Religious practice in America is in decline with a rise of nones. Nones are the many with no religious affiliation at all. These are not just those in early adulthood who leave the church until married with children. That would be nice. It could mean only a decline in attendance, but that is wishful thinking. This is a more serious and permanent decline: a seismic shift in thinking, belief, and affiliation.
Where have the nones gone? What if they have left a tame, boring, and unsatisfying Christianity for political ideologies? They will now change the world through politics…political ideology has become a religion.
Earlier generations left the Mainline churches but wound up in the Evangelical and Charismatic (E&C) churches. Now, even though E&Cs are more socially active than ever, both groups are identified as politically toxic due to a derailed conservatism that has gone beyond failure in the culture wars to the unrepentant endorsement of a total Trumpism. All E&Cs were accused of “clutching their guns and religion” before joining the “despicables”, but after the mob at the Capitol last month, we have all been seen as racists and violent insurrectionists. Refuse to hire them! Close their private schools and colleges!
Better to be despicable. Much of this is slur. The healthy urban E&C churches are ignored. Some nones may have seen enough to decide that the slurs, well-earned by shallow Christians, are the final word. A few photos of the revolting scenes inside the Capitol were sufficient, in their minds, to solidify the slurs as facts.
There is a problem with the younger and purer of these nones who have become ideologues. They have enjoyed their We-Are-The-New-World-Changing-Influencers stage and have rapidly become the Unquestionably Righteous. They would never use the word righteous, but they will be glad to be called the just: mere semantics. They are now dragging us all through their Salem Witch Trial phase, or if you prefer, their Eugene McCarthy phase, since people will only lose their reputations and careers rather than their lives. The problem is, “What comes next?” Powerful people with powerful ideas, or actually only one idea, are unstable. Salem lasted only one long summer.
Does this ring a bell? It should. You might think of this as the original American Revolution, only this time they will get it right with less God and zero tolerance for racism. A pleasant delusion, but not so. The event of the late 1700s that matches our moment is the French Revolution. A compliment? No. The opposite. The American Revolution was about liberty and individual rights, while the French Revolution was violently opposed to both the church and the monarchy, following centuries of abuses that reached every level of society.
Both revolutions had good reasons. One resulted in 250 years of growth, opportunity, and a reduction of the ills of British colonialism, and especially of racial slavery. The French Revolution resulted in the guillotine, the baptizing (drowning) of the clergy, the crowning of Reason in Notre Dame, and the Terror, which devoured its own leaders (not revolutionary enough). Will we soon hear that the Biden presidency is not diverse enough? Too many white men (is zero the correct number?) and not enough Pakistanis or Latins.
After the Terror, the First French Republic lasted only until 1804. Then there was the emperor-dictator Napoleon and the restoration of the monarchy. Back to republics in 1848; five of them. We are still in our first republic in America, but we may have to anticipate all that, including very strong governments.
Do we want to become Europe? It has great art, architecture, and ideas of the past. It is the burial ground of the aristos and royals, as well as the untold millions of war dead. We see Europe as an immense bureaucracy populated by people shuffling along to work. Metro Boulot Dodo. A great place to have a café on the plaza and long August vacations.
That is the optimistic view of the future if the religious nones are joining the idealogues. The pessimistic view would resemble the People’s China or Solzhenitsyn’s Russia. Science will save us! You can wish for that. Search to discover whose ideology claimed to be entirely scientific. A better place to look for hope may not be in an ideology, but in the Lord of Life.