By LAWRENCE P. GRAYSON
The coming election may be the last opportunity to turn back the transforming of America into an irreligious society. The advance of militant secularism poses a grave threat to the Catholic faith and to the nation. Today, government policies and secularist actions are impeding the public recognition of God and expressions of faith, limiting apostolic works, restricting religious freedom, and coercing individual consciences, while supporting abortion, euthanasia, various aberrations of gender, and the redefinition of marriage and the family.
This societal movement is in direct opposition to the principles upon which this nation was founded. Our forefathers began this country with an appeal to God for its independence, and adopted a constitution that guarantees the free exercise of religion among the people. The nation is secular in the sense that it separates the political realm from the religious. The state is non-devotional, and should be concerned solely with the temporal concerns of its people, while the religious sphere is to be allowed to operate, including conducting spiritual, social, and charitable activities, as the communities of believers see fit.
This national secularity is distinct from secularism, a belief system which is intolerant toward religion. The latter relegates faith solely to the private sphere and leads, over time, to restrictions on religious liberty. A government based on secularism is materialistic, ignores the existence of God, disallows any public display of faith, and exerts pressure on individuals and religiously based organizations to operate according to totally secular norms. This is what is trending in our country.
Secularist ideas in America can be traced back to some of the nation’s Founding Fathers who subscribed to the Enlightenment thesis of the superiority of man’s rationality over religious Revelation. The ideas did not advance significantly, however, until after World War II, and then accelerated following a confluence of social, military, and religious events in the 1960s that overwhelmed the existing moral foundations of the country.
Judicial decisions since then have favored unbelief over belief, irreligion over religion. The rulings secularized the public school system, legitimized the notion of a “wall” separating church and state, limited the role of religion in public affairs, gave license to sexual behavior, and denigrated the sanctity of life. Each step caused an outcry, but no reversal.
Most people accept the laws, social customs, and political climate under which they are raised, without questioning the values behind them. As changes gain acceptability with time and repetition, merely existing in a militantly secular society diminishes one’s notions of impiety and morality.
When young people are told that it is forbidden to pray or read the Bible in school, visibly wear a religious medal or sing Christmas carols, they have the impression that religion is disruptive and should not be expressed in public.
As a result of these societal trends, coupled with two generations of weak catechesis, the majority of Catholics today are doctrinally confused and religiously ill-prepared to recognize the dangers of the culture in which they are immersed.
Can Catholicism continue to exist in such a militantly secular society before there is a total loss of faith among its adherents? Can the Church accept continually declining freedom and still carry out its mission of evangelization and charitable activities? Can the Church retain any moral authority after one or two more generations of such existence?
Catholicism in America is at a critical point. The Church can either continue to try to subsist in an increasingly hostile environment or it can zealously oppose its ideas and impiety. If it adopts coexistence, it will fail and undergo severe trials, perhaps even to the extinction of the religion. The late Francis Cardinal George, OMI, speaking about the dangers of secularism in 2010, speculated: “I expect to die in bed, my successor will die in prison, and his successor will die a martyr in the public square.”
A glimpse of what might be was provided by Msgr. Robert Hugh Benson, in his novel Lord of the World, published in 1907. Benson described a future which fits the present well. In his world, Europe and America had succumbed almost totally to secularism.
Although worship was tolerated as a private matter, virtually all vestiges of religion were wiped out. Priests were required to wear secular garb in public, schools were totally secular, and most churches had been converted to societal purposes. Catholicism was the only remaining Christian religion with a supernatural focus, but Catholics were few in number.
A young, charismatic, articulate American politician, whose background was obscure, became the president of a united Europe and made secularism the public religion, which everyone was mandated to acknowledge. The Catholic Church could not agree, and so was outlawed, with the Pope and all cardinals killed. Catholicism had effectively ceased to exist.
Do not dismiss the novel as a fantasy. We certainly are not at that stage, but many of the societal conditions in the scenario fit the present — although we know that the gates of Hell will not prevail against the Church. And there is precedent for governmental “de-Christianization.” The French Revolution of 1789 brought in a totally secular state, which tolerated the Church as long as the clergy remained loyal to the regime. When the Church opposed the irreligion, the government systematically closed churches, outlawed a religious press, forbade religious services, and exiled, imprisoned, or executed priests and nuns.
History can repeat itself.
The other option is to vigorously oppose the secularization of society. The Catholic Church must become the bulwark against the irreligious forces changing America. It must not only present the truth, but refute errors. It must defeat the continuing assault on Christianity, which is occurring overtly through governmental action, and insidiously through the everyday forces of the culture.
Four, perhaps eight, additional years of the current presidential policies — which could be extended to 40 or more years through Supreme Court appointments — will so ingrain secularism into the fabric of society that our children and grandchildren — even if they can maintain the faith — will not be able to turn it back.
Now is the time to take action. On November 8, cast your vote in accord with the teachings of the Catholic Church on moral matters, such as abortion, same-sex marriage, and euthanasia — issues that our Church holds as nonnegotiable and on which there can be only one acceptable moral position.
Neither major party candidate is perfect, but on the nonnegotiable issues the policies of one are aligned with Catholic teachings, while those of the other are in opposition.
With God’s help, gained through prayer, penance, and frequenting the sacraments — and our actions — America will avoid a moral precipice. The foundation of religious freedom upon which this nation was founded will be preserved and the Church will be able to evangelize, minister, and teach the faith to future generations.
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(The author is a visiting scholar in The School of Philosophy at The Catholic University of America.)
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