By F. Andrew Wolf, Jr. ——Bio and Archives--June 29, 2025

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“No power on this earth can destroy the thirst for human dignity.” – Nelson Mandela

Since the inception of Western civilization, the concept of human dignity has been that value most cherished by those who live under its domain. And it is fitting that we recognize Christianity to be responsible for this occurrence. As critical theorist Jürgen Habermas so eloquently put it:

When Christianity enters a society, it provides something critical, something special – an understanding of the inherent value of human dignity as well as human rights and freedom which flow from it.

Over the last several decades, a growing number of believers on both sides of the Atlantic have abandoned their Christian faith to join the ranks of the nonreligious. These “Nones” describe themselves as atheists, agnostics or “nothing in particular.” Some may shrug at this, but you don’t have to be religious to know that this shift doesn’t bode well for a nation founded on the precepts of freedom, natural rights and self-government.

The landscape of Canadian religious affiliation has dramatically shifted over the past two decades. From a country predominantly Christian, Canada now exhibits a diverse but steadily secularizing profile. Christianity's decline is substantial: 77.1% in 2001 to 53.3% in 2021.

Catholicism, Canada’s largest denomination, now accounts for 32 per cent of Canadians over 15, down from 46.9 per cent in 1996. The decline is even more precarious for Canada’s United and Anglican churches.

The UCC is the country’s second-largest Canadian Christian denomination. It accounted for 14.6 per cent of Canadian Christians in 1985. In 1996, that number declined to 9.7 per cent and to just........

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