Where are the Christians?

Where are the Christians?
Lauren Brooks
There have been many things that have surprised me since I have been here and traveling around Europe; for instance, the plethora of mullets, the numerous amounts of Americans everywhere, and the lack of peanut butter. But by far the thing that has surprised me the most is the lack of religious people in Europe. We have all traveled all over and experienced many different countries and had the privilege of meeting new people. Of course when meeting these people the usually pleasantries ensue and almost immediately the question of “what are you studying here?” is asked. At first I felt someone what ok in explaining that we were studying Religion in film and the arts mostly specifically from a European point of view, but after a couple of interesting responses I have become a little afraid of telling people what I study.
“Do we even have churches here in Prague?” “Religion, so are you like a priest or something, can girls do that?” Now granted a lot of these responses have come from conversations in a bar or club over a few beers and yelling across a smoky room, but at the same time the large amount of statistics I have observed continue to reinforce this conclusion. Despite the fact that we attend class and live at a seminary school I have barely noticed any religious people in this city. However, what does being “religious” really mean and better yet how do you see it? I just figured that being in such a historically religious region of the world would mean lots of religious people. I am so jealous that these people get to worship in these beautiful places with so much history and to me it seems like they don’t even notice half the time. Meeting all kinds of different people has showed me some huge differences in Americans compared to Europeans. I just know now that all the time I have spent in these sacred places I won’t take for granted.