Why don't people in the UK take religion as seriously as the US.
My town for example is an average size town. There are a few churches but only about 10 people go to them. Religion isn't mentioned at all, nobody is concerned with anyone else's belief and the schools here teach all religions without giving any bias towards any particular one.
A recent census shows only 24 percent of the uk population regard themselves as religious.
Not religious? Good . Religion = bondage
God does not want religious Christians, He wants people searching for a relationship with Him.
It's sad when churches are empty though, but I must say my experience is different from yours.
I moved to Scotland about a year ago. When there are three churches within 200m, it would be kind of difficult to fill them all in a small town, if all of the towns population could fit in one. The only thing I have noticed which is negative, is that the churches seem more separated here, people only go to one place, and shy away from other churches.
A friend and I tend to switch between three churches, and if we are out of town on a Sunday, we go to whatever we find. By doing so we have been in the Church of Scotland, Methodist churches, evangelical churches, charismatic churches, Episcopal churches + other catholic churches. They seem to have more in common than differences. Only one (of our regular churches) is almost empty, the other ones we have been in tend to be fairly full.
Maybe we're just good at finding full churches?