Similarities between Christian Theology and the Religion of Secularism

Although mutually opposed it is uncanny how Christian Theology and the Religion of Secularism share some common traits, with the latter a shadow of the former.

Themes of guilt, scapegoating, atonement even redemption of sorts are threaded throughout the religion of secularism; it creeds are rooted in identity politics and intersectionality, its universal church united in ongoing social activism.

Let’s touch on some of these themes of secular religion and how they compare to Christian Theology, albeit in very different contexts.

Let’s count the ways

To the political animal, everything in the world is political so it follows that everything political IS also religious, as far as the Religion of Secularism is concerned.

Guilt has a purpose in theology; it encourages a turning away from error to embrace something better, it can be defined as ‘a coming to the senses’, in what is also known as repentance.

In secularism, guilt is micromanaged and honed both personally and collectively by a host of society’s gatekeepers to achieve socio-political goals.

What is deliciously ironic is the people who scoff at the idea of corrupted human nature cannot stop worrying about thought crimes, face crimes and hate crimes 24/7.

And the reasoning? It’s only their opponents who corrupted, they the highest form of human virtue by their own standards.

The fact is guilt is a common human emotion because we wired to be sensitive to our moral responsibilities, even when the case for such responsibility is weak or non-existent.

Yes, some of this has to do with our fear of being judged as morally insensitive and uncaring and our concern about the social risks to us if true.

We need a method for making sense of it all, because we want to have clear consciences, to think of ourselves, and be thought by others as good people with good intentions, who generally do good things.

The ‘woke’ have rejected those explicitly religious means of purging guilt.

They are, tremendously concerned about guilt. They see suffering everywhere they look, but they lack a moral discourse to explain it, for example, as an inevitable aspect of a fallen human condition, or perhaps as a proving ground for the human spirit.

The woke attempt to leap over their sense of guilt by furiously endeavoring to transform themselves into suffering victims of oppression, as this is the only morally feasible position to occupy in their distorted ideological system.

Those who are not victims of oppression are by definition among its perpetrators, so they deserve hatred according to the hard done by.

Guilt not handled correctly becomes pathological, an exercise in self-justification.

Covering guilt with harsh censorious moralism is one way, denying or attacking whatever or whoever evokes feelings of guilt is another.

Scapegoating

Christian theology points to Jesus Christ as the one time and forever scapegoat and sacrifice for the sins of humanity.

The religion of secularism requires human scapegoats to account for human sins; the point is the scapegoat in reality is the innocent party; it is the accusers who guilty.

Victimhood relieves accusers of any responsibility that have for the situation allowing them to project their own guilt on a scapegoat that’s why they choose this route.

Atonement

Christian believers find atonement in the sacrifice and resurrection of Christ; believers in the religion of secularism find penance in taking up the cudgel of social justice activism.

In his 1918 lecture, “Science as a Vocation,” Max Weber criticized the conflation of intellectual work with political action: “Whenever the man of science introduces his personal value judgment, a full understanding of the facts ceases.”

People use virtue signaling to demonstrate their virtue publicly afterwards receiving absolution from their own in- group all the while attempting to showcase their moral superiority to people who disagree with them.

The secular world seems to have adopted a form of catholic penance that is never ending, and while Christian theology provides a way to face the problem of guilt head- on while providing a solution, the secularly religious has to continually avoid any mention of a guilt that continually threatens to overwhelm them.

When secularists co-opt Christian theology

For some the religion of secularism is not enough so they look to appropriate Christian theology for themselves to change it into some that ‘fits’ for them, thus eliminating a competitor at the same time.

These types are disproportionately secularist in their outlook so when they adopt Christian theology they adhere to an anti-theological, anti-moralist version more in line with secular values than anything else.

Imposing secular ideals like identity politics on the Church is idolatry from any angle, breaking the first commandment.

In any case The First Church of Grievance stands diametrically opposed to the Church of Christian Theology.