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The Pagan Public Square
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
"It was the distinctive claim of late-twentieth-century secular liberal political philosophy that sound principles of justice require that law and government be neutral as between controversial conceptions of the human good.
"Critics, including me, argued that the 'neutrality' to which the orthodox secularist liberalism of the period aspired (or at least purported to aspire) was neither desirable nor possible. That political philosophy was, we argued, built on premises into which had been smuggled controversial substantive ideas - liberal secularist ideas - about human nature, the human good, human dignity, and, indeed, human destiny. These ideas are as substantive and controversial as those proposed by Catholicism, Judaism, and other so-called comprehensive doctrines, be they secular or religious.
"Today little effort is made by secular liberals (or 'progressives,' as many prefer to be labeled) to maintain the pretense of neutrality. Having gained the advantage, and in many cases having prevailed (at least for now), on battlefront after battlefront in the modern culture war, and having achieved hegemony in elite sectors of the culture (for example, in education at every level, in the news and entertainment media, in the professions, in corporate America, and even in much of religion - including making inroads into the Catholic Church), there is no longer any need to pretend."
If this sounds a little "professorial" it's because Robert George is Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University, has written several books, and has served as chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. I strongly suggest that you read the whole article, and in fact, you should bookmark the Touchstone Magazine website, listen to their podcasts, read some of their free articles, and consider subscribing to their magazine... where Dr. George is a senior editor! It's a place where conservative Protestants, Roman Catholics, and Eastern Orthodox come together on common ground.
He goes on to write that "contemporary social liberalism ('progressivism') reflects certain core (and constitutive) ideas and beliefs - ideas and beliefs that partially defined the traditions of paganism that were dominant in the ancient Mediterranean world and in certain other places up until the point at which they were defeated, though never quite destroyed, by the Jewish sect that came to be known as Christianity." What we as Christians are now facing is a revived, or neo-paganism. These neo-pagans may or may not believe in a transcendent and personal God, but if they do it is not the central belief in their worldview. Their core beliefs are this-world oriented: environmentalism, global warming, LGBTQ rights and racial justice. Pagan religions tend to be nature-worshipers, for them the immanent is sacred, not the transcendent. Their values may or may not be good values, but in themselves they are relative, they lack an absolute, transcendent value to which they can be relative, to which they can be anchored. To believe in them in themselves alone is to say - "It's good to be good because it's good!" - a good example of circular reasoning.
Christianity is different than other-worldly religions that are transcendent: Christianity is both transcendent and immanent, because Christ is both God and human, He is the Incarnate God-man. Personal faith in the transcendent God Who is also the ultimate Person transforms us into His image, by loving us and giving Himself for us: He is the only real God. Christianity is the only faith that provides an absolute, transcendent Being Who gives us an ultimate reason for social justice and caring for the environment. Christianity provides a reason for sexual purity, chastity, and monogamous, heterosexual marriage, as this article explains. Neo-paganism, on the other hand, sees no reason for this and simply has abandoned it. The result is the human sacrifice of abortion and euthanasia, very much like ancient paganism.
The above article concludes by saying that we Christians must stand our ground, be faithful to our God and our family, and boldly bear witness in "this faithless and perverted generation" as St. Peter called it on the Day of Pentecost.
In another article, "Stop Believing in Science," by Daniel Greenfield, we come to understand that there's a vast difference between true scientific method and the philosophy or even religion of Scientism. In recent days during this pandemic, we've often heard the phrase - "Believe the science!" But true science isn't a belief system, it is a methodology that recognizes our difficulty in understanding this world, and so it relies on exacting, repeated, peer-reviewed experimentation under controlled conditions in order to learn if a given hypothesis is correct. In other words, true science acknowledges that we might be mistaken, even seriously wrong. but "Believe the science!" is a religious-like statement that demands we uncritically accept the current politically-correct dogma. This article begins -
"The alchemists and astrologists who were the distant ancestors of modern science believed in a world of absolute truths. Uncovering the right formula, searching the sweep of sky, offered total control over the otherwise mysterious forces of the universe. Our current knowledge of the way that things are tells us that while the universe may have absolute realities, our understanding of them will never be so.
"Quantum indeterminacy has left us with a universe in which the drive to know is constrained by our search for knowledge. Existence seems to be built to challenge our hubris, forcing us to think about our flaws, limiting us to dimensions and points in time, and asking us to accept what we cannot know. The universe is not a machine that we can take apart and rebuild. It is built to be partly unknowable."
Christians are not "alchemists and astrologists" - we believe in a transcendent world of absolute truths. But we also believe that this present world is a place of doubts, struggle for truth, and great proclivity for error. Why can we practice social distancing while we shop at the local grocery store, or Walmart, Costco, Home Depot, or Lowe's, but we can't go to church and practice social distancing? In a worship space for 750 people such as the Romanian church in Chicago that was shut down, why can't they have 75 people attend, leaving plenty of space for social distancing - why no more than ten people were allowed? The answer - "Believe the science!" Someone in authority dreamed up a magic number of ten for church but just six feet apart for commerce, including liquor stores and abortuaries. (Hint: those businesses pay taxes and cities need the money, but churches don't pay taxes.) That's Scientism, the insistence that "I'm right because I'm the authority so that makes me right! Get a little bit of humility, folks! God is the ultimate, absolute authority, and you're not Him!
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Christ is among us! He is and ever shall be!
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