Aussie Christianity in decline
• Hodgepodge
Australian Christian clergy are worried that the day will come when they are even less important than they are now. I especially enjoyed Catholic Cardinal George Pell fear that people are moving toward "selfish" inner peace. Too "selfish" to give the Church money or respect. Boo hoo.
People are turning mostly to newer sorts of nonsense (flattering themselves it is ancient). Better nuttiness splinter than give one group too much power.
Although still numerically dominant, Christianity has been on a steady decline for 50 years. In the 1954 census - which excluded Aborigines - 89per cent of Australians were Christian. In the 2001 census that was down to 68 per cent, although attendance at church hovers around only 20per cent of these people.
But paganism, witchcraft and atheism, while still accounting for only a small proportion of the population, are surging in popularity.
The number of people who consider themselves pagans grew by 144 per cent between censuses in 1996 and 2001. In the same period, witchcraft experienced a 373 per cent growth and the number of people who called themselves atheists grew 226 per cent.
Vanessa Walker, The Australian: Christianity's toughest test of faith