{"id":2601592,"date":"2026-05-12T08:46:57","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T12:46:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/in-rejecting-god-leftism-renders-us-less-human\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T08:55:51","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T12:55:51","slug":"in-rejecting-god-leftism-renders-us-less-human","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/in-rejecting-god-leftism-renders-us-less-human\/","title":{"rendered":"In Rejecting God, Leftism Renders Us Less Human"},"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\">16<\/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%2Fin-rejecting-god-leftism-renders-us-less-human%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=2601592&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>Carl R. Trueman argues in *The Desecration of Man* that a wide range of <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >modern movements-queer theory<\/a>, LGBT radicalism, some BLM activism, and even support for groups like Hamas and Hezbollah-are united by a shared impulse to overturn what earlier generations treated as authoritative or sacred.He frames this as \u201cdesecration,\u201d a cultural pattern of rejecting sacred boundaries and pursuing a godlike selfhood,which he links to the post-Christian idea that \u201cGod is dead\u201d and to the biblical figure of Adam.<\/p>\n<p>Across several chapters, Trueman traces how this mindset reshapes major areas of life. He describes a logic of self-creation in which humans are denied \u201cexceptionalism\u201d (reduced to animals), treated as things or objects, and guided by ends created for their own sake. He connects this to two broader cultural currents: technological change that \u201cliquefies\u201d the world and a turn inward in search of an \u201cauthentic self.\u201d He than applies the framework to sexuality, claiming that the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/limited-government-isnt-everything\/\" title=\"Limited Government Isn\u2019t Everything.\">sexual revolution<\/a> moves sex from a public moral code to identity-based self-definition-encouraging society to except whatever someone claims about their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/u-s-government-corporations-dive-into-pride-month-homage\/\" title=\"U.S. Government and Corporations Celebrate Pride Month\">sexual identity-<\/a>and he argues that practices and industries like drag and pornography intensify boundary-breaking while objectifying people.<\/p>\n<p>Trueman also extends the argument to reproduction and death.He contends that technologies such as IVF transform procreation from a relational, inherently meaningful process into a technical procedure separable from relationship, while surrogacy can treat women as \u201cservice providers.\u201d He further criticizes how these shifts complicate basic questions about human categories and dignity.<\/p>\n<p>The review characterizes Trueman\u2019s critique as insightful and rhetorically strong, while suggesting it is incomplete at the end. The proposed cure is \u201cconsecration\u201d-a return to actual Christian belief and practice, not merely Christianity\u2019s cultural benefits-along with a creed and a \u201ccode.\u201d However, the reviewer says Trueman leaves key questions unanswered: which specific \u201corthodox\u201d traditions, creeds, and church structure should be adopted, and why those over competing Christian claims. the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/glenn-close-gets-razzie-and-oscar-nomination-for-hillbilly-elegy-role\/\" title=\"Glenn Close Gets Razzie And Oscar Nomination For \u2018Hillbilly Elegy\u2019 Role\">review concludes<\/a> that Trueman diagnoses contemporary nihilism effectively, but offers a solution that may persuade mainly readers already sympathetic to his perspective, requiring a clearer, more coherent vision for skeptics.  <\/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<div>\n<p>What unites queer theorists, LGBT radicals, BLM activists, and supporters of terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah? It\u2019s an oddly relevant question, given that these seemingly disparate groups have in recent times served as strange bedfellows. According to theologian and popular philosopher Carl R. Trueman, the answer can be summarized in one word: desecration. All of those disparate groups, writes Trueman in his excellent new book, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.penguinrandomhouse.com\/books\/729796\/the-desecration-of-man-by-carl-r-trueman\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>The Desecration of Man: How the Rejection of God Degrades our Humanity<\/em><\/a>, share \u201cthe desire to overthrow what is and to demolish what previous generations considered authoritative, even sacred,\u201d whether that be political, cultural, or religious.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur world is not characterized by a disillusioned indifference to values originally grounded in religious faith,\u201d writes Trueman. \u201cRather, it often seems to revel in an ecstatic destruction of all that was once <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/doctors-in-india-warn-against-using-cow-dung-as-cure-for-covid-19\/\" title=\"Doctors In India Warn Against Using Cow Dung As Cure For COVID-19\">considered sacred<\/a>.\u201d Our contemporary culture \u201cglories in transgression, and transgression is exhilarating.\u201d Desecration, per Trueman, is \u201cthe denial of sacred boundaries, the profanation of all that is holy.\u201d It is a \u201ccultural pathology\u201d that gives us a sense of being god-like, \u201cthe creators of our own meanings and our own selves.\u201d In a biblical context, it is the sin of Adam.<\/p>\n<p>As he summarizes in an excellent introduction that tells the reader precisely what he plans to argue, Trueman charts this desecration across seven chapters that cover, among other things,\u00a0 sexuality, artificial reproduction, and death. Those familiar with Trueman\u2019s insightful analysis \u2014 which always exhibits an admirable respect for his intellectual adversaries \u2014 will not be disappointed.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Desecration in Action<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>What is man? It\u2019s a question every civilization must answer. Our increasingly post-religious one, Trueman observes, implicitly answers this way: \u201cthe one who transgresses what was formerly considered sacred and thereby demonstrates his own godlike status.\u201d This stems, he believes, from the realization of Nietzsche\u2019s \u201chour of the madman\u201d as described in <em>The Gay Science<\/em>, in which a prophet of sorts announces that God is dead. After more than a century defined by the residue of Christianity, that hour has arrived, and the result is that modern man sees himself as a god, an expressive, individualistic self-creator.<\/p>\n<p>Trueman identifies three forms of this self-creation defined by desecration. These include eliminating human exceptionalism by defining humans as merely animals; treating humans as things or objects; and creating our own ends in an absolute and final way. Two metanarratives underlie this iconoclastic \u201csocial imaginary,\u201d a phrase Trueman borrows from the philosopher Charles Taylor: \u201cliquefaction of the world via changes in technology, and the move inward to find the authentic self.\u201d Yet far from empowering us, our transgression of boundaries once considered sacred in order to realize freedom and autonomy reduces and desecrates us.<\/p>\n<p>Consider, for example, the sexual revolution, which posits that destroying sexual codes of behavior results in our liberation. Trueman observes that sex <em>used to be<\/em> a public concern, with social disapproval of those having children out of wedlock or engaging in certain sexual behaviors, such as homosexuality. Sex is still a public concern, but now in the sense of self-expression and individual rights. As sex shifted from something we do to something we are, society has necessarily come to accept whatever someone says about his sexual identity, because it is a core component of the very self. Drag, meanwhile, is an art of desecration of all that once defined cultural mores about sex. Pornography, too, both objectifies and desecrates, as demonstrated in its tendency toward progressively pushing every social boundary.<\/p>\n<p>Yet in practice, the sexual revolution has turned us into objects, things that exist for the sexual pleasure of other people. \u201cWhen sex is about what we can get out of it, then the other person is instrumentalized,\u201d writes Trueman. In one sense, we still inchoately understand this, given our cultural aversion towards rape as something that uniquely represents an attack on the human person\u2019s dignity, one categorically different from, say, unwanted hugging or tickling.<\/p>\n<p>We can perceive another example of desecration in how technology has changed the way we understand the creation of new life. Technology such as IVF, says Trueman, \u201chas transformed a mysterious creative event, normally grounded in the context of a deep, ongoing relational unity, into something that is a question of technique, formally separable from any kind of relationship beyond that of the union of raw materials.\u201d Surrogacy, in turn, downgrades a woman to a \u201cservice provider.\u201d As some feminists are recognizing, once women are separated from pregnancy and gestation because they are viewed as only accidentally related to the concept of being female, it becomes much harder to answer the question of \u201cwhat is a woman?\u201d<\/p>\n<h2><strong>A Powerful, if Incomplete Discussion<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Those hoping for the rhetorical brilliance typically found in Trueman\u2019s writings will not be disappointed. \u201cCan the term \u2018dehumanized\u2019 even have a meaning if human nature itself is an abstraction, an empty cipher, or the net result of technology?\u201d he poignantly observes. Elsewhere, he asks: \u201cOnce the individual artist becomes the center of attention, and transgression becomes the hallmark of the artist, what kind of art will emerge?\u201d I think we all know the answer: increasingly banal forms of art that try to \u201cout-transgress\u201d what came before.<\/p>\n<p>For those familiar with his work, Trueman\u2019s solution is not surprising. \u201cThe answer is consecration,\u201d he declares. \u201cBut consecration, like the desecration to which it needs to respond, has a specific shape. Only by the true consecration of man can his desecration be overcome. And that requires a return not simply to the alleged cultural benefits of Christian belief and practice but to actual Christian belief and practice.\u201d This, unfortunately, is where the author leaves the reader unsatisfied.<\/p>\n<p>Early in <em>The Desecration of Man<\/em>, Trueman, refers to something he calls \u201corthodox Christian traditions.\u201d But what, exactly, are these? Toward the end of the book, Trueman urges readers to consider such early creeds as the Apostles\u2019 or Nicene Creeds: \u201cThe Apostles\u2019 Creed may be brief, but it captures rather beautifully the essential claims of the Christian faith.\u201d Of course, such creeds were hotly debated in the early church and are far from accepted among self-identifying Christians today. So why accept them? Trueman offers no answer.<\/p>\n<p>Similarly, Trueman urges readers to consider \u201cthe church as a worshipping community.\u201d But which church? Presumably, there is some lowest-common-denominator version of Christianity that Trueman views as acceptable and representative of true Christianity, but what is it, and on what grounds should the reader accept it rather than some other definition? Trueman argues that the antidote to contemporary nihilism is a church, a creed, and a code \u2014 but which ones, and why? Presumably, his own Orthodox Presbyterianism is better than Mormonism, and Catholicism better than Unitarianism or Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses. But again, why?<\/p>\n<p>Trueman, who is arguably the most perceptive and important Protestant thinker in America today, has offered us a valuable critique of our contemporary distemper, one that even (rightly, if provocatively) takes issue with those thinkers such as Richard Dawkins and Roger Scruton who praise a certain \u201ccultural Christianity.\u201d Those who seek to \u201cmaintain the perceived cultural benefits of Christianity without a commitment to the creed, the dogmas of the faith,\u201d Trueman writes, are still \u201cguilty of nihilism as Nietzsche defines it.\u201d Such persons seem to think, incoherently, that one can preserve a Christian-informed civilization without Christ.<\/p>\n<p>Undoubtedly, Trueman has effectively diagnosed the problem. Yet, the reader is left to wonder, has Trueman presented a solution that will persuade anyone not already inclined to agree with him? Those still invigorated by their deluded idolatrous worship of the self will likely require a stronger tonic and a more coherent vision of truth, goodness, and beauty before being willing to contemplate a return to Christ.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Casey Chalk is a senior contributor at The Federalist and an editor and columnist at The New Oxford Review. He is a regular contributor at many publications and the author of three books, including the upcoming &#8220;Wisdom From the Cross: How Jesus\u2019 Seven Last Words Teach Us How to Live (and Die)&#8221; (Sophia Institute Press, 2026).<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What unites queer theorists, radicals, BLM, and Hamas\/Hezbollah supporters? Trueman says: desecration<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":658,"featured_media":2601593,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Copy-of-Copy-of-Copy-of-Copy-of-Copy-of-Copy-of-Book-Cover-Featured-Image.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[79514,79515,55043,49262,24383],"class_list":["post-2601592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-alienation","tag-human-dignity","tag-leftism-2","tag-philosophy","tag-secularism"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Copy-of-Copy-of-Copy-of-Copy-of-Copy-of-Copy-of-Book-Cover-Featured-Image.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2601592","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=2601592"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2601592\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2601600,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2601592\/revisions\/2601600"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2601593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2601592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2601592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2601592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}