Paganism, Not Secularism

Comments on the 2009 Mere Anglicanism Conference

The recent Mere Anglicanism Conference in Charleston was entitled, "Engaging Secularism and Islam." These two historical forces were seen as challenges to Christianity and to the West, and these challenges were brilliantly addressed by an outstanding array of speakers. This essay, however, will propose one other possibility not mentioned at the conference, namely, that the West is not becoming secular, it is becoming visibly more pagan. Further, the failure to address the pagan nature of the West will lead to a failure to fully address the challenge of Islam.

Scripture presents only one real alternative to the worship of the one, true God. That alternative is the worship of natural forces given personal forms as various deities. These forces included such things as the state (pharaoh or emperor worship), war, fertility (the baals), wisdom, love, the sun, moon, and stars. These deities were worshipped because their adherents believed they supplied the vital necessities of life -- children, health, security, material well-being, and personal power and renown. Paganism, in this context, would be defined as allegiance to, reliance on, or preoccupation with specific natural powers as the source of one's well-being and happiness.

Against paganism, the Christian faith proclaimed the transcendence of God who revealed himself, not in the powers of nature, but in a series of personal words and deeds which created the biblical history culminating in Jesus Christ. These words and deeds were the Word of God, and God enabled obedience to his Word by his almighty Spirit. From this perspective, Trinity and Incarnation stand against paganism in all its forms.

Scripture further proclaims that God, in Jesus Christ, decisively defeated the pagan powers as seen in Jesus' temptations, his power over evil spirits, and above all, his cross and resurrection where the demonic powers were defeated after doing their worst. Jesus' temptations are especially instructive. They reflect the pagan agenda -- the satisfaction of bodily needs (stones into bread), the acquisition of power and wealth (all the Kingdoms of the world), and the claim that one's own well-being would be divinely sanctioned (saved after leaping from the temple).

The first address at the Mere Anglicanism Conference defined secularism as a way of living, thinking, feeling, and acting without reference to God. A second term, "secularization" was defined as a way of life, increasingly prevalent in the West, that attempts to construct society without the norms and values inherent in a belief in God. The references to God in the terms "secularism" and "secularization" were in reference to the Christian God. It was claimed, and this was compelling, that a failure to ground individual and social life in the Christian God would lead to the erosion of Western values, such things as human rights, freedom, and the dignity of the individual.

So much of this is true, particularly the insight that core Western values cannot be maintained without a commitment to its ancient, Christian heritage. It is not the case, however, that the West is primarily secular. As Augustine once said, all human beings seek happiness, and all are dependent upon forces beyond and within themselves as sources of their happiness. It may be that a few individuals, such as Dostoevesky's Kirilov, may define themselves as utterly autonomous (he killed himself to prove it), but the overwhelming majority of humanity seek satisfaction in the natural powers of life. This is true whether a person is "religious" or not.

From this perspective, there was never a time when one could actually be secular. Even atheists operate according to their natural desires and are subject to natural forces which concern them profoundly. Nor was there ever a time when people were primarily Christian. In the Medieval period, an epoch considered quite religious, most believers were essentially pagan underneath their Christian skin. This can be seen by examining the lives of the saints. These men and women took the gospel seriously, and they, virtually one and all, claimed that the only way to overcome their pagan inclinations and preoccupations was an arduous, spiritual process which stripped the body and soul of everything except one thing, the love of God above all else. This process, commonly called the dark night, was so painful that few got beyond its initial stages. For most people, most of the time, life was a matter of adjusting themselves to the powers. History makes this clear. The history of the West is a chronicle of greed, war, and lust, both in the church and the wider society.

In this context, the term "secularization" does not really refer to an historical process in which society is increasingly organized apart from God. Rather, it refers to an historical process in which the paganism, always latent in western civilization, is now coming to the fore as Christian social norms and practices are outlawed or abandoned. This process is the judgment of God in that the veneer of Christian practice and faith, once publicly affirmed, has been stripped away revealing the ancient pagan core.

This revelation of the West's deep pagan values has been particularly evident in recent centuries. Once the West became powerful, in terms of technology, military prowess, economic capacity, and social and economic organization, it started on a rampage given over to two principal pagan deities, Mammon and Mars. By the early 20th century, the West had conquered and exploited most of the globe, North and South America, Africa, Australia, and most of Asia including China. By the latter half of the 20th century, another deity came to prominence, namely Venus, the goddess of love. These three, Mars, Mammon, and Venus, now dominate the West.

This triumvirate, along with the whole of the pagan pantheon, can take two forms, the hard and the soft. The Episcopal Church is an example of soft paganism, a pansexual, environmentally friendly, politically left, bleeding heart liberal paganism that descends into self-indulgence. Against this paganism is the hard paganism, seen in the Bush administration, which gave itself over to unilateral pursuit of economic gain and war, fervently supported by the Religious Right, who, all rhetoric aside, love Mammon and Mars. Aside from political right and left, there is the great middle who spend much of their time pursuing the pagan, American dream, the house, the car, the bank account, the pension, insurance, financial security, intellectual success, status, a good sex life, the right friends, and so much more.

As this process unfolded, the terms "secularization," or "secularism," or "secular humanism" (popularized by Francis Schaeffer) emerged as terms used by religious people to describe the recent historical process. The terms, however, function to disguise the true religion of most believers. Religious people go to church, believe in God, say prayers, and some of them struggle with sin. As a result, they do not think of themselves as secular. They think of themselves as religious. When they hear terms such as "secularization" or "secularism," and hear lectures describing how secularism is destroying society, it leads them to see the evil as something external to themselves. Then, once the external evil is identified, they can carry out a campaign over against or in concert with other campaigns. For those on the left, the campaign is such things as gay rights, economic justice, and the end to the war (for powerful, pagan states, there is always a war). On the right, it is a campaign against abortion, homosexuality, and the lack of prayer in schools. As these campaigns are waged, the "warriors" are always in the right, fighting against the evils of secular humanism or right-wing fundamentalism.

If, however, the primary religion is paganism, and paganism is allegiance to the idols of money, sex, and power, then the fundamental human problem is not outside ourselves, but ourselves in sin before God. That is the real war, a war within ourselves, and although that war has been won for believers in Jesus Christ, it can only be won through repentance. Until that is clearly seen, and it was not brought out in the conference, the West will not repent.

Now, what has this to do with Islam?

What does Islam see when it sees the West? First, Islam sees societies which they take to be Christian. However that may be, the Islamic peoples of the Middle East will note, for example, that they were increasingly subject to the West from the late 19th century onward. After WWI, the Western powers, primarily Britain and France, carved up the Middle East between them as established by the secret Sykes-Picot Agreement. They would further observe that their oil was exploited, and that the Jews, with Western support (Britain's Balfour Declaration), stole their land and killed their people. These atrocities went well beyond the force needed for a legitimate defense. They were the normal result of fealty to Mars and Mammon. Once the Middle Eastern peoples got some control of their lands after WWII, the Americans intervened, blindly supported Israel, subverted governments, invaded countries, and by their media, exported a constant stream of sexual (Venus) and social deviance into the homes of the Islamic peoples. That, for a goodly number of Muslims, is "Christianity," although it is "normal" pagan behavior. Any understanding of the challenge of Islam needs to address this fact, and it was not addressed in the conference.

Given that fact, Islam will retaliate, and there is, in their tradition, grounds for violent opposition. As one of the lectures of the conference made clear, early Islam conquered vast territories, liquidating at times whole communities, and ruled vast regions. Unlike Christ, Mohammed was a warlord, receiving a significant share of the booty. He and his followers succumbed to Jesus' second temptation (Luke's version), control over the kingdoms of this world. They are now in opposition to another pagan state, the West, and for the moment, they appear to be at a military disadvantage. But as Jesus once said, "Those that live by the sword will die by the sword."

It may be, however, that Islam has one advantage over the West. Jesus Christ is the Lord of history, and he judges his followers for their own good. Historically, the West has been identified with Christianity, and that identification undermines the vitality of the western Christian witness by mingling it with a pagan way of life. If, however, the connection between Christianity and the pagan West were broken, then the West could return to her true Lord. That could happen if Islam were to overwhelm the West. Betrayed by Mars, Mammon, and Venus, the West might return to her Christian heritage, the cross rather than guns, sex, and oil. Judgment, repentance, and return is the biblical pattern, and as God listens to the Christians who pray for their countries, he may well answer their prayers.

Although Islam contains pagan elements, it was, at least in its inception, a struggle against paganism. Its battle cry was "There is only one God and Allah is his prophet." The West would prefer, however, and this came out in subtle ways in the conference, that Islam would become more moderate, settle down to life in this world, accommodate itself to western pluralistic (pagan) society, and give up on its dream of a pure Islam in which Allah, and only Allah, is worshipped by all. In other words, what the West wants is a soft Islamic paganism compatible with soft Western paganism and helpless against the harder variety. What the West fears, and rightly so, is a form of hard Islam which will not compromise with the West.

The potential for a hard Islam was described by one of the conference panelists who had lived in London. He told of a mosque that suddenly appeared in a London neighborhood. At this mosque, hundreds of young men were being trained and educated. These are the sorts of young men who are willing to die for Allah. Down the street from this mosque was a church whose members were a few elderly women. The contrast was clear, a militant, aggressive Islam is a real threat to the West, not only politically, but in terms of faith.

There is, however, a way forward for the West. First and foremost, the West must repent of her paganism. The place to start is by realistically facing her recent history, especially her relation with Islam. Repentance does not mean that the West must become pacifist. There is a place for legitimate defense. It does mean, however, that the West cannot be governed by Mars and Mammon, that her dealings must be just, respectful of the territory and resources of others, governed by international law, and even-handed in her relations with other nations, especially in regard to Israel and the Palestinians. Certainly the West must defend herself when attacked, but not as a smoke-screen for conquest and exploitation as seen in the last eight years.

Further, above all, the church must repent. The gospel must be preached in full force, not against secularism, but against the hard and soft paganism that corrupts us all. The sin is deep, but the cure is deeper, the very cross of Christ. The way of the cross is the only way, the steady, daily, stripping of the soul of lesser loves until only one thing remains, the love of God above all. When Muslims, atheists, the general public, political leaders, and even Christians, see a Christianity that calls for self-denial, poverty, and dereliction, willingly embraced, then and only then, will our churches be alive, filled with men and women ready to give their all to Christ. If that happens, perhaps God will spare the West the destruction she deserves. But if the church does not repent, then the Christian faith will be compromised and the West may be lost. In the end, however, there is nothing to fear. The cross, and only the cross, is stronger than the sword, whether wielded by a pagan West or the armies of Islam. One thing remains, the words of St. Paul, "May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world" (Gal. 6:14).

The Rev. Robert J. Sanders, Ph.D.
January, 2009