God's waning approval rating

Some interesting statistics from Canada.

An Ipsos Reid poll last week underlined something that has become increasingly evident both culturally and politically. The United States is a far more Christian country than its neighbor to the north.
When Ipsos telephoned 814 adult Canadians and 768 adult Americans immediately before Easter, to the assertion, "I have committed my life to Christ and consider myself to be a converted Christian," 41 percent of Canadians answered yes, against 60 percent of Americans. To the assertion, "I feel it very important to encourage non-Christians to become Christian," 25 percent of Canadians answered yes against 46 percent of Americans.
Even more disparate, to the assertion, "The world will end in the Battle of Armageddon between Jesus and the Antichrist," 20 percent of Canadians answered yes against 46 percent of Americans. Answering the question, "Would you say that you have ever had 'a religious mystical experience' that is, a moment of sudden religious insight and awakening?" 29 percent of Canadians answered yes against 47 percent of Americans.
With this last question, regional differences were greater within Canada than within the U.S. The American response varied from 53 percent yes in the Midwest and 51 percent yes in the South down to 34 percent in the Northeast. The Canadian response ran from 45 percent yes in the prairies to 19 percent in Quebec.
The seeming abandonment of Christianity in Quebec over the last 50 years has in a sense distorted the Canadian decline. Quebec church attendance back in the '50s ran as high as 80 percent and has fallen to less than 15 percent in some surveys. The Canadian average fell from 45 percent to about 20 percent over this period, though it has risen to 25 percent since 2000.
So reports Reginald W. Bibby, a University of Lethbridge sociologist who is the country's foremost authority on Canadian religion practice. He notes that Gallup polls show little change in U.S. church attendance percentages over these 50 years, consistently remaining in the range of 45 percent. Bibby has published little by way of explanation for the difference between two countries whose cultures in other respects are so much the same, but while living through this past half century, I have developed two explanations of my own for the difference.
First, there is the "Spoiled Brat Syndrome." Throughout its entire history, Canada has belonged to some kind of empire. For its first 150 years or so (1608-1763) it was part of the French Empire. For the next 180 years or thereabouts (1763-c.1945), it was part of the British Empire. For the last 60 years it has been part of the American empire.
Always we have been protected. The French protected us from the British. The British protected us first from the Americans, later from German and Japanese aggression. The Americans protected us against the Soviet slave state.
In our first two imperial roles, we were asked to help our mother country when required, and in the 20th century we responded nobly in two world wars. However, we have gradually contributed less and less to American resistance to the aggressions of the Soviet slave state. Instead, we have increasingly assumed the role of critic, offering our (unsolicited) observations on what the Americans were doing wrong, along with suggestions as to how they might improve their performance, and occasionally actually dallying with such allies of the enemy as Cuba.
We feel quite safe in all this, and the fact is that people who must take responsibility for themselves soon learn to rely on God. Spoiled brats can be bravely agnostic.
Second, there is the "Respect for Authority Syndrome," doubtless derived from our inherent colonial status. Where Americans are instantly suspicious of Authority, in whatever garb it appears (government, academe, "expert opinion," the Supreme Court, the media), Canada positively craves Authority as indispensable to life itself. That's why Americans are prepared to settle many controversial issues by referendum, vesting ultimate power to decide in the general populace. Not so in Canada. We do not trust "the mob." We prefer to let "the people who really know" do the deciding.
Therefore, 50 years ago when Authority was at least nominally Christian and prayed, Canada prayed too. Now, when our intellectual Authorities have embraced skepticism, so does much of Canada. In the years to come, of course, if the voices filling the current role of the Globe and Mail and the CBC should return to the Christian faith, why then Canadians generally can be expected to rediscover God.
As a portrait of a nation, this view may not be altogether attractive - but it accords with the facts.