Denmark is turning pagan again, mission organisation says

On Saturday, the so-called “Indre Mission” had its annual meeting in Jutland, where the movement is the strongest. In his annual speech, Bækgaard told his audience that the centuries-old Christian heritage is about to leave the country.

We stand on the threshold of a neo-pagan age, he said. “I agree that the scenario may sound pessimistic, but my intention is simply to put realistic words on the change”, Hans-Ole Bækgaard noted, according to a report in Kristeligt Dagblad.

Indre Mission is an Evangelical movement that started in 1861 within the Danish people’s church. It was to aim to bring awakening in the (more and more) liberal folk church. And to bring the gospel to poor rural areas where Christianity had not so deeply rooted as in towns and cities. About 400 mission houses of the Inner Mission are still used for Sunday gatherings. But the organisation has done much more than just preaching, from setting up kindergartens to helping prostitutes.

Edge

The Western society was built and kept from a Christian viewpoint, Bækgaard told his membership. “Christian social construction” is what he called it. That is coming to an end. “A period from the introduction of Christianity in the Roman Empire at the end of the 4th century and then to much of what has set the agenda for the latter part of the 20th century.”

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The influence of secularisation is inevitable, he said. “Now Christianity is giving way to modernism, and neo-paganism is taking over. We are really transforming. We are on the threshold of a neo-pagan age,” continued Hans Ole-Bækgaard, who concluded that “the Christian era is over”.

This has consequences for how you preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. No longer from the nation’s centre and the establishment but “from the edge of society”.