The full economist article can be found here. Below are some quotes and my comments:
Why are today’s Christians and Muslims proving so successful at getting the Word out? And who is winning the battle of the books? Is either of the world’s two great missionary religions gaining an edge when it comes to getting their Holy Books into people’s hands and hearts?
A study in contrasts – while Christianity does win at marketing, the constant risk of blasphemy (via all sorts of Jesus Junk) looms large. Muslims at least have some restraint, but probably too much, yet both religions are growing.
Muslim “missionary” activity is aimed more at reinvigorating the faithful, and encouraging them to greater zealotry, than at winning new souls.
There is no doubt that Muslims are more zealous about their faith (a little too zealous) and Christians are sadly lacking in proper zeal. The Mohammad cartoon controversy are a good example. Jesus is blasphemed many times over compared to Mohammad and we do very little about it.
The most prolific producer of Christian missionaries, on a per head basis, is now South Korea. The biggest Bible publishing houses are in Brazil and South Korea. An interlinked global network of 140 national or regional Bible Societies pools resources to reach its collective goal of putting a Bible in the hands of every man, woman and child on the planet. The American Bible Society, the biggest of the lot, has published more than 50m Bibles in atheist China.
We tend to be blind to these facts. Christianity has left Europe and North America. We are now the nations in desperate need of missionaries, or rather for Christians to start living like Christians. But while we preach global moral collapse we show our propensity for North American-centrism – Christianity is in fact growing all over the world except in the countries from which the original missionaries came. What does this say about our mission at home? More than anything, it shows that we love to help others because it hides our faults. Who is going to point out faults in a generous patron? “Sure we have problems at home, but look at all the money and missionaries we’re giving you!” More than anything, our unrestrained affluence is to blame.
Muslim “missionary” activity is aimed more at reinvigorating the faithful, and encouraging them to greater zealotry, than at winning new souls…. Muslims would argue that their struggle was aimed more at galvanizing their own flock than at converting unbelievers.
Apparently this strategy has the byproduct of increasing the flock. Are we taking notes? The stronger the witness, the more people are intrigued. In the case of Islam, it is growing despite high-profile terrorist attacks. It is attracting ambitious young men while the pews of the average North American evangelical church are nearly void of the same demographic. Young men are attracted to boldness, even when that boldness is wrong-headed and even violent. Are we taking notes?
Christian Evangelists complain that this creates an uneven playing field: Muslims can build giant mosques in “Christian lands” while Christians are barred from distributing Bibles in Saudi Arabia and Iran. Open competition is a boon to religion: American Evangelism has flourished precisely because America has no official church.
Oh yes, how enlightened, how we have “flourished” </sarcasm>.
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