Monday, March 31, 2008

Numbers don't lie ... or do they?

According to Reuters News Service, the Vatican has reported that Islam has overtaken Roman Catholicism as the world’s single largest religious denomination. As reported by Monsignor Vittorio Formenti, who compiled the data, Islam stands at 19.2% of the world’s population while Catholicism remains relatively “stable” at 17.4%. Combining all Christian denominations, however, the numbers change significantly with Christianity claiming 33%, or 2 billion persons. My question is this: is the monsignor hitting a “panic button” in releasing these figures as, “Oh my goodness, the Muslims are taking over”, or is this nothing more than a statistical fact perhaps for which priests throughout the world will be called to account?

With worldwide terrorism predominately involving those who claim Islam as their faith and the west’s ongoing war on terror claiming daily headlines around the world, it might be construed in such a negative way but I don’t think this was the intent of releasing such figures in this context (ie, the world is being overrun by Muslims). There is another factor involved, however. The monsignor cites the higher birth rate among Muslims as a significant factor in contributing to the growth rate among Muslims, but is this a fair comparison that tells a story we might need to be concerned with? I don’t know that even these numbers are significant in any real way even as it pertains to the number of world-wide Christians for one simple reason: among some 2 billion Christians, how many can be accurately described as true “disciples” rather than merely affiliated such as by birth or social and family expectations? In other words, how many are willing to actively stand with Christ rather than simply go to church because they are somehow expected to?

I’m not even sure that I’m being fair in posing such a question because of a recent spiritual challenge that shook me to my core. Essentially it was in an earlier writing in which I asked my congregation – and myself – whether we embrace the reality of the Resurrection of Christ or merely acknowledge it as part of the Church’s calendar. I suppose it is now that everything I consider and write about revolves around this core question because faith is not a statistical consideration nor should church membership be although church membership can be assumed at a particular level, namely among adults. The same essential elements must also be taken into consideration regarding the growth rate among Muslims simply because terrorists don’t count. They may think themselves to be “faithful” Muslims and they can try to convince the world, albeit at gunpoint, but their acts alone betray the fundamental tenets of the religion. They are, purely and simply, criminals and murderers. Do the monsignor’s numbers reflect this reality?

Birth rate alone is, in my humble opinion, not a significant factor in determining how many Muslims or how many Christians make up the world’s population. In fact, I’m not sure that birth rate should be a deciding factor at all because we are not inherently committed to religious faith by virtue of having been born of Christian or Muslim parents. Simply growing up in such an environment cannot necessarily make one a Christian because a decision is still yet to be made by the individual. Too many times I have encountered young people who have been oriented in the Christian faith and have been told what they must believe in order to be “saved”, but they have yet to enjoy a divine encounter. In other words, they have not had faith imparted to them; they have been indoctrinated. Does this make them Christians? It certainly doesn’t hurt, and it most certainly helps. Education, however, is a means. The job is not yet complete.

The monsignor’s numbers, however, don’t really tell us much except that Christians use birth control and Muslims, perhaps, do not. I cannot help but to wonder, though, if the monsignor is somehow manipulating numbers in an adverse way, somehow portraying Islam as the enemy gaining some traction in the world while failing to make us aware that we are probably our own worst enemies especially when we attempt to make a lot of something out of a little bit of nothing.

Numbers don’t lie, but they don’t tell the whole story, either.

No comments: