AHC: More Religious Europe

What changes in History would need to come to pass so that in 2019, most European countries are at least as religious as the Southern States of the USA?

For example, LGBT rights are rejected in favor of a Biblical interpretation of sexuality, and the duty men and women must fulfill, there is a widespread network of pastors and priests who actively try to wean young boys and girls off masturbation, and there is a general sense that Heavenly rewards are more important than Earthly goals.
 
I dunno that this could be accomplished after 1900: seems to me that Europe was already well on the road to secularism by the time of Sarajevo. Anti-clericalism was very much a force in (for example) Dreyfus-era France. My sense is that you'd need a mega-revival-like phenomenon about the time of Napoleon to pull this off.
 
The problem for the Church in Europe during the last 200 years was that it was under attack from not only the left, but from liberals as well. After WW2 the choice for Christians was between an openly atheist communist movement, and the secular, capitalist systems of the west. Both were anti-clerical to some extent, though the latter obviously not as aggressively. Even the fascist movements of the interwar period weren’t particularly in love with Christianity.

What you would need is a political (perhaps even revolutionary) movement that advocates for radical social change (including wealth redistribution), but also embraces Christianity, and rejects certain liberal/enlightenment presuppositions (individualism, secularism etc.). Imagine if Marxism (and the socialist movement in general) hadn’t been atheist, but explicitly christian. I think something like that would have been possible if it was a catholic monk for example who had come up with an equivalent to Marxism in the 19th century, instead of a secular Jew like Marx. Basically, an earlier form of ‘liberation theology’. Alternatively, a different kind of Fascism, one that’s more pro-Christian and also retains its Syndicalist roots, might fulfill this role in the 20th century.

If the ends of the political spectrum consisted of an explicitly pro-Christian left on one side, and a conservative, pro-Christian right on the other, with secular liberals in the middle, then there’s a good chance that Christianity retains not only more social and cultural influence in Europe (and western countries in general), but also a larger degree of institutional power.
 
Christianity is trapped between secular (but not necessarily irreligious) Classical Liberals and Social Democrats and Atheistic Communists and Fascists for most of the OTL. That’s the definition of being between a rock and a hard place.

Let’s have Russia avoid the Russo-Japanese War, have Franz Ferdinand take over in AH and get the League of Emperors going. Say the Royal families of Germany, AH, and Russia retain their level of religiosity, help keep each other in power, possibly staging coups to dismantle the power of their legislatures at some point, and they keep Christianity institutionalized. At this point, have Christianity retain its status as a part of people’s national and family identities. External enemies and competitors, like a secular America/Britain/France who constantly nag at everyone with NGOs and activists, and a resurgent Ottoman Empire who sponsors Islam, could help.

Hell, a surviving Tsarist Russia alone is half of Europe’s land and might make a majority of its population by 2019. A surviving Tsarist Russia might accomplish this alone if it remains as religious as the American South.

If the Balkan and Portuguese Monarchies survive, or a Franco emerges in Spain, and the Italian monarchy survives and improves relations with the Vatican they might fit into the above as well. But Russia/Germany/Austria-Hungary working together and surviving with Christianity institutionalized would be enough to accomplish this demographically.



But the overwhelming political momentum is against Christianity by this point. The Fascist movements are downright hostile to Christianity to an even greater extent than Liberals. But I’ve always wondered about an alt Hitler’s with other ideologies (Classical Liberal Hitler who conquers Europe to legalize freedom of speech and establish a right to bare arms everywhere, Communist Hitler who invades the Soviet Union for betraying real Communism, Social Democratic Hitler who invades Europe and brings legislature, feminism, and welfare programs everywhere as his goal), if an alt Hitler became a devout Christian, forgot about living space, and invaded Europe with a pan Christian movement aimed at destroying Communism and secularism across Europe...It would be interesting. Probably discrediting, but if he actually won who knows.
 
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