The Church of England in terminal decline

Church pews are empty. Church leaders are embroiled in endless internal battles about issues which are controversial at best, and unresolvable at worst. Furthermore, the Archbishop of Canterbury goes around the world apologizing for the hymns sung in church services, and now, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, comes out with advice about the future coronation of Prince Charles, stating that the coronation service should be multi-culti and inclusive of other faiths. The Church of England, the keystone of the British establishment, is under attack from within as well as from without.

Each organization has a raison d’être. The raison d’être of a commercial organization is profit. The raison d’être of a charitable organization is the amount of money it can collect for the needy cause it represents. The raison d’être of the Church is to fill the pews and evangelize – to bring the Gospel to all they possibly can, and to point out the errant ways of the fallen, and the benighted ways of the people who follow other faiths.

In this light, one must look upon the Church as a wholly unsuccessful organization, because it neither manages to fill the pews on a Sunday, nor does it bring the Gospel to save the fallen, and nor does it direct non-Christians to the ‘right path’.

Presumably, and I think it’s a reasonable presumption on my part, the Church believes that theirs is the true faith, and that only by following the Gospel of Jesus Christ can man find Salvation. After all, to be a Christian is to believe that there is only one way to God; and that is through His Son, the Christians’ Saviour and Redeemer.

So what has gone wrong in the Church of England? Why doesn’t its head see the need to fill the pews and preach the Gospel?

Simon Heffer has been quoted on June 7, 2006 in The Telegraph as saying the following: "We are not a multicultural society. We are a monocultural one tolerant of other cultures, and whose clear identity is understood by the people, if not by their leaders. We are an old country with a strong sense of continuity. And anyone who trifles with such manifestations of our antiquity and stability does so at his peril."

I would concur with this statement.

Don’t our Church leaders realize that our way of life is under attack? Don’t they realize that the free world is actually at war with radical Islam? Don’t they realize, further, that radical Islam is out to destroy our civilization? And don’t they realize that they are trying, through the jihad, or holy war, to drive Westerners into a state of Dhimmitude?

Is this balderdash the best that the Church leaders can come out with?

Ibn Khaldun, a famous fourteenth century historian, described Islam’s ideological drive to dhimmitude thus:

”In the Muslim community, the holy war is a religious duty, because of the universalism of the mission and convert everybody to Islam either by persuasion or force. Therefore, caliphate and royal authority [religion and politics] are united , so that the person in charge can devote the available strength to both of them at the same time.” - (Source: Bat Ye’or’s The Decline of Eastern Christianity under Islam: From Jihad to Dhimmitude)

Moreover, Bat Ye’or, a great scholar on this subject, tells us that the Jihad is unique. She says:

”It is, in fact, the only war of an everlasting and universal offensive nature attached to a religious system.”

…“All those strategies which constitute the jihad represent the means to compel by force the targeted populations to enter into dhimmitude. Despite analogies with other political regimes, dhimmitude remains an irreducible and specific structure, linked to a particular ideological and political order. It can only be compared with other systems by a superficial amalgamation. In fact, dhimmitude emanates from the jihad and the shari’a.”

Our leaders are taking us down the primrose path to dhimmitude, which will mean second class status to YOU and ME. That our politicians are doing so is bad enough; that our Church leaders are also engaging in this, is deplorable.

In the light of this fact, one can but ask oneself some simple questions: What are our Church leaders hoping to achieve by giving away our Christian heritage? Who has given them the right to do so? Why are they selling out their Christian principles? Have they forgotten the message of the Gospel? Don’t they believe anymore that there is only one path that leads to God – the Christian path?

It seems to me that successive Archbishops of Canterbury have reneged on their responsibilities to revivify the Church in periods of steep decline. In this regard, these Church elders can hardly be considered leaders at all. What do organizations do with managing directors who fail to make a healthy profit for the company of which they are head? What does society do with prime ministers and presidents who fail to lead?

So what is different about our Church leaders? Do they really deserve to remain in lead positions if they fail to fill the pews, if they fail to preach the Gospel?

Islam happens to be knocking on the West’s door; indeed, millions of its adherents have already been let in to the West. They are just biding their time to increase their numbers to bring their population to critical mass before they make a bid for power. Time is on their side, not ours.

Have our Church leaders not noticed one thing: Mosques throughout the country are full to bursting. Can they not imagine why this is so? Have they not yet figured out that leaders in the Islamic faith are convinced of the righteousness of their own faith, convinced of their ultimate destiny to take over our country and its institutions, convinced of their destiny to become the establishment?

Why do people follow such a backward faith so readily? Well, although this is a complex question, and there are many reasons, one thing stands out, possibly above all other reasons: Muslim leaders preach one message, an unchangeable message, and do not cast doubt into the hearts of the faithful. This is actually the essence of true leadership. To lead, one has to be confident and sure of one’s mission, confident and sure of one’s purpose, confident and sure of one’s destiny.

In matters of leadership, it helps not one jot to be riven by self-doubt. No person can make an effective leader when plagued by self-doubt. Self-doubt, however, is what characterizes our Church leaders. It is this self-doubt that is leading the Church into terminal decline. Without a turn around in the Church’s fortunes, this terminal decline will impact greatly on the fabric of British society. The nature of British society will be changed forever.

To reverse this terminal decline, the leaders of the Church need to remember one thing: Nothing succeeds like success! At this late stage, the Church’s fortunes can only be reversed one step at a time. It is high time that this first step be taken.

The multicultural claptrap needs to stop; positive steps to reverse the decline of the Church still further need to be put in place. Dr Williams: Time is not on the Church’s side.

©Mark Alexander