"A nationwide survey found that 75 percent of those who live in municipal areas [of Thailand] do no not go to buddhist temples to listen to sermons at all, while the number in the countryside who visit the temples is steadily declining about 50 percent." - Bangkok Post, September 7, 1987, page 4.
"The magic has gone out of Taoism in the lnad [China] where it was founded soe two milliania ago. . . . Deprived of the magical devices by which they and their predecessors used to gain large followings. members of the priesthood find themselves without successors facing the virtual extinction of Taoism as an organized faith on the mainland." - The Atlant Journal and Consitution, September 12, 1982, page 36-A.
"Japan . . . has one of the world's largest concntrations of foreign missionaries, nearly 5,200, yet . . . less than 1% of the population is Christian. . . . A Franciscan priest working here since the 1950's . . . believes that 'the day of the foreign missionary in Japan is finishedd." - The Wall Street Journal, July 9, 1986, page 1.
In England, during the past three decades, "nearly 2,000 of the 16,000 Angilican churches have been closed because of disuse. Attendance has fallen to among the lowest of avowedly Christian coutries. . . . 'It is not now the case that England is a Christian country,' [the Bishop of Durham] said." - The New York Times, May 11, 1987, page A4.
"After hours of heated debate, [Greece's ] Parliament approved legislation today, enabkling the Socialist Government to take over the huge estates held by the Greek Orthodox Church . . . Moreoer, theh law gives nonclerics control of church councls and committees responsible for the administration of priced Churchc investments includeing hotels, marble quarries and office blocks." - The New York Times, April 4, 1987, page 3.
Next time: Judging the Infamous Harlot
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