A poll by the Wall Street Journal/NORC (U. of Chicago) has quantified what many have sensed for some time now: religion, patriotism, and having children are much less important to Americans than they used to be (https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253962/religion-patriotism-and-having-children-diminish-in-importance-for-americans-wsj-poll).
Only 39% of Americans say that religion is very important to them (down from 62% in 1998). Similar results were found for the questions of having children and patriotism. Although being religious, wanting children, and being patriotic are not one and the same, it is easy to imagine how someone disconnected from God’s love would find it harder to love one’s country or want to make the effort to raise children. Secularism is the soil in which all sorts of selfish impulses thrive.
What these latest findings portend for the country is not pleasant to think about. America’s second president, John Adams, though himself not a trinitarian Christian, famously observed that “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” What would our nation and its government look like without a “moral and religious people”? We may soon find out, and indeed warning signs are already here.
Over the centuries, America has been a melting pot of nationalities, cultures, and even ideas. Recently, the secularist mindset in America has become increasingly intolerant of anything and anyone espousing contrary opinions. Agreeing to disagree is no longer viewed by many as a reasonable response to disagreement, with some form of punishment being preferred, such as loss of employment, physical violence, or social ostracization (“cancelling”). This is an unwelcome development for the body politic, and increasing strife seems likely.
It is tempting to believe that we can turn things around by doing the right things, saying the right things, or praying the right prayer. But there is no guarantee of success in this undertaking, if success is understood to mean a massive cultural and spiritual reversal in the near term. Consider the example of Jesus of Nazareth during Holy Week—the perfect witness to God’s Kingdom, who did, said, and prayed all the right things but was still rejected by the crowd.
As we stand opposed to the Western World’s decline and offer Christianity as the countercultural antidote, perhaps we would do well to not discourage ourselves by fixating on the decline but rather to focus on reaching one person at a time, viewing that as success in its own right. As the saying goes, think globally, but act locally.