Bob Lane believes people are searching for more than traditional answers to their spiritual needs.
Canadians are more often looking away from traditional western religions to fulfill those needs.
Lane understands why events like Saturday’s Pagan Pride Day are attracting more and more people every year and why a growing number of young people are not attending traditional churches.
Rev. Brian Evans of St. Paul’s Anglican Church can’t put his finger on why, but agrees a growing number of people in British Columbia are looking elsewhere for spiritual fulfilment.
“All the indicators tell us that we (B.C.) have the highest percentage of people in North America who do not participate in traditional Christian Church practices,” Evans said.
Obviously they are not finding spirituality in the mainline churches. This reminds me of the story about Sir Larence Olivier who was complimented by a bishop for his gift in making fiction seem like truth. He replied that the bishop had the greater gift of making truth sound like fiction.
Mainstream churches have long taught there is nothing really to all of this. People were paying attention after all.
The cause is that too many churches thought they needed to fix their problems the same way one fixes a dog.
As a resident of the Pacific Northwest of North America (Seattle, WA), a close neighbor to British Columbia, and one of the least “churched” areas of the U.S., as well as being in a Catholic Archdiocese which apparently has a reputation of being one of the most “liberal” in the U.S., I am beginning to think it’s caused by something in the water. Perhaps the reason I have been immune to the effects is that I very rarely drink my water neat (I prefer it diluted with a generous dram of single malt Scotch whisky).
😉
Pax et bonum,
Keith Töpfer
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“[i]The common belief that whisky improves with age is true. The older I get, the more I like it.[/i]—[i][Ronnie Corbett][/i]