Dietrich Bonhoeffer is a hero of mine. His words about grace remain relevant still. This is from his famous The Cost of Discipleship.

“The price we are having to pay today in the shape of the collapse of the organised church is only the inevitable consequence of our policy of making grace available to all at too low a cost.”

and

“We gave away the word and the sacraments wholesale, we baptised, confirmed and absolved a whole nation unasked and without condition. Our humanitarian sentiment made us give that which was holy to the scornful and unbelieving. We poured forth unending streams of grace. But the call to follow Jesus in the narrow way was hardly ever heard.”

I think a case can be made for those words applying to Britain in 2009.