The word “secularism” can have radically different meanings depending on who is speaking it and the context in which the word is spoken. At one end of the spectrum, it can refer to a form of social interaction that is healthy, even very healthy; at the other, it can refer to that which is harmful, very harmful. That’s an enormous difference in meaning. It’s why I label the word’s ambiguity as radical. How did the word “secularism” come to have such dramatically different meanings? A little history is in order.
The Rise of Secularism
Secularism arose as solution to the European religious wars that occurred in the wake of the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. With each European nation identifying with this or that Christian denomination – such as Germany choosing Lutheranism and France sticking with Roman Catholicism – religious disputes could quickly become bloody wars. Therefore, when 13 British colonies united and broke away from their motherland in the late 18th century, they chose not to have a “Church of America” as there had been a Church of England. Separation of church and state meant no more than that in the beginning. No one considered it a separation of God and state as we hear today.
America wasn’t just a Christian nation, it was a Protestant nation. By its very nature, Protestantism had many denominations; secularism allowed them to coexist peacefully. It wasn’t that people stopped speaking about God in the public square; it’s that they spoke about what united them as Christians rather than about what divided them as Protestants. What divided them was spoken inside of churches – not outside of them. This initial form and phase of secularism had a benign and even salutary effect on the faith of the young nation, as attested by the European political scientist and historian Alexis de Tocqueville early in the 19th century.
Upon my arrival in the United States, the religious aspect of the country was the first thing that struck my attention; and the longer I stayed there the more did I perceive the great political consequences resulting from this state of things, to which I was unaccustomed…I found that they differed upon matters of detail alone; and that they mainly attributed the peaceful dominion of religion in their country to the separation of Church and State. I do not hesitate to affirm that during my stay in America I did not meet with a single individual, of the clergy or of the laity, who was not of the same opinion on this point.
Alexis de Tocqueville in Democracy in America, Volume 1, 1835, p. 248
To paraphrase this political philosopher, America achieved unity through religion – specifically, Christianity – because church and state were kept separate. Americans majored on Christian faith and minored on denominational distinctions. God and state could be kept together because church and state were kept apart. This kind of secularism could rightly be called “Christian secularism.” But it was the only form of secularism known in that age, so there was no need to call it anything other than “secularism.”
The Trend Line of Secularism
Over time, this benign form of secularism turned malignant. Why? Because generation after generation of Americans has failed to adequately raise children in the faith of their fathers. The tipping point came in the wake of World War II. If you examine the public rhetoric of presidents Roosevelt and Truman during the war, they – like most, if not all, of the presidents before them – regularly referred to America as a Christian nation and the Bible as sacred Scripture. During the Eisenhower administration, “under God” was added to the Pledge of Allegiance and “In God We Trust” was added to our currency. However, these would turn out to be a sort of last gasp of a collective Christian consciousness for the nation. This is because a string of Supreme Court decisions, beginning with Everson v. Board of Education in 1947, began removing references to Christianity and the Bible in schools and public venues. Since then, American politicians have spoken more generically about God – and less about Christ and the Bible.
Given the increasing diversity of America’s population, the dangers of sectarianism have never been greater. Whatever we once were, we are no longer just a Christian nation; we are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers.
Barack Obama in a speech on June 28, 2006
Logically speaking, of course, the sentence is gibberish, but Obama’s meaning was clear: America’s identity as a Christian nation was a thing of the past. We had become pluralistic, and secularism was the ruling ideology. But this was a very different secularism than the one practiced at America’s founding. This was a malignant secularism – one that separated God and state.
A Malignant and Metastasizing Secularism
In the 80 years since the end of World War II, America’s trend line of secularism has been increasingly downward and increasing in speed. You do not have to be as old as I am to recognize these dynamics. Consider the following time periods – they all reflect the same increasingly downward trajectory and increasing velocity. The changes are very gradual in the beginning and very rapid nearing the end.
- From the Protestant Reformation to the present
- From the founding of America to the present
- From the end of World War II to the present
- From 9/11 to the present
- From 2008 to the present
- From 2015 to the present
- From 2020 to the present
We have gone from freedom of religion to freedom from religion. The American secularism that initially fostered Christianity by discouraging sectarian wars has become in its final phase a secularism that seeks to erase Christianity from the public consciousness. For if you allow drag queens to teach children while you prevent Christians from preaching the gospel, what else can you call it? Thus the secularism that once favored Christ over church is now antichrist.
Whatever became of Jesus Christ? Nothing – except that He’s been largely erased from public consciousness. If secularism in early America could be called Christian secularism, then’s today version can only be called godless secularism – for, indeed, it seeks to remove all references to God from the culture. And even when they are allowed, such references must be to “God” and not to “Christ.” America was birthed in light, and it is dying in darkness. That transition from light to darkness can be traced by a radical change in the meaning of the word “secularism.”
The Duty of a Man 