The Case for True Religion and Revolutionary Repentance

From American Thinker.com (Feb. 21):

The church in America has a problem.  Since the mid-twentieth century, confidence in the institutional church has drastically declined, leaving many scrambling to find ways to restore trust.  In "The Case for Hard Religion," conservative commentator Yuval Levin explains why he thinks this decline has occurred and offers a solution. At first glance, his case appears to be on target, but careful reflection and analysis reveal it's not — at least in part.  Flawed premises shake the logic, thus inhibiting formulation of a sound solution — and a proper solution is what America desperately needs.  This article aims to offer one.

The Case for Hard Religion

Levin's article opens with the statement that "we are living in an era of unprecedented doubt," which results in a crisis of meaning for our society.  Institutions that help people find this meaning have failed to be the beacon of light they once were.  This crisis, as it pertains to the church in particular, "is not exactly a crisis of belief in the teachings of traditional religion, but rather a crisis of confidence in the institutions that claim to embody them," Levin writes.  "In other words, Americans aren't losing their faith in God.  Eighty-seven percent of the public expressed belief in God last year in Gallup's figures, which is roughly the level pollsters have found for many decades.  What Americans do have trouble believing, however, is that our institutions — our churches, seminaries, religious schools and charities — remain capable of forming trustworthy people who actually exhibit the integrity they preach."

People, Levin argues, are turning away from the church because those within the institution of the church are untrustworthy.  They are using the church and other religious organizations, not as a means to preach truth and model love, but as a platform for their own advancement, political agendas, personal legitimacy, and pragmatism.  The solution, therefore, is for people within the church to become more trustworthy and more appealing by behaving better and faithfully fulfilling their proper roles.  They need to exchange their soft pews for hard pews that will make them sit upright.

Levin is certainly right that too many people in the church are using it to expand their personal egos and ideologies or to bend it to attract the spirit of the age.  However, this is not the only cause of distrust, nor is it primary.  The primary causes are much more complex, and the effects much more destructive, than Levin seems to appreciate.

Who Is God?

Despite Levin's opening claim, we are not living in an era of unprecedented doubt.  We are living in an era of unprecedented idolatry.  We, as a culture, are looking for meaning in ourselves and in truth defined by our own moral standards and feelings.  We are seeking understanding of who we are and our place in the world — not in our Creator, but in group dynamics and social movements that feed on self-worship.  Our belief, our confidence, is in ourselves, especially as we organize within groups that prop up our own doctrines of self.  Of human power and self-will, there is no doubt.

The clay has told the Artist that it is perfectly capable of molding itself.  We have rejected God's objective truth, God's providential hand in human history, God's authority in culture, God's standards of morality, God's design of human identity, and God's purpose for institutions.  This rejection perverts everything in society, from the individual to the family to institutions, which are "durable" only when they are built on a solid foundation.  That foundation has now been bulldozed and replaced with the shifting sands of postmodernity.  Subjectivism has replaced objective truth.  This is the worldview of our age.  It is the abolition of man. [read more]