Since it’s Easter, and we’ve got the day off – and politicians have gone to ground – it’s a good time for, if not religious observance, then at least a little moral reflection.

According to The Economist magazine, Christianity is struggling across the developed world. The Americans seem more devout than other English-speaking countries, but since the turn of the century, church attendance there has fallen from 70 per cent of people to 45 per cent. In Italy, home of Catholicism, the number of churchgoers has shrunk by almost half over the past decade.

US President Donald Trump and his tariff madness may play a big part in this election’s outcome.Credit: AP

Of course, churchgoing and religious identification aren’t quite the same thing. For example, I still put myself down as Salvation Army on the census, which would come as a surprise to my local minister. As a mate explained it, “you can take the boy out of the Salvos, but you can’t take the Salvos out of the boy”.

Anyhow, here in Oz, according to the 2021 census, the proportion of people identifying as Christian has fallen from 61 per cent to 44 per cent in a decade. The proportion of those reporting “no religion” has risen from 22 per cent to 39 per cent.

Well, to each their own. If people are less religious than they were, how does that make much difference to anything? Actually, I think it could. To me, Christianity and other religions are a mixture of beliefs about the supernatural and beliefs about morality – what’s right and wrong behaviour, especially towards others.

It’s the latter that keeps me lining up with the Christians. And if reduced religious adherence leads to less ethical behaviour, then it certainly does........

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