Islam, Judaism And The Soon Coming Religious Revival – OpEd
In 1970, more than half of America’s Catholics said they went to Mass at least once a week. By 2022, that had fallen to 17%, according to CARA, a research center affiliated with Georgetown University. Among millennials, the number is just 9%. Even as the U.S. Catholic population has jumped to more than 70 million, driven in part by immigration from Latin America, ever-fewer Catholics are involved in the church’s most important rites. Infant baptisms have fallen from 1.2 million in 1965 to 440,000 in 2021, CARA says. Catholic marriages have dropped by well over two-thirds.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has always been clearly opposed to the death penalty stating: “No matter how heinous the crime, if society can protect itself without ending a human life, it should do so.” Yet in 1990, 81% of Catholics favored using the death penalty. But from that point forward, support for the death penalty has consistently declined. By the late 2000s, support for capital punishment hovered around 65% of Catholics. But there has not been a time in the last 45 years in which a majority of Catholics have affirmed the teachings of their faith on the issue of capital punishment.
Do people get more religious as they age; as a kind of “afterlife insurance.” The share of those in the Silent Generation and Baby Boomers who are non-religious has actually increased over the last fifteen years. But maybe when we look specifically at the question of the afterlife, things are a bit different. People who were born in the fifties have clearly experienced an increase in belief in an afterlife as they have aged. For both cohorts, about 70% indicated that there was life after death when they were young, but that’s moved up to 80% for those born in the early 1950s and nearly 90% for those born between 1955 and 1959.
As time passed the share of the nones who believed in an afterlife actually rose. By 2000, it was at least 60% and it’s basically stayed at that level in the last two decades. The nones actually believe more now than the nones of the 1970s. Those non-religious folks in 1973 were much more ‘hard core’ nones because a secular person in the 1970s – they were less than 5% of the population. But as the nones have grown, you get a lot more people in there who aren’t so committed to the cause of secularism.
In the 1990s the nones really began to rise quickly. A primary cause being an increase in political polarization which generated a lot of refugees who felt spiritual, but rejected religion. As time passed the share of the nones who believed in an afterlife actually rose. By 2000, it was at least 60% and it’s basically stayed at that level in the last two decades. Just think, the nones actually believe more now than the nones of the 1970s.
There’s a good reason for this. Those non-religious folks in 1973 were much more ‘hard core’ nones. It was difficult to be a secular person in the 1970s – they were less than 5% of the population. But as the nones have grown, there are more people who aren’t so committed to the cause of secularism. The 1990s were when the nones really began to rise quickly. A primary cause being an increase in political polarization. So maybe Reform Rabbis should talk more frequently about the many different Jewish views of the afterlife.
Catholics are not the only group that often rejects the teachings of their church. Ligonier Ministries has been conducting an annual poll that asks very specific doctrinal questions. Among evangelicals who took part in this questionnaire, here are some notable findings:
26% did not believe that the Bible was literally true.
43% said that “Jesus was a great teacher, but he was not God.”
57% agreed that, “everyone sins a little, but most people are good by nature.”
56% believe that “God accepts the worship of all religions, including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.” These are religious people who could fit into Islam or Judaism.
In an article published December 26, 2020 by Islamicity, I predicted a coming religious revival in the USA and the UK based on four recent religious surveys. One was a Pew Research survey of 14 countries with advanced economies and large secular populations. According to the survey in the United States, 28% of Americans said the COVID-19 pandemic made their faith stronger.
A report in Al Jazeera published on March 28, 2024 by Faras Ghabi said the global Islamic halal (food) economy is set to reach a market value of $7.7 trillion by 2025, more than double the $3.2 trillion reached in 2015.
Nearly half of white evangelicals in the U.S. (49%) said their faith grew stronger due to the coronavirus outbreak. U.S. Catholics came in second, with 35% saying their faith increased. Among mainline Protestants, 21% said the pandemic bolstered their faith. And 5% of Americans who do not affiliate with any religion said their faith in something grew. And even in the U.K. 10% said the COVID-19 pandemic made their faith stronger.
A sign of the coming religious revival is the National Catholic Educational Association announcement that nationwide US enrollment in Catholic schools increased by 62,000 to about 1.68 million students, marking the first increase in two decades and the largest jump it has recorded in at least five decades.
Also, 30% of young people say their faith grew stronger during the pandemic according to a Springtide Research Institute poll; 18% said their faith became weaker, and 8% said they lost faith completely, 38% stayed the same and 5% said they were searching for or had already found another religion.
And in the UK the Liberal Jewish movement is experiencing a surge in conversions to Judaism with community leaders saying the pandemic has made people reflect more on faith. Some of the new applicants are motivated by traditional reasons, such as a Jewish partner. But many have little previous Jewish connection. Liberal Judaism reports that 139 people registered to go through its conversion process last year. The number is double the 2019 total of 70, and a significant rise on the 93 registering in 2020. About half had some Jewish ancestry, half no previous connection at all. The Miller Intro to Judaism program now has over 800 students.
This is especially important for America’s Islamic and Jewish leaders because non-Orthodox Judaism and moderate Islam are strong proponents of Religious Pluralism: “Indeed, the believers, Jews, Christians, and Sabians—whoever believes in God and the Last Day and does good will have their reward with their Lord. And there will be no fear for them, nor will they grieve.” (Quran 2:62)
A survey of over 35,000 Americans in 2008 found that most Americans agree with the statement: many religions – not just their own – can lead to eternal life. Among those affiliated with some religious tradition, seven-in-ten say many religions can lead to eternal life.
This view is shared by most adherents in nearly all religious traditions, including 82% of Jews, 79% of Catholics, 57% of evangelical Protestants, and 56% of Muslims. (From the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey 2008, Pew Research Center.)
Thus, in the 21st century, in the United States, most Christians, Jews, and Muslims have rejected the ‘only one truth’ religious mindset and believe in the Qur’an’s pluralism teachings: “For every one of you did We appoint a law and a way. If Allah had wanted, He could have made you one people, but (He didn’t) that He might test you in what He gave you. Therefore compete with one another to hasten to do virtuous deeds; for all return to Allah (for judgment), so He will let you know [about] that in which you differed.” [5:48]
It is essential to understand that ‘religious pluralism is the will of God’ differs from religious, moral, or cultural relativism. Relativism teaches that all values and standards are subjective, and therefore there is no higher spiritual authority available for setting ethical standards or making moral judgments. Thus, issues of justice, truth, or human rights are, like beauty, just in the eye of the beholder.
Most people, especially those who believe that One God created all of us, refuse to believe that ethics and human rights are simply a matter of taste. Religious pluralism as the will of God is the opposite of cultural or philosophical relativism. The fundamental idea of supporting religious pluralism is that religious people need to embrace humility in many religious areas. All religions have always taught a traditional anti self – centered personal egoism type of humility.
Religious pluralism also opposes a religious, philosophical, and self-righteous intellectual egoism that promotes a tendency to turn our legitimate love for our prophet and Divine revelation into universal truths that we fully understand and know how to apply. Religious pluralism teaches that finite humans, even the most intelligent and pious of them, can not fully understand everything the way the infinite One does.
This is true, for every human being, even for God’s messengers themselves. When prophet Moses, “who God spoke with face to face, as a person speaks with a friend” (Exodus 33:11) asks to see God face to face, he is told, “You cannot see My face, for no man can see My face and live.” (33:20)
Similarly, in the Qur’an prophet Jesus admits to God, “You know everything that is within myself, whereas I do not know what is within Yourself”. (5:116) And when Prophet Jesus was asked, in private, by his disciples, “What will be the sign for your coming (back) and the end of the age?” (Matthew 24:3) Jesus warns his disciples about upheavals and false Messiahs that will come. Then Jesus concluded by saying, “But about that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, not even the son: only the Father.” (24:36)
A similar statement was made by Prophet Muhammad when he was asked, “Tell me about the Hour”. He said: “The one questioned about it knows no better than the questioner.” (Muslim Book 1 Hadith 1&4)
God taught the general principle of epistemological humility through his Prophet who taught his followers, “I am no novelty among the messengers. I do not know what will be done to me, or to you.” (Qur’an 46:9) In truth, the only universal truth should be the humility to admit: “Only God knows.”
As the Jewish Prophet Joel (2:28-29 and (Acts 2:16) make clear: “After all of this I will pour out my Spirit on all kinds of people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your elderly will have prophetic dreams; and your young men will see visions. Even on male and female servants I will pour out my Spirit in those days”
The Qur’an refers to Prophet Abraham as a community or a nation: “Abraham was a nation/community [Ummah]; dutiful to God, a monotheist [hanif], not one of the polytheists.” (16:120) If Prophet Abraham is an Ummah then fighting between the descendants of Prophets Ishmael and Isaac is a civil war and should always be avoided.
If all Arabs and Jews can live up to the ideal that ‘the descendants of Abraham’s sons should never make war against each other’ is the will of God; we will help fulfill the 2700 year old vision of Prophet Isaiah: “In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt, and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together. On that day Israel will join a three-party alliance with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing upon the heart. The LORD of Hosts will bless them saying, “Blessed be Egypt My people, Assyria My handiwork, and Israel My inheritance.”…(Isaiah 19:23-5)
Finally: “Righteousness is not that you turn your faces toward the east or the west, but [true] righteousness is [in] one who believes in Allah, the Last Day, the angels, the Book, and the prophets; and gives wealth despite love for it to relatives, orphans, the needy, the traveler, those who ask [for help], and for freeing slaves; [and who] establishes prayer and gives zakah; [those who] fulfill their promise when they promise; and [those who] are patient in poverty and hardship and during battle. Those are the ones who have been true, and it is those who are the righteous.” (Quran 2:177)
Most of us cannot ignore the global threats that are constantly reported in the news. But rather than seeking comfort in conspiracy theories or polarized thinking, we can strive to make the world around us a better place by increasing our participation in positive political and religious activities.
