Cultural Christianity is Not Enough
Paying Homage to Christianity will not Save Conservativism
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. That problem is fideism. Blind belief. You can tell a fideist because they don’t start by stating their fideism. They will give one or two reasons why they believe. But when you show that those aren’t sufficient to justify their conclusion, they will say, “That’s where faith comes in.” And anybody can say this about any belief system, which is how we ended up with infinite genders. The individual just feels it is true.
What political leaders can and should do for us is exemplify the ability to reason. And this is all the more true in their ability to reason about the most important questions that face us as humans. These are questions about meaning, reality, and value. Once you have answered such questions, you have also ruled out many other possible answers. And you should be able to show why you have ruled those out. That would be a rational defense of the beliefs underlying cultural Christianity. If a political leader can’t do this, then any defense of cultural Christianity will only be temporary and losing.
Yet, you will see people try to disconnect their beliefs from cultural Christianity. Richard Dawkins, arguably the best-known atheist of our day, recently said he is thankful for the benefits of Christian culture, and that he would not want to live under another system like Islam. Jordan Peterson, loved by conservatives for speaking positively of the Bible, commented that Dawkins is a Christian; he just doesn’t know it. In reply to this, Dawkins posted on X that he certainly does not believe he is a Christian.
It is common to find conservatives appealing to the Bible as foundational to Western Civilization, but without proving or even believing its foundational truths. These include well-known figures like Jordan Peterson, Douglas Murray, and Roger Scruton. The argument is that Western Civilization is worth saving, and it is based on the Judeo-Christian scriptures. Therefore, if we want to preserve the benefits of Western civilization, we must return to the Bible. When we see Western civilization in decay and collapse, and many conservatives think it is today, it is proof we have departed from the truths of the Bible. But the “saving” of Western Civilization stops short of rationally showing that its foundational beliefs are true. That is where fideism enters.
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. The radical left tells you they hate God, the Bible, and Christianity. Those are all parts of the structurally racist system, they tell us. It is the “whiteness” we should fear. But the danger in conservatism that looks to the Bible as one of the great books of the West or as the foundation of culture while denying the redemptive truths of the Bible is minimally that it encourages dullness toward our plight as sinners who need Christ and at worse promotes outright hypocrisy.
The Bible should influence American politics. The truths taught by the Bible are foundational to our culture. Not only should a politician be bold and affirm this, but a politician should also be able to demonstrate that it is true. Such a politician can argue that God the Creator is real, he created us in his image and with rights, that we have sinned against God, and that the Bible explains how redemption and restoration to God are only possible through Christ. None of those beliefs expressed by a political leader violate the First Amendment. We’ve had many presidents who believed these things and said so. We should expect this from a president who says he will defend cultural Christianity.
We have harbored and coddled fideism for too long. That is a sin of which we should repent. In keeping with that repentance, we must no longer accept fideistic defenses of Christian culture. I believe tolerating fideism and poor thinking habits explains the list of characters in Megan Basham’s new book, Shepherds For Sale. Christians can and should defend cultural Christianity by expecting sound thinking from their pastors and politicians. The Bible’s message is front and center in such thinking because only the Bible explains how we can be redeemed. It is telling that the other world’s religions will often accept Jesus as a great teacher or prophet, but will reject him as the only path to redemption. Their beliefs are not compatible with Christ and the message of the Bible.
The Bible is not just one of the great books. Jesus is not merely one of the great teachers and benefactors of mankind. The Bible tells us about God our Creator, our rebellion against God, and redemption from sin that comes only through Christ. A person can acknowledge that these truths produce the best culture while not actually believing they are a sinner, in rebellion against God, and in need of Christ’s atonement. A conservatism that rejects these truths while trying to preserve the outward benefits of the Bible is not a conservatism worth saving or defending. We must reject fideism. We can and should demonstrate the Biblical foundation, and these truths should affect politics.
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