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One of the big and early losers during the Transformation will be the organized religions of the world. They are already losing membership, though this is rarely reported, and anxiety is gripping those in the corridors of power as a result. The Catholic religion has long experienced depletion of their ranks in the United States, and as entrenched as Catholicism is in South America, this continent is not far behind. The trend toward tolerance and open mindedness does not incline one toward rigidities and the acceptance of authority that organized religions rely upon. Where there are enclaves of control, as within Islamic states, the rest of the world has shown a steady trend toward free thinking and independence from the mandates that organized religions impose.
What does this mean for the church? Shrinking membership means shrinking profits, but for many organized religions this does not represent a pinch as the numbers interested in devoting their lives as free workers to an organized religion are also shrinking. The Catholic church has long had a much underreported exodus from the priesthood and nunneries, and other religions with rigid doctrines have experienced similar trends. The ranks grow older and new members from the youth of society join less often. In many enclaves of the devout, there are none but the old, and the entire establishment will close when the geriatric members die off. Thus, where the corridors of power are still filled with the same iron grip of the power hungry, the empire they rule continues to shrink.
Thus, in those rare instances where church and state merge, such as some Islamic states, the church can do naught but fret. Changing the message to one of tolerance fools few and actually raises more suspicions than it dampens. For the Catholic church to accept the concept of evolution, when it tortured scores of humans during the inquisition for free thought now routinely accepted by the scientific community, is considered hypocrisy, which it is. No one is fooled, and if anything these false maneuvers turn away those who looked to the church for a sense of continuity and security. Even where church and state have temporarily merged, this is subject to change, and can suddenly be upset so that the church is again reliant upon the diminishing faithful.