EDITORIAL

Christianity by the Numbers

Posted

At 2.2 billion, Christianity is the largest religion in the world. This is encouraging, since Christ commissioned his first followers to “make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19) and to be His witnesses “to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Yet a recent Pew Research study revealed that Islam is now the world’s fastest growing religion. The study anticipates that Islam will surpass Christianity in numbers by the end of this century. The reason why is not effective proselytism, nor is it because Muslims are savvier in using the new media like Facebook and Twitter. The rationale is actually much more basic: Muslims couples are having more children than their Christian counterparts.

Of course, for the first 1900 years of Christianity this was not the case. The 1930 Lambeth Conference was the first significant moment to recognize contraception for married Anglican couples. The Catholic Church has unwaveringly held to the position that artificial contraception is an intrinsic moral evil, but that has not prevented Catholics from practicing it with great effect and devastating results for decades.

In an age where the Church is striving to evangelize an increasingly secular world, it would be helpful to hold fast to the New Testament commission to make disciples while not losing sight of the earlier pages of Sacred Scripture. In other words, we would do well to bear witness to Christ “to the end of the earth,” while also heeding the command: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it” (Genesis 1:28).