Was the Church crippled by raiders?
The Evolution of Social Services Away from the Church (June 1, 2023)
Corporate raider is a name given to those who would seek to buy a majority holding in a company’s stock so they can do whatever they want with the company. On the plus side, this might happen to a failing company when a prospective owner thinks he can turn it around, to his and the company’s benefit. On the negative side, a raider may take control of a company just to resell it at a profit (i.e., flip it), or to sell off all of its assets individually because they are worth more than the stock value of the company.
Let’s look at that last one and ask “Was the Church raided in order to disburse all its stuff?”
To start, consider what the ‘assets’ of Christian churches were, say, two hundred years ago. Aside from the variety of spiritual rites and edification offered, the Church had a monopoly on major life events such as confirmation, baptism, marriage and funeral. It commanded the festivities for major holidays. And, of major importance, churches were the owner-operators of important social institutions such as hospitals, schools, universities, orphanages, soup kitchens, providers of clothing and shelter, and international aid. When it came to the philosophy of social well-being, the Church was where it was at.
I am guessing the first major raid upon the church came in the mid-nineteenth century England1 when civil marriage was permitted, and even officiated, by governments. So, the first raider was government. The church fought back tooth and nail in containing this encroachment by way of its moral and religious persuasions, including discontinuation of belonging in the church (i.e., excommunication). Yet, they pretty much lost this battle. Not only did marriage become a government service, it also became unnecessary for many (i.e., common law relations).
Whereas this might be considered the first raid, was it really a significant one? The answer in my mind is a big, resounding yes. I say this because it was not merely the transfer of a church service, but rather a secularizing of a Biblical life-event recognized as a spiritual rite. This was not a flesh wound. Government reached into the Christian Church and tore out one of its vital organs.
If this is true, the Church was morally weakened and now susceptible to other raids. Funerals were peeled off by funeral homes (the next raider) as people became comfortable having secular funeral services. So far, baptisms have been spared; cross your figures.
Then came the big losses. Government morphed from a provider of law, justice and national defence into a provider of social well-being. Soon schools, universities, hospitals, welfare payments and even international aid became a government program, paid for by new forms of funding called tax. There was no competition by the Church because they had no taxing power. Further, as the citizenry bore the brunt of increased taxation, they had less to spend on personal causes like support of their church. Further, as churches yielded ground to these government raids, the churches offered fewer charitable services, which likely motivated many people to give even less money to them.
And the raids kept coming. The next major assault was from secular charities. These were organizations that evolved to provide social assistance in very well-defined, focused ways that made it easy for them to attract donations. It was a very successful public service model that led to the development of secular mega-charities (e.g., Red Cross/Crescent, United Way).
All the while, little raiders nipped at the heels of the Church. Community groups provided opportunities for socializing, sports coaching provided moral teaching for kids, and the Goliath that is the entertainment industry gave everyone something to do at any hour of the day. Social media through the internet enabled people to stay abreast of news about family and friends, once a major activity each Sunday in the church. Further, many people found that lots of fun can be had around Easter and Christmas without involving the Church.
In effect, the Church was picked clean. All it has left that is theirs alone is Jesus and his salvation. No raider is going to want that. Oops, not so fast. We mustn’t forget non-Christian religions and new age spirituality and their claims of ‘other paths.’ They are nibbling around the edges of the Church’s remnants.
The big question is whether these raids are responsible for the steep declines in religious identification throughout the western world. That will never be clear; but except for civil marriage, many of the raids were in the mid to late 1900s, around the time of the start of declining religiosity. But, to be clear, that also was the time when higher levels of public education were readily available, and the various fields of science became more ingrained in education and society. So, who really knows?
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1. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_marriage