Recent (meaning the past several decades) events in the US and other western nations certainly seem to indicate that Christianity has little, if any, sway over the morality of peoples and nations. A cursory perusal of any newspaper will indicate the depth of the moral degradation. This has not always been the case. From the conversion of Constantine (312 A.D.) until the
middle of the twentieth century, western civilization and Christianity had been viewed as virtually synonymous. Though commentators disagree on the point
at which Christianity lost its influence in society, few deny that this is the
case.
Psychohistorian Rudolph Binion writes that “Christianity lost
its credibility by and large in the course of the eighteenth century.”[1] In
a volume replete with historiographical resources, Binion makes a fine argument
for what he calls “Christianity in collapse.” Through extensive literature
analysis and polling data, Binion asserts that though western society retains
links to historic Christian doctrines, it has shed itself of belief.
Charles Colson and Nancy
Pearcey have claimed that “today’s culture not only is post-Christian but is also rapidly
becoming postmodernist, which means it is resistant not only to Christian truth
claims, but to any truth claims.”[2]
Evidence that Christianity has lost its leadership role and
moral influence in western culture can be found without difficulty. We need
look no further than the church. Denominational debates seldom focus on
doctrine today. More likely discussion will center on social policy. Ordination
of homosexual clergy and marriage rites for homosexual parishioners have long
since trumped doctrinal debate as fodder for the annual meeting of most church
groups. Mainline churches advocate for the availability of abortion services,
but few argue against the growing Sunday youth soccer schedule. Sunday School
curriculum, where any at all is used, is often infused with the Values
Clarification thinking of Sidney Simon.[3]
This philosophy teaches that there are no right or wrong values. We simply must
be clear as to what our, individually created, values are.
Robert Bork, in Slouching Towards Gomorrah, captures
the decline of the influence of Christianity this way,
It is not helpful that the ideas of
salvation and damnation, of sin and virtue, which once played major roles in
Christian belief, are now almost never heard of in the mainline churches. The
sermons and homilies are now almost exclusively about love, kindness, and
eternal life. That may be regarded, particularly by the sentimental, as an
improvement in humaneness, indeed in civility, but it also means an alteration
in the teaching of Christianity that makes the religion less powerful as a
moral force.[4]
Despite the demise of Christianity as its moral anchor,
western civilization is still associated with a religion. That religion is
humanism. In a religion which is self-centered there is no room for a God who
asks for repentance or obedience. There is only the drive to homogenize all
experience; to make life easier and more palatable for the masses. R.J.
Rushdoony, more than 40 years ago, warned of the logical conclusions of humanism. He
wrote, “In all religious faiths, one of the inevitable requirements of logical
thought asserts itself in a demand for the unity of the godhead. Hence, since
humanity is god, there can be no division in this godhead, humanity. Mankind must
therefore be forced to unite.” [5]
“The goal,” Rushdoony adds, “is not communion but uniformity.” This
lemming-like march toward sameness, he asserts, leads to a “pro-one-world”
philosophy which pursues pacifism, yet actually requires war, “in that it
insists on irreconcilable and contradictory things.”[6]
This crying of “peace, peace” where
there is no peace is but one indication that humanism is a flawed replacement
for the Christianity of our fathers. Rushdoony insists that Christians must resist
this “leveling.” Referring to the concept of a United Nations, the outgrowth of
humanism, he writes,
First, it insists on uniting a
world and leveling all differences….Second, it seeks to create a super-state
which must increasingly coerce every state, civil government, and person into
line with its dream of messianic power. Third, it seeks to arrest history and
freeze it into a particular mold in terms of Enlightenment thought. Inevitably,
this faith is anti-Christian, and a conflict with Christianity is requisite to
its being.[7] [Italics
added].
So, therein lies the problem. We have a form of Christianity in the west, without it's substance. Will this ever change? Some suggestions in that regard in our next instalment.
[1] After Christianity (Logbridge-Rhodes,
Durango, CO, 1986), p. 9. No friend of Christianity, Professor Binion offers
much food for thought and an absolute goldmine of historiographical resources.
[3] Sidney B. Simon, Leland W. Howe, and
Howard Kirschenbaum, Values
Clarification, available in numerous
edition, it was first published in 1978. One reviewer of this book described It
this way: “This important guide
presents numerous strategies for analyzing values without teaching a particular
moral viewpoint. Through more than 75 intriguing and stimulating
question-and-answer exercises, this book makes readers aware of their
individual feelings, ideas, and beliefs so they can make choices based on their
own value systems.”
[4] (Regan
Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, NY, 1996), p. 293.
[5] This
Independent Republic (Ross House Books, Vallecito, CA, reprinted 2001), p.
130. Originally published in 1964.
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