Weak Shepherds, Weak Flock

Commenting on the stunning decline in Christian affiliation in the U.K., the Telegraph's Damian Thompson takes the leadership of the Anglican and Catholic communities to task for providing ZERO leadership for younger people. I think much of his point can be applied to the U.S. Here's an excerpt:

Take a bow, Anglican and Catholic bishops. I don’t know if the British Humanist Association hands out awards, but you certainly deserve one – a statuette of Polly Toynbee, say, for untiring efforts to water down the Christian message to the point where it’s not worth believing in.

Consider the following story from this week’s Daily Telegraph. A five-year-old boy at St Mary’s Catholic Primary School in Wimbledon called another pupil’s shoes “gay”. The head, Sarah Crouch, called in Stonewall. Whether she was doing this to protect miniature footwear from homophobic abuse or as part of a wider programme of thought reform is not clear. But we do know that Stonewall conducted a “training day” at the school – with the blessing of the Archbishop of Southwark, Peter Smith, who apparently chose to gloss over the fact that Stonewall is 100 per cent opposed to Catholic teaching on homosexuality. ... 

The internal secularisation of the Churches may be only an element in the collapse of religious belief among young people, but it’s an important one. If RE lessons are all about turning kids into “climate change ambassadors”, no wonder they find it so easy to brush aside the supernatural claims of faith when they grow up.