On the evening the title of this post came to mind, I’d been interacting with a possible publisher for the book. They have a concern with what appears my excessive confidence that we, Christians, can keep our kids Christian. Having read just the first few chapters and my proposal, it didn’t surprise me that they found my confidence problematic. To see if my confidence really is excessive, I suggested it’s necessary to read the argument I make throughout the book. I think it’s not excessive, but fair-minded people could certainly disagree. We’ll find out. Which brings me to secularism, and what will obviously have to be multiple blog posts as I address it.
Christians face a certain, unique reality in the 21st Century West (post-Constantine and the development of “Christendom”), one that has been brewing for hundreds of years. This reality, one that has everything to do with the confidence I speak of, is secularism of a certain kind. It is important to understand the distinction between the healthy secularism of government not being run by a state church, and the very unhealthy secularism of a worldview in which God is at best persona non Grata. You can find a great historical overview of how we got to this point in Hunter Baker’s The End of Secularism. Originally, as Baker argues, secularism was a reaction to the protracted wars of religion in Europe, and the idea of a Christian state that led to those wars. All religion and politics did when combined was create strife and misery. Secularism’s proponents had the benign intention of creating civil peace by getting religion, or The Church, out of the governing business. Unfortunately, it didn’t stop there, and thus the secularism I address in these posts.
This type of secularism is hostile and implacably opposed to religion in general, but specifically to Christianity in practice. It demands that religious faith be purely personal, and it has completely taken over the culture. The most powerful plausibility generating institutions of the culture (i.e., those that make a certain view of reality seem real, or plausible, to us) are all dominated by hard-core secularists. Education, media, and entertainment in some sense define reality for us, and they define it as secular. In the book I explore the concept of plausibility structures, which is the underlying set of ideas, beliefs, and attitudes the culture affirms or denies that makes reality seem a certain way. It is the cultural air we breathe. As water is to fish, so is secularism to us; such an all pervasive part of our existence that most of the time we aren’t even aware of it’s existence. That, my friends, is the problem.
Children have rejected their parent’s Christian faith since their was such a thing, so that isn’t the issue. What is, is the nature of the threat to that faith in our time. Prior to the 1960s, American and Western culture largely affirmed the Christian view of reality. No longer. In light of this cultural milieu, this cultural zeitgeist (I’m big into vocabulary with my kids, so if you’re not familiar with these words . . .), we must raise our kids differently, as I argue in the coming best seller Keeping Your Kids Christian!
If I was to give a thesis statement for these series of posts it would be this: Secularism is a deeply flawed and weak explanation for the nature of reality. Correctly understood, we don’t need to fear secularism as a threat to the faith of our children. Thus we can have confidence that we can keep our kids Christian.
Many Christians see the secular culture rightly as the threat it is, but generally only see specific examples of that threat, for example, the sexual revolution, or atheism, or video games, or the too many other examples to mention. But the real threat is the view of reality and existence it imposes by the presuppositions it never names. Naturalism, that the material is all there is and life is ruled by “natural” laws, no providential, sovereign God required, is only the most obvious one, and the one that most easily effects how we live our lives. This ever present assumption in the culture means we can easily slip into living lives as practical atheists, as if God were not required for giving all human beings life and breadth and everything else.
My thesis brings me to the the metaphor of the Berlin Wall. I’ll explore that in further posts. Stay tuned!
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