Religious practice has been in decline for a time, but according to a recent study Millenials are the most irreligious generation yet. Having rejected God, they are now turning in mass to forms of occultism and witchcraft and are changing the religious demographics of America according to a recent study:
Interest in spirituality has been booming in recent years while interest in religion plummets, especially among millennials. The majority of Americans now think it is not necessary to believe in God to have good morals, a study from Pew Research Center released Wednesday found. The percentage of people between the ages of 18 and 29 who “never doubt existence of God” fell from 81 percent in 2007 to 67 percent in 2012.
Meanwhile, more than half of young adults in the US believe astrology is a science.compared to less than 8 percent of the Chinese public. The psychic services industry — which includes astrology, aura reading, mediumship, tarot-card reading and palmistry, among other metaphysical services — grew 2 percent between 2011 and 2016. It is now worth $2 billion annually, according to industry analysis firm IBIS World.
Melissa Jayne, owner of Brooklyn-based “metaphysical boutique” Catland, said she has seen a major uptick in interest in the occult in the past five years, especially among New Yorkers in their 20s. The store offers workshops like “Witchcraft 101,” “Astrology 101” and a “Spirit Seance.”
“Whether it be spell-casting, tarot, astrology, meditation and trance, or herbalism, these traditions offer tangible ways for people to enact change in their lives,” she said. “For a generation that grew up in a world of big industry, environmental destruction, large and oppressive governments and toxic social structures, all of which seem too big to change, this can be incredibly attractive.”
Like the existence of God, however, there’s no actual scientific proof. Astrology has been debunked by numerous academic studies, but Banu Guler, co-founder of artificial intelligence powered astrology app Co—Star said the lack of structure in the field is exactly what drives young, educated professionals to invest their time and money in the practice.
“It’s very different from the way we usually work and live and date, where everything is hyper-mediated and rational,” she said. “There is a belief vacuum: we go from work to a bar to dinner and a date, with no semblance of meaning. Astrology is a way out of it, a way of putting yourself in the context of thousands of years of history and the universe.”
Case in point: Co—Star’s servers were so overwhelmed by demand after it launched on Oct. 12 that the app crashed three times in its first week.
Astrology isn’t the only spiritual field overwhelmed by demand: Danielle Ayoka, the founder of spiritual subscription service Mystic Lipstick, said her customer base is growing exponentially. The self-described astrologer sells a “mystic box” subscription, which includes crystals, “reiki-infused bath salts,” and incense customized to the unique energy of the current moon cycle for $14.99 a month. She says she’s seen 75 percent increase in her audience in the past year.
“When I started my journey in 2010, I was the weirdo,” she said. “Now it is becoming more and more normalized and I believe it is because more people are looking to heal. Millennials are much more open-minded.” (source)
I warned in September 2017 citing a recent study on the meteoric rise of satanism and the seeming inability of Christians to stop is as a natural product of the fruit of heresy that is directly connected to the rise of nationalism. By removing the Church as the unifying and separating force between the government and the people and subjecting it to the state, the Church was reduced to being a redundant validation mechanism of the morality imposed on the people and enforced by the state. It would only be a matter of time before the government decided that it would no longer need any church to validate its appointed morality, and having made itself take the place of God, the new religion would be a worship of one's people, place, and favorite things, which takes the form in our times of nationalism:
Heresy is always rooted in the rejection of authority, namely of the Church. But since heretics cannot clearly identify who is the replacement authority, the natural result of heresy is first a “spiritual anarchy” in which different sects fight with each other for power. This can go on for a time, but eventually the fighting will subside, and after which in order to make any kind of peace between their irreconcilable views, they will submit their difference to a mutually agreed upon third party to act as a broker, which for centuries always has been the government. As such, the churches are surrendering their traditional role as the “second estate” in society- the buffer between the people and the government- and make themselves vassals of the government itself, in which obedience to the Churches becomes obedience to the state. This has been a signature problem of Protestantism and all of its previous movements, including the heresies of old, because by rejecting the Church each heresy either lead to fighting with other heresies or attempted to make herself a “national church” based on some form of identitarianism, but with both paths leading to the same end of subjugation to the first estate. In the case of Luther, it was the creation of a “German church” with “a German god for a German people.” The English under King Henry VIII did the same, as the English did not per se see themselves as “separating” from Rome, but rather King Henry declaring himself the head of the Church in England.
It is only natural that if being a “Christian” means obedience to the state, then in time one will naturally reason that there is no reason to actually go to Church because since worship of God is tied to social obedience, then one only needs to be “a good person” as far as the society is concerned and all will be well. (source)
Pope Pius XII emphasized in his encyclical Mit Brennender Sorge, which was directed to Catholics living in Germany, that the Catholic Faith emphasized both the love of nation and people as well as the love of all men not of one's nation, acknowledging the validity of both perspectives in their appropriate contexts as well as limiting any concepts that would see either view taken as an end into itself as the answer for the problems of society. One must love all people, but it does not mean to sacrifice one's own concept of identity and being in a sea of undefinable human soup. One can love and support one's people, place, and culture, but it does not mean to designate all people other than one's tribal group as inferior and unworthy of existence:
His command to hear the Church (Matt. xviii. 15), to welcome in the words and commands of the Church His own words and His own commands (Luke x. 16), is addressed to all men, of all times and of all countries. The Church founded by the Redeemer is one, the same for all races and all nations. Beneath her dome, as beneath the vault of heaven, there is but one country for all nations and tongues; there is room for the development of every quality, advantage, task and vocation which God the Creator and Savior has allotted to individuals as well as to ethnical communities. The Church's maternal heart is big enough to see in the God-appointed development of individual characteristics and gifts, more than a mere danger of divergency. She rejoices at the spiritual superiorities among individuals and nations. In their successes she sees with maternal joy and pride fruits of education and progress, which she can only bless and encourage, whenever she can conscientiously do so. But she also knows that to this freedom limits have been set by the majesty of the divine command, which founded that Church one and indivisible. Whoever tampers with that unity and that indivisibility wrenches from the Spouse of Christ one of the diadems with which God Himself crowned her; he subjects a divine structure, which stands on eternal foundations, to criticism and transformation by architects whom the Father of Heaven never authorized to interfere. (source)
The increase in different forms of heathenry such as occultism, pornography, and nationalism is at essence a search for God but in all the wrong places by all the wrong means. God is not found in seeking to contact or control unknown forces, in self-indulgence, or in the deification of oneself, but in the risen Savior Who descended into our humanity so that we might be raised up to His divinity. What makes this particular increase in paganism dangerous is that many of these people came from families of former Christians who, instead of embracing the message of Christ or in some cases never having been taught it by those who were charged with the responsibility of doing so, have rejected Christianity in all forms, having been seduced by the idols of our times that are as real today as they were thousands of years ago. Some of these people do not understand Christian teaching, and to their credit owing to the pervasiveness of heresy and the inability of Protestant Christians to conclusively and consistently unify on any doctrinal statement other than that the Catholic Faith is wrong/evil/(insert criticism of choice here, etc.), Christianity appears as a disjointed, confused, contradictory system of cheap ethics and superficial grace that is just a poor attempt to mirror the dominant secular ethos of the culture. Some of these people, however, are choosing to reject or refuse to accept Christianity because they do not want Christian morality, instead electing to make gods of their own to their own image, liking, and lusts.
Either answer is to choose death because as God Himself has said, He is the way, the truth, and the life, and nobody comes to the Father except through Him. In John 3, He adds that God not only sent His only Son so that he who believes in Him might be saved (3:16), but also as a judgment on the world for those who would reject Him and instead choose to do evil (3:17).
There has been a lot of talk about the future of Christianity in the West, and how as once upon a time in the early days of the Church it was a difficult choice to be a Christian and could cost one his life, and this changed with Constantine's legalization of Christianity. As such, Christian history is coming to for a full circle, from hatred to acceptance, and now to active rejection and hatred and persecution as that of old. The level of persecution has not reached that which was of old, but it is certainly on its way to doing so and is only a matter of time before this happens.
While one must watch the millenials, such as this article mentions, one must pay great attention to "Generation Z," or as we have noted that so many National Socialists have called them, "Generation Zyklon." Generation Z, who was born beginning around 1994 up through about 2010, is set to be the most "irreligious" generation yet, having been raised without religion for the most part and having no desire to be part of any Church. Major evangelical leaders have acknowledged this, and are warning that if something is not done, many of their churches could be in danger.
The future of Christianity is going to be truly "countercultural" in the literal sense, as Christianity is not just being rejected with near completion now, but is going to be something that will make a man socially ostracized and hated in the coming years in such a way that is incomparable with modern times. Just as how in the ancient world the practices of occultism, homosexuality, and other evils were a normal part of life, so are they once again becoming a normal part of 'western life.'
The way to survive this coming revival of paganism is going to be twofold and very different from what is today. Gone are the days of Christians having major political or social influence, favorable status with government or major social leaders, and fancy steak dinners with cocktails after. Instead, the Christian public presence will be one of and often scorned and sometimes interested witness by the greater culture, and one must be ready to stand for one's faith up to the point of martyrdom. Privately, the Christian community and individual homes will evolve into a contemporary form of the monasteries of old, where faith, culture, and truth will be passed as they were during ancient times when Christianity was an unacceptable public presence. In essence, what many Christians throughout the world experience as a part of daily life will now become common to life in America and Europe.
Times change, but human nature does not. Stay ready, take note of the changes and adjust accordingly, because the times are a changing...
Post a Comment