A new Pew religious landscape survey is out today, and it shows that 1) overall, America is becoming a less religious country, and 2) the devout are in some ways becoming more devout, and the secularization is coming from the large number of Millennials who are losing their faith.
The clear conclusion is that Christianity in America is dying because its culture is dying. Do not forget sociologist Philip Rieff’s dictum: “The death of a culture begins when its normative institutions fail to communicate ideals in ways that remain inwardly compelling, first of all to the cultural elites themselves.” The faith is not being passed on to the young. This is measurable. So many of us Christians think that yeah, our kids may not be so observant, but they’ll come around in the end. The faith will always be here. I think this is extremely naive, because it does not take into account the fragility of historical memory in modernity.
A Jewish friend says to me:
He has become more and more convinced that as our society becomes secularized, religious Christians in particular will be marginalized. Because he accepts the truth of Christianity, he doesn’t want this to happen and has been exploring what he calls the “Benedict Option” after St. Benedict, to realize that Christians are in a society that is profoundly hostile to them, but to cleave together in communities (not necessarily physically removed from the mainstream) to continue to reinforce each other’s faith, inculcate their faith in their children and serve as an example to others of the value of embracing a Christian life.
This post is sort of a complement to that and one that I think says something that both you and I agree with. You as a convert to Traditional Jewish practice realizing that your community is actually safer in a country to upholds traditional Christian values, than one in which all traditional moral values have been significantly eroded, and that I agree with because although I am an agnostic, I recognize that despite the special pleadings of the ignorant persons about the separation of church and state, recognize that the civic state of America rests soundly on the bedrock of liberal but still faithful Christian religious adherence. It is true that our society is remarkably tolerant of non believers and of non Christians, but that is only possible because although we never had a state religion, we had a defacto generalized Christianity. And it was the fact that bizarre sects including Latter Day Saints, Adventists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Black Muslims, and diametrically opposed non Catholic denominations such as Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, Congregationalists and Lutherans all were able to freely practice and proselytize without killing each other. And Jews, Hindus, Buddhists and Muslims all coexisted as long as they were distinct minorities.
Jews, deliberately, or inadvertently, whether as a result of Jews being both the leaders of cultural Marxism, psychoanalysis, traditional Marxism, conspicuous consumption capitalism, civil liberties lawsuits, etc, have done much, and probably the most to weaken Christianity.
I.B. Singer wrote: “The powers that assail us are often cleverer than every one of our possible defenses; it is a battle which lasts from the cradle to the grave. All our devices are temporary, and valid only for one specific attack, not for the entire moral war. In this sense I feel that resistance and humility, faith and doubt, despair and hope can dwell in our spirit simultaneously. Actually, a total solution would void the greatest gift that God has bestowed upon mankind – free choice.”
