God's Kingdom, What is it?

When Jesus came on the earth, he tought his followers to pray what is known today as the "Lord's prayer". In it, one of the things people ask for is : "Let your Kingdom come". My question to you is: "What is God's Kingdom, a real government or a condition in the hearts of men?" And what do you base whatever you answer on? (Bible, your opinion, things you have heard, etc...)

For a Nation which professes to be mostly Catholic, I am surprised that nobody knows or is interested in knowing what God's Kingdom is. What are we praying for anyway if we don't know what we are asking? Or are we not praying anymore? Has God gone out of our lives?

[fleming]

Although 90% of the Belgian population is "catholic", most people don't practice religion.

Churches are emptying... nobody becomes priest anymore...

The biggest institutions in Belgium are catholic: The biggest party in Belgium is the "christian" party. The biggest medical security fund in Belgium is the "christian" one and the biggest union in Belgium is the "christian" union.

Most students go to "catholic" schools.

But don't let this fool you. The fact that they are all "christian" is just a product of history, it doesn't imply any real practice of religion. Up until the sixties most people were indeed religious. But since then things have been changing rapidly. In some cases the name "christian" stayed, but the real religious content disappeared.

Politicians of the "christian" party don't necessarily practice religion or go to church.
(And they surely don't bring religion into politics. State and religion are stricly seperate anyway.)

Most students of "catholic" schools don't practice religion either. And neither do most of the teachters. The religious aspect in the schools is mostly limited to two hours religion class a week.

In compare with most states in the USA (and the Bible Belt in particular) and in compare with a lot of states in Eastern Europe, Belgium is actually very "unreligious".

That doesn't mean people don't care any more about values and moral issues. In the past religion was the way to put these values into practice. Nowadays most people feel like you don't really need to practice any religion in order to practice values.

Thank you Fleming, I knew somebody out there had an answer as to this great silence. People are right not to want to practice "religions", because they are man-made and Jesus Christ himself (the leader of Christianity) never taught religion, but taught his followers about his Father and how to have hope for the future thru God's Kingdom (and many more things).
If I was proclaiming myself to be Catholic or Christian, I certainly would follow the rules of my faith, should we therefore assume that politicians and the likes are putting on a front? What would be the reason to say you are something you really are not?

[fleming]

On first sight it seems hypocrit, but the truth is not that simple.

The reason why the "christian" institutions are still the biggest, although people are not very religious, is historical.

From the founding of Belgium, the catholique party has always been the leading party in Belgium.
There was only one other real party, and that was the socialist party.

Poor people, working class and union people voted socialist party.
Middle-class and upperclass voted for the catholique party.

Most people from the working class where catholique too, but since the catholique party was a conservative party who didn't stood up for the working class, they voted socialist.

To regain votes, the catholique party started up a working-class wing within the party. So after a while most working class people, being good christians, turned back to the catholique party.

From the 1920's-1930's on, the liberal party was on rise. The liberal party was a conservative, right winged, non-religious party with a political program focused on cutting taxes. The non-religious upper-class started to vote for the liberal party (the religious upper-class remained voting for the catholique party).

So,from then on and up until now the political scene in Belgium is basically:

Left wing: Socialist party
Center: Catholique party
Right wing: Liberal party

That explains the succes of the catholique party:
whether you are religious or not, if you believe politics should not be left or right winged but somewhere in the middle, there was no other option than voting for the catholique party.

Until recently, a lot of people voted for the catholique party (or became a catholique party-politician) not because they were that religious, but simply because they wanted to not to vote for a party that was too left winged, or too right winged.

Same story for the medical assistance funds and the unions.

(Things have changed tough during the last years: the liberal party has moved more to the center and has the ambition to become the biggest party).

So, it is not really a philosophical matter, it is more a story of politics and power.

Anyway, up until the sixties people were very religious... it is only from the late sixties on that things really started to change.
Nowadays only the elderly are still religious.

Hello Fleming! Thank you very much for the very understandable explanation. For my part, I don't believe any of the politicians, even the ones with good intentions can't do anything very good for a long duration because their associates want to fill their pockets with money. It is a game of power and money. I would not vote for someone just because the other party does not please me, but than, that's me. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, right? Thank you again.