America’s Fate as European Right Surges, and Churches Close
Imagine going to sleep, as did Washington Irving’s Rip Van Winkle, only to find upon awakening that your country has been changed beyond all recognition, now peopled by impoverished strangers who seek to destroy your personal and national identity.
Some Europeans know exactly what this is all about. They are the political right, now surging in elections across the continent. French Member of Parliament Marion Le Pen (photo) is from the National Front (FN) party, founded by her grandfather Jean-Marie Le Pen (photo), and now chaired by her aunt Marine Le Pen. The family’s message is that massive Islamic immigration is bent on stealing Europe’s birthright identity.
Thousands of Germans have recently demonstrated to call attention to the same problem, the PEGIDA (” Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West”) movement channeling what remains of free speech in a left-leaning country that has all but banned input from the right, though national elections also reveal a new grassroots resistance in all countries. Too little, too late some lament.
Establishment political parties make no bones about supporting a homogenous liberal orthodoxy, including socialism and multiculturalism. Mainstream political parties seem to share a common core of ideological beliefs—and don’t want to upset lucrative power and career hierarchies.
Many feel that churches as well across Europe have been hijacked by the left. Gay clergy have been installed and trendy new entertainment-based services have replaced centuries-old forms of worship. Meanwhile, the all-controlling media have pushed a monopoly of liberal causes. As a result, churches are closing everywhere. The Wall Street Journal reports this week in the front-page article “Europe’s Empty Churches Go on Sale” that the plight is being “replicated across a continent that long nurtured Christianity but is becoming relentlessly secular.”
It is further pointed out that the US will suffer the same fate as “the declining number of American churchgoers suggests the country could face the same problem in coming years.” In fact, “some scholars think America’s future will approach Europe’s, since the number of actual churchgoers fell 3% at the same time.” Why? “America’s churchgoing population is graying. Unless these trends change…within another 30 years the situation in the U.S. will be at least as bad as what is currently evident in Europe.”
Though Catholic and Lutheran churches are being turned into skateboard parlors, Frankenstein-themed pubs, other churches have attempted to embrace going over to the dark side by supporting extreme liberalism. The historic Cologne Cathedral has rallied its remaining parishioners to jump on the immigration multicultural bandwagon—and vilify all dissenting opinion.
