century ago, Britain had the same level of religious commitment as the United States. Half of children under 15 years of age were enrolled in Sunday school. Today, 6 percent of Britons attend church on an average Sunday.

• Based on current trends, the Church of England will lose more than half that attendance in the next 20 years and be forced to close another 6,000 churches. Fifty-eight percent of churchgoers in London are non-Anglo immigrants.

• In a 2004 survey, 44 percent of Britons claimed they had no religious identification whatsoever. Two-thirds of people age 18 to 24 call themselves nonreligious; almost half of these young adults don’t believe Jesus existed as a historical figure.

• One person in 20 in France attends a religious service once a week. Five percent in Sweden attend weekly worship services; fewer than 2 percent in Denmark attend church regularly.

• Meanwhile, a megamosque planned for east London will hold 12,000 people—five times as many as St. Paul’s Cathedral. In 2008, London’s new mayor helped organize a festival in Trafalgar Square to celebrate the end of Ramadan. The mayors of Rotterdam and Leicester are Muslims.

Facts about American Christianity:

• Fewer than half of Americans can name the first book of the Bible.

• Only a third know who delivered the Sermon on the Mount Billy Graham is a popular answer.

• A quarter do not know what is celebrated at Easter.

• Sixty percent cannot name half the Ten Commandments.

America can go the way of Europe. Or America can heed the call of God: “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14).

What if it were up to you?

James C. Denison is president of the Center for Informed Faith and theologian-in-residence with the Baptist General Convention of Texas.