The lament that we are in a post-Christian society echoes within much preaching and writing today. Many people respond with worries that religion in general is declining.
Overall church attendance is declining and many claim that the church has little influence on culture. The churches are deeply divided over politics.
Our city and borders are in chaos, inflation has run rampant over common peoples’ budgets, racial conflict is a badge of honor, the Communists and Nazis (allegedly) are fighting to take over America. People feel lonely and afraid.
This lament was outlined fifty years ago from September 30 to October 4, 1968, by Francis Schaeffer. He began his lectures on “Death in the City” with the simple claim, “We live in a post-Christian world.”
So, the apocalyptic rhetoric is not new. Every fifty years or so, America shudders at the approach of the apocalypse. Some people laugh at the date setters based on the Book of Revelation, but we have plenty more date setters based on politics. There is some circularity between the 1960s/1970s and 2020s. Post-Christianity comes again and again. Followed by religious revival?
If we care to look retrospectively, our current situation is a lot like the 1960s and 1970s. Today, we have Black Lives Matter, then it was Black Power. Today, we have LGBTQ then feminism and gender politics. Clamors over climate change echo the environmentalism protests of the 1970s. The furor over foreign wars like those in Israel/Palestine and Ukraine/Russia is but an echo of the anti-Vietnam war movement. Students occupied the commons and a building at Columbia this year and in 1968. In January 6, 2020, the Capitol was assaulted by the Oath Keepers; in the 1970s violence escalated through ever more radical groups to the bombing of the U.S. Senate in 1983 by the tiny Armed Resistance Unit, one of whom was released from jail and is now involved in the pro-Palestinian, anti-genocide movement. The barrage of social media is the dust storm left by the barrage of negative advertising starting in 1964 with the blowing up of a child gathering daisies because of the alleged Nazi Republican candidate Barry Goldwater.
The reaction of the “silent majority,” elected Richard M Nixon as president, a seasoned political combatant called by his opponents “Tricky Dick.” To bring order and strength back to the United States. Nixon was mentored by Roy Cohn, who was the same person who mentored Donald Trump. Yet, the majority of the religious people in the United States supported Nixon in his candidacy. Like Trump, Nixon’s own faith was not so central to his life. Though it was present in times of crisis, elite aides like Henry Kissinger found it bizarre that Nixon wanted to pray with him over the national crisis.
Today, Donald Trump is on the verge of rewinning the presidency. His slim lead may actually be 3 1/2 points higher than stated in most polls. They have underestimated Trump’s support in the past by between 3 1/2 and 9 points. The pollsters have been adjusting their methods, but we can’t be sure that they’ve got it right this time. Maybe, they have over-adjusted and now are overestimating Turmp’s support.
If Trump wins, the Left Democrats have already war-gamed about how they can stop him from assuming office (illegitimately in their eyes) or slow him down from reaching some sort of dictatorial goals. We already know that Trump will fight to the bitter end. So, the conflict won’t end with the election, just as it didn’t after Nixon was elected. Even in 1972, the bitter losers were. putting up fierce resistance to Nixon. But he trounced them, doing actions that would eventually get him impeached.
Some of his aides like Chuck Colson, Jeb Magruder, and others learned from the disaster that they had to find a better way, which turned out to be Christ.
After the post-Christian era was announced in the 1960s, there came a revival in the 1970s. The Age of Aquarius was followed by the Jesus Movement which was followed by widespread spiritual searching and revival.
So, I’m suggesting that claims of a post-Christian era are premature. A born-again Christian, Jimmy Carter, became the Democratic nominee for president and was elected. During his term in office, the conservatives also launched numerous ministries to recover the nation’s people from disaster.
Our era is not post-Christian or even secular now. After all, the common complaint is that Trump is being elected by the Christian nationalists. That doesn’t sound like the important role of the Christians is over. But there are certainly troubles in the city and in the church.
There needs to be a reformation of weak and directionless churches and other religious groups and a revival in the streets. It happened in the United States in the last so-called post-Christian era, and it likely will happen again if the laments embolden compassion, not weaken it.
Most likely, the Christians will regain their bearing and learn how to just overcome distrust once again, and enable people to have strong religious faiths. They will probably work with other conservative religious faiths. If such a new revival comes, it will be multi-religious just like the age of Aquarius in the 1970s.
So, is this The Post-Christian Eea? No, it’s the beginning of a reevaluation and revolution. No matter who is elected, a 50-year cycle will start again. The 2020s will be like the 1970s.
In the 1970’s, a third printing of Schaefer’s lectures was published as Death in the City. Schaefer ended his book with a call to rediscover the invisible world of God.
Post-Christian rhetoric should not close our eyes to God’s presence. We are never in a post-God society. It is impossible. Love prevails.
“The Dyiing Galation.” Capitoline Museum, Rome, Italy. Photo: Tony Carnes/A Journey through NYC religions
“As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves! ….Rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command, Love your neighbor as yourself.”
— Paul to the Galations, chapter 5:12-14.
