Religion today

The abuse scandal which has been uncovered has been the headline of major newspapers. Some of them are in favour for and some are against the church. Those who are against have been relentlessly attacking how the Church is run and the personality of the Pope himself. In turn, the Vatican officials have expressed their discontent over the unfair coverage and exaggeration of the issue and the personal attack on the pontiff to undermine his credibility. But no, I am not going to condemn anyone here. I will discuss about how these 2 factors have a part in the declining christian adherents in Western World and compare the Church in Western world to the Church in Asia.

I dare say that separation of the State and Church has no effect whatsoever on religious life. It is the disappointment of people on their lives that causes them to believe in another gods (This happens in all religion surprisingly). More people than ever say that they are spiritual, but not religious. The irresponsible behaviour of clergies supplements the unwavering effort of atheist promoters; mix up this 2 factors and we will get groups of new atheist converts. The atheist followers are trying to convince people to free themselves from 'oppresive' God and to embrace freedom to the fullest.

In Western countries, most people are passive enough in their religious lives and hence, rendered the responsibility to the clergies. The priests are passive enough too, only a few of them try to reach out to encourage their people to be active. As a result, the clergies are the ones who keep religion alive whilst the 'followers' do not have faith in God, they only have faith in their priests. Once a clergy is fallen from grace, the religion is dead and God knows what these 'passive' followers will do next. This is evident in the recent sex abuse case: a priest is involved in all church related activity-he is convicted of abuse-the parish is dead and the followers denounce their religion.

Furthermore, secular media may provide biased coverage in favour of the writer's belief (This is why I do not fully believe any article about religion in newspaper). Misleading statement are enough to crumble one's weak faith. Today's media, only cares about readership and sponsorship are forgetting the very basic ethics of journalism. They love to expose saucy scandals which can attract readers to buy their bluff than to expose goodness which perhaps is jeered by some readers as a bluff.

Whereas, Church in developing countries enjoys such an active participation of its members. the laymen and laywomen are running church-related activity. They are responsible enough to ensure that their faith grows and trying to be active in their religious lives. Should their priest be convicted of crime, they may be disappointed for a while, but the will surely move on and cling on to their faith.

In conclusion, the main problem is not secularism or 'international conspiracy of sex abuse scandal' (some groups label it this way). Is it weak faith that make all religion-related 'problem' happen