{"id":2211105,"date":"2024-04-02T03:07:02","date_gmt":"2024-04-02T07:07:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/as-christianity-declines-we-must-confront-the-threat-of-pagan-america\/"},"modified":"2024-04-02T03:07:29","modified_gmt":"2024-04-02T07:07:29","slug":"as-christianity-declines-we-must-confront-the-threat-of-pagan-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/as-christianity-declines-we-must-confront-the-threat-of-pagan-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Addressing the Rise of Paganism in America amidst Declining Christianity"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fas-christianity-declines-we-must-confront-the-threat-of-pagan-america%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2211105&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The text provides\u2062 insights from sociologist James Davison Hunter on the challenges faced by conservative Christians in restoring Christian values in America.\u2063 It discusses the decline \u2063of Christianity and \u2064the rise of \u2062paganism, exploring historical perspectives and contemporary societal shifts. The narrative delves into\u200d how these changes \u2062impact religious freedom and the evolving landscape for\u2062 Christians in America.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"article-content\">\n<p>In 2010, sociologist James Davison Hunter, famous for, among other things, popularizing the term \u201cculture war\u201d provocatively argued in <a href=\"https:\/\/global.oup.com\/academic\/product\/to-change-the-world-9780199730803\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World<\/em><\/a>  that conservative Christian attempts to restore Christian values on American society were misguided, if not harmful. <\/p>\n<p>Such efforts to \u201credeem America,\u201d argued Hunter, not only hadn\u2019t worked but would never work, both because they represented an erroneous grasp of how cultures change, and because they distracted the faithful from their real task as Christians. Instead, Christians should pursue what Hunter termed \u201cfaithful presence,\u201d by focusing on living authentically Christian lives in our families, communities, and spheres of influence, rather than programmatic political or cultural solutions.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2-long d-flex justify-content-center\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center; \" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-1117738783\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1379703300879-0\" class=\"mb-30\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-a6d902d28a2e195fc1e4978d6750a735 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-a6d902d28a2e195fc1e4978d6750a735\"><\/div>\n<p>Almost 15 years removed from Hunter\u2019s book, things look quite a bit gloomier for Christianity in America. Over that period, the number of religiously unaffiliated adults has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/short-reads\/2024\/01\/24\/has-the-rise-of-religious-nones-come-to-an-end-in-the-us\/\">almost doubled to 28 percent<\/a>; weekly church attendance rates have <a href=\"https:\/\/news.gallup.com\/poll\/507692\/church-attendance-lower-pre-pandemic.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">dropped from about 40 percent to 30 percent<\/a>; and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/religion\/2024\/03\/15\/8-in-10-americans-say-religion-is-losing-influence-in-public-life\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">80 percent of American adults<\/a> believe religion\u2019s influence on public life is declining. De-Christianizing trends are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2024\/01\/23\/gen-z-less-religious-more-liberal-lgbtq\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">particularly salient among younger generations<\/a>, who are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/religion\/2016\/09\/28\/1-most-say-birth-control-should-be-covered-by-employers-regardless-of-religious-objections\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">less likely than older Americans<\/a> to believe the government should protect religious liberty. <a href=\"https:\/\/knightfoundation.org\/articles\/first-amendment-vitals-gen-z-free-expression-inclusion\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Almost half of Gen Z-ers<\/a> think the First Amendment should not protect hate speech (which, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/glaad.org\/2023-year-in-review-anti-lgbtq-online-hate-and-disinformation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">many Americans<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/twitter-facebook-tiktok-youtube-instagram-fail-lgbtq-says-glaad\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">includes<\/a> religious criticism of LGBT identities and behaviors).<\/p>\n<p>We inhabit an America less friendly to Christianity than was the case halfway through Obama\u2019s first term as president. Various political, cultural, and demographic trends suggest that antipathy will only grow in the years to come. In <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Pagan-America-Decline-Christianity-Dark\/dp\/1684514444\">Pagan America: The Decline of Christianity and the Dark Age to Come<\/a>, <\/em>Federalist Senior Editor John Daniel Davidson offers an even more pessimistic perspective: We\u2019re already in a post-Christian society that is paganizing (or re-paganizing, to take the long historical view) in ways that will make life increasingly difficult and dangerous for American Christians.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>From Pagan Exploitation to Christian Human Dignity<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The historical narrative grade-school and collegiate students learn today portrays pre-modern societies across the world living in peaceful symbiosis with nature\u2026 until they were brutally defeated, if not destroyed by an intolerant Christian civilization. Davidson relates a number of historical anecdotes proving how blinkered this story is. Whether we are talking about the ancient societies of the Mediterranean, pagan northern Europe, or indigenous America, all demonstrated a profound disregard for (or exploitation of) the weak and vulnerable. Davidson cites the Vikings, Aztecs, and 19th-century kingdom of Benin as civilizations engaging in ritual human sacrifice to appease angry, bloodthirsty gods, but there are plenty of others.<\/p>\n<p>Judaism and then Christianity repudiated such societies, built as they were on power, fear, and the fulfillment of base sensual desires. It was the church that rejected the common Roman practice of abandoning (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.firstthings.com\/article\/2023\/10\/we-are-repaganizing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">if not murdering<\/a>) unwanted children, stopped human sacrifice in northern Europe, and discouraged polygamy in the Americas and Africa. <\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-f814a7ba8e3b02c45cc5b213f3b3e285 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-6\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-f814a7ba8e3b02c45cc5b213f3b3e285\"><\/div>\n<p>Citing Tom Holland\u2019s popular book <em>Dominion<\/em>, Davidson writes: \u201cHuman rights, equality, care for the poor, mercy for the condemned, refuge for the persecuted, charity for the marginalized and downtrodden: these were never self-evident truths.\u201d Rather, \u201cthey are unmistakably Christian ideas that rely on specifically Christian doctrines, without which they are unintelligible.\u201d Obviously, Christian societies were by no means perfect and were often hypocritical, but it\u2019s undeniable that they ushered in a paradigmatic shift via their understanding of the dignity of the human person.<\/p>\n<p>This was no less true of the culture of the founders, who, though coming from a variety of religious traditions, recognized the need for the maintenance and propagation of religion and morality for the survival of the republic, something that can be found across their letters, including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericanconservative.com\/whats-right-with-christian-nationalism\/\">in the Federalist Papers<\/a>. Indeed, the establishment of religion continued at the state and local level for many years after the signing of the Constitution, indicating that the framers did not intend pure religious indifferentism or a strict separation of church and state.<\/p>\n<p>In his telling, Davidson departs from the postliberal thesis popular with <a href=\"https:\/\/yalebooks.yale.edu\/9780300240023\/why-liberalism-failed\">some conservatives<\/a> (and <a href=\"https:\/\/newpolity.com\/\">particularly Catholics<\/a>) that the problems with classical liberalism we see today were \u201cbaked into the cake,\u201d so to speak, of our constitutional republic, but are rather an aberration. (Given postliberalism\u2019s popularity, I wish Davidson would have engaged more with its arguments.)<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>When the Pro-Religion Wheels Fell Off<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Despite the founders\u2019 intentions, Davidson identifies trends that, observable in the 19th century and accelerating in post-World War II America, undermined the nation\u2019s Christian identity. Several Supreme Court decisions are emblematic of this shift. <em>Cantwell v. Connecticut<\/em> (1940) in its forbidding of the \u201cdetermination by state authority as to what is a religious cause\u201d effectively mandated a strict state religious neutrality, imposed national secularism, and rendered government incapable of defining what is and is not a religion. <em>Everson v. Board of Education <\/em>(1947) decreed, \u201cNeither a state nor the Federal Government can, openly or secretly, participate in the affairs of any religious organizations or groups, and vice versa.\u201d <em>Lemon v. Kurtzman<\/em> (1971) gave us the \u201clemon test\u201d: If a government action 1) lacks a \u201csecular purpose,\u201d 2) has the \u201cprimary effect of promoting or disparaging religion,\u201d or 3) excessively \u201centangles\u201d the government in religious matters, then it violates the Establishment Clause.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-1fcd92dee0d371d06adf87c01405a0c7 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-10\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-1fcd92dee0d371d06adf87c01405a0c7\"><\/div>\n<p>Yet, as Davidson ably argues, secular laws and institutions are never purely religiously neutral \u2014 they will always make moral claims originating from some conception of right and wrong and will coerce citizens into what the state deems the \u201ccorrect\u201d behavior. As our culture\u2019s self-understanding of Christianity declines, the secular regime\u2019s tensions and conflicts with various Christian institutions increase.<\/p>\n<p>This explains, for example, the state\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/edition.cnn.com\/factsfirst\/politics\/factcheck_970b0648-f06c-42c7-829f-3061244c096e\">coercive tactics against churches<\/a> during the height of the pandemic, forcing them to remain closed for months under penalty of law because they provided \u201cnonessential\u201d services. Of course, as we all observed, there were plenty of hypocritical double standards when it came to enforcement of Covid policies, given the kid gloves <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/magazine\/2020\/06\/04\/public-health-protests-301534\">authorities<\/a> employed toward race-related protests.<\/p>\n<p>Such contradictions lead to Davidson\u2019s most interesting and provocative thesis: that an increasingly secular America is not ushering in a rational, neutral, and indifferent regime, but rather a revitalized form of paganism. Indeed, that irrationalism is on full display in the growing popularity of superstitious beliefs such as horoscopes, crystals, tarot, occultism, wiccanism, and an unwavering faith in \u201cthe science\u201d\u00a0even when what \u201cthe science\u201d declares is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/health\/wellness\/covid-guidelines-2024-cdc-symptoms-contagious-cdefb6b8#:~:text=It's%20the%20latest%20sign%20of,and%20symptoms%20start%20to%20improve.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reversed only a short time after it was considered dogma<\/a>. But Davidson is just getting started here.<\/p>\n<p>He argues that neo-paganism is visible across our polis. Abortion and euthanasia, for example, are new forms of human sacrifice; transhumanism and transgenderism reflect man\u2019s attempt to usurp God\u2019s authority over nature. Moreover, warns Davidson, if minors have the autonomy to decide their own \u201cgender,\u201d what\u2019s stopping our paganizing establishment from also claiming that minors have the autonomy to pursue sexual relations with whomever they choose? Artificial intelligence, in turn, serves as a \u201cgodlike\u201d artifice, a \u201cPromethean power\u201d to be worshiped.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What\u2019s a Christian to Do?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>For now, the persecution of Christians in America has largely been restricted to ostracism and censorship. Davidson projects that to change, \u201cthrough mandatory reeducation, the loss of parental rights, fines and financial penalties, and even imprisonment.\u201d Indeed, there are already signs of this, including government persecution of Christian businesses, leveraging laws to shutter Christian foster care services, FBI targeting of pro-life activists, and federal collaboration with social media companies to restrict freedom of speech. In light of these trends, Christians must gird themselves for a \u201clong persecution and a long fight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Echoing Rod Dreher and his famous \u201cBenedict Option,\u201d Davidson writes:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p><em>The primary task of American Christians in the generations to come will therefore be the preservation and propagation of the faith at all costs. And the costs will be high. Yes, that will require being prepared to be poorer and more marginalized, but it will also require being prepared to be arrested, imprisoned, and martyred.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Yet Davidson argues for something different than Dreher, what he calls a \u201cBoniface Option,\u201d after the medieval missionary to Germanic peoples who so aggressively combatted paganism and its rituals that he was ultimately martyred. This is a more combative, political approach than Dreher\u2019s. Though Davidson acknowledges that Washington and other major cities are likely a lost cause, he exhorts readers to take back local institutions such as city councils, public libraries, and school boards. Christians, he urges, should be banning drag performances and pornographic and pro-trans books from l\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00adocal libraries and schools, and applying economic pressure by \u201crefusing to patronize businesses and brands that embrace pagan morality.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s true: Christians cannot simply escape into their little ghettoes. The Christian religion cannot avoid witnessing in the public square, and its adherents, whether they be doctors, lawyers, teachers, government employees, business owners, or landscapers, cannot help but have their work informed by their faith. <\/p>\n<p>That battle, even if it is a losing one, must be fought in every place inhabited by faithful Christians, an exemplar of Hunter\u2019s \u201cfaithful presence\u201d in this disastrously post-Christian society. I have no doubt the result will be the making of many saints. Whether it is also the making of a revitalized Christian society in America remains to be seen.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-0ee52e046aa6b5438101bd6d274653d6 fdrlst__b89e9-after-post-content\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-0ee52e046aa6b5438101bd6d274653d6\"><\/div>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\">    \t\t\t\t\t   \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 2010, sociologist James Davison Hunter, known for popularizing the term &#8220;culture war,&#8221; controversially suggested in &#8220;To Change the World&#8221; that conservative Christian endeavors to reinstate Christian values in American society may be misguided or even detrimental. He questioned the effectiveness of such attempts to &#8220;redeem&#8221; the culture<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":658,"featured_media":2211106,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Book-Cover-Featured-Image-7.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2211105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Book-Cover-Featured-Image-7.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2211105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/658"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2211105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2211105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2211106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2211105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2211105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2211105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}