| From the Editor |
Jim Eaton may have made a mistake as editor of The Congregationalist. He graciously suggested that I edit this issue which comes during the three-month overlap of our editorships. “Only one person can be in charge,” Jim observed.
I take this opportunity to look at the challenge that globalization brings to The Congregationalist and the Congregational Way. In this issue we have articles that delineate the problem, but only offer sketchy solutions.
Martin Marty, (page 4) says “The main world trend is toward ‘globalization’ in spiritual forces and religion.”
We assume globalization promotes understanding, but we find it also reveals conflicts in culture, philosophy, values and religion, not just among religions but within the Christian faith.
Religion Journalist Hugh McCullum, who spent the last 13 years in Africa, believes that Christianity in its present form will disappear in the biggest mutation since the Reformation.
McCullum maintains that change will inevitably evolve from the way Christianity has grown rapidly in Sub-Saharan Africa, South America and Asia but has declined in what Marty calls the “spiritual ice belt” which stretches from west of Poland across Western Europe, the British Isles, Canada and the Northern United States to Japan. Sub-Sahara Africa alone gains 16,000 Christians a day; the “spiritual ice belt” loses 3000. Africa has 370 million Christians.
Considerable differences characterize the two forms of Christianity. We become more secular. They disdain materialism. They oppose abortion, homosexuality, and women’s rights. They are anti-intellectual, viewing rationality as a Western concept. They are just as militant as Islam. Demons to them are very real. McCullum says 1000 accused demons were hacked to death in the Congo in 2002.
How do the Congregational Way and Western Christianity cope with the impending change? Martin Marty quotes Hans Kung as saying, “There can be no peace on earth without peace among religions”(and within religions [my comment]) (page 6).
With the intransigent attitudes prevailing in Third World Christianity, the initiative for peace rests upon the Western World. I don’t know where to begin. Some of the articles in this issue should help in our own self-examinationdiscussions of fundamentalism, globalization and defining who we are as Congregationalists.
It is a time for action. We can’t walk away. Globalization is now.
Cover, T of C, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20