The problem is paying homage to Christianity while denying the truth of its teaching. That is what public intellectuals like Jordan Peterson or Douglas Murray do. Even when you find Peterson speaking positively about the Bible, it is as a Jungian who reduces the Bible to a grouping of myths that represent archetypes found in all religions. Biblical stories are mere allegories for Jungian psychology. Similarly, Christians have become all too familiar with conservative politicians who speak highly of the Bible but show no saving faith. This is worse than the radical left.
This week, David French said he will vote for Kamala Harris to teach conservatives a lesson. The lesson has something to do with Trump and cultural Christianity. That means it has something to do with conservative Christians thinking the Bible should influence politics.
How should the Bible influence the political realm in our day? Even asking that question is enough to have a liberal call you a white nationalist. That shows us that the radical left is out of the debate. Any serious thinker knows that our beliefs affect our culture, and just as not all beliefs are true, so also not all cultures are equal. The radical left tells us they also believe cultures are not equal because they continually insult Christian culture and say it is fair game for attacks and destruction.
Serious Christian thinkers know that we live in a pivotal age. The next few centuries will depend on what happens now. Just as the Peace of Westphalia formed the modern state and shaped the modern world, so too we are now deciding if Christianity and the Bible will have any influence on America at all.
It’s been some time since we had a political leader who could show the difference between true and false religious beliefs. It’s been some time since we expected a political leader to be able to do that. We’ve had presidents who will say they are Christians of one denomination or another. Sometimes, they give us cause to doubt them. But our public face since WWII has been that religion is a personal opinion, and we can’t know the truth of the matter.
I believe that it is in response to this that conservative Christians are attracted to Trump and defending cultural Christianity. Trump defends the idea that America has done good in the world and is worth protecting and preserving. Almost all, if not all, of what he wants to preserve are the contributions of Christians. Christians are so used to being the accepted whipping boy that this approach is refreshing. However, I believe that the defense of cultural Christianity is a losing strategy, and I suggest we can do more than defend cultural Christianity and the Bible as a great book of Western Civilization. We can do more even within the existing pluralistic society and be consistent with the First Amendment.
Christians know we live in a pluralistic society, and we value the First Amendment. Neither of those things changes the formative role of the Bible in American history. The Bible teaches us that creation declares the eternal power and divine nature of God so that unbelief is without excuse. The United States was founded on such beliefs about creation. The Declaration of Independence rests its arguments on foundational claims about God and man by relying on natural theology. Our system of checks and balances recognizes that humans are sinners and cannot be given too much power. And the First Amendment protects our right to rational debate and evangelism, and affirms our need for church.
The radicalism of the French and Communist Revolutions says that humans are basically good and can build a utopia through merely materialist philosophy. They teach that man is at his best without church, God, or redemption. The radical left today also pushes those same ideas, which are contrary to the American founding philosophy. The radical left has become such a clown show (late-term abortion, fear of homophobia, infinite genders, “whiteness” scare, DEI, and so much more) that it would be funny if it weren’t deadly serious. In contrast to that pandemonium, any coherent Christian praises cultural Christianity.
However, to defend cultural Christianity simply as the best of Western Civilization won’t work. It promulgates a longstanding problem that is responsible for how we got into this mess in the first place.