A religious and a secular basis for society

Part 7: Ultimately, our faith leads us to the truth that our sense of self relies on our relationship with God

In contrast, because I ignore external categories, and base my life upon my relationship with God, it means that I focus on the values and principles that I gain through my faith in God. The essence of who I am does not lie in my external categories, but in my spiritual and moral values. It is faith that frees me from the control of the impulses that evolutionary biology has imbued me with. I fully accept that I have these impulses, and I can never switch them off. However, I can use my values and principles to shift my centre of judgement to rest on what God has taught me. Reliance on identity categories leaves people prey to the instincts of evolutionary biology, rather than the freedom of spiritual gifts. For example, evolution has taught us to be intensely self-interested (read: “selfish!”), to be greedy, manipulative, suspicious of outsiders, quick to turn to hatred and violence. Place these tragic human impulses onto the template of identity politics and it turbo-charges our inclination to conflict by, not simply giving us permission, but urging us, to see others as inevitable oppressors, inescapably in conflict, in an endless round of domination and victimhood – both given and received from other groups, for whom there is no basis of unity.

Again, I fully accept that I have taken only tiny, almost token, steps towards basing my life on my faith, but my commitment to my principles and values is very genuine. I may not do very well, but my heart is set on trying to live according to my faith in God. And this is in complete contrast to secular ideologies which – regardless of whether they succeed or fail – are, on a point of principle, promoting ideas that can only produce conflict, fragmentation and emptiness. They have nothing whole or fulfilling to offer society. Although my failures in the life of faith are so very great – miserable sinner that I am – that, by rights, I should not dare to open my mouth, but, by grace, as someone who is loved by God, my sense of self does not rely on my qualities, but on my relationship with God. I do not feel good about myself because I am good; I give myself no credit for being gentle or compassionate; I don’t even take credit for believing in or wanting to be gentle and compassionate. All these things that I may have – even though they be slight – or which I may still lack, are not mine, in the sense of being signs of my worthiness, they are all simply a response to the love that God has given me – a response which is the essence of his grace. This is ultimately where faith leads us: our sense of self relies on our relationship with God. I feel good because God loves me.

A religious and a secular basis for society

Part 6: Focus on identity categories takes us backwards; ignoring them takes us forwards

What is it about identity that is so important for modern secular ideologies? We have already considered the crucial point that – when you’ve abandoned the assurance that comes from your relationship with God – you desperately have to find some alternative for a sense of identity that will give you a sense of well-being. Further to this, the ideology of identity is an analysis that considers that a person’s path through life is, if not strictly determined, at least very strongly influenced by the “identity categories” that a person belongs to.

No doubt there are genuine factors to acknowledge, that can be measured statistically, to see if different groups of people are faring differently. We can then take action in order to work for a fair and compassionate society wherever we can detect that, in general, particular groups are disadvantaged, or simply not doing so well. However, in the UK, we have made tremendous progress in recent decades, and show every promise of continuing to do so. Crucially, the identity politics movements go beyond valid observations about injustices in society to claim that identity categories are the overwhelming controlling factor in people’s progress in life and in determining their self-understanding. I consider that these claims are simply false.

I do not judge people by the identity categories that they have. Other people might, but our aim in society is to move to a situation where no-one does. A particular fault of secular ideologies is that they overtly seek to reverse the progress we have made in NOT judging people externally, by claiming that we should focus on these external categories as all-important. Our aim should be to look beyond these external characteristics to the inner truth about a person’s qualities. Instead, the identity politics movements claim that it is essential that we focus on these externals, and so, on a point of principle, enshrine identity categories as the essential means of understanding and governing society, and as the essential measure of self-understanding. The key factor making this way of thinking false and destructive is the idea that it is your categories that give you your qualities and which determine the way you relate to others. This is false – and thank God that it is false.

We can sum up the difference of ideas in this way: On a point of principle, identity ideology claims that people gain their identity from belonging to categories where people are different to each other, and in conflict with each other. This means that such an ideology is not, and cannot be, a means of achieving unity and harmony. It intrinsically promotes division and conflict. In contrast, the key religious idea is that we are all one because we are all children of God. This intrinsically promotes unity and harmony because, as God loves us all, we should love each other as brothers and sisters.

It’s possible that identity ideology has some value as a means of diagnosing what is wrong with society. That is, it tells us what we are doing wrong – we are treating one another as members of categories that are different and in conflict – and so this is what we need to change. Instead, identity ideology claims that these ideas are not the problem, but the solution to the problem. Thus we see that identity ideology is the exact opposite of what society needs.

A religious and a secular basis for society

Part 5: Unwittingly, secular ideology is a failed attempt to compensate for the loss of religion

I consider that this is an almost completely unobserved factor in the malaise of modern society – certainly I have not heard anyone else comment on it. Because modern ideologies are so shallow and simplistic, and, of course, ultimately, simply false, and also because the quality of analysis in modern society is so appallingly inadequate, those who are meant to be leading society by the quality of their thinking are completely oblivious to what is actually happening. The link with the decline of religion has not been spotted. Because these self-styled “progressive” thinkers regard themselves as so superior to all who have gone before them, and because they regard religion as “a bad thing” which society should rejoice to be free from, they have been unable to see that their own distortions in their thinking are a direct product of the void left by the rejection of religion. Tragically (it would be comical if it wasn’t so destructive) secular ideologies have recreated all the bad aspects of religion, while losing all the good aspects – most notably the assurance, confidence and sense of well-being that I have highlighted here – along with the basis for community harmony and respect for all that religion provides a foundation for.

Examples of the bad aspects of religion recreated in secular form include: totalitarian claims to truth; inquisitorial condemnation of the unorthodox; adoption of intense purity codes; utter self-righteousness; demonisation of anyone who disagrees with you; a witch-hunt mentality to terrify dissenters; apocalyptic prophecies of doom; utter intolerance of diverse opinions; completely closed-minded thinking; and irrational extremism, to the point of denying simply truths or rejecting scientific fact.

In contrast, religion becomes a world of wise sanity; clear, deep thought; gentle, compassionate desire to understand and embrace those who see things differently; the fundamental honesty to accept the truth – to accept reality – to allow facts and evidence to inform your world view, rather than twisting or rejecting facts and evidence until they conform to your predetermined world view. When secularists – with great justification – started tearing down the illusions and false claims of religion, who would have thought that they would stray so far into error that it is now religious faith that is the repository of reality and becomes the reservoir of truth from which humanity so desperately needs to drink. (Vital note: I fully accept there is still a lot of bad religion out there. So far as I can see, for just about anything you can name, there are good versions and bad versions of it. Clearly, I promote good religion)

A religious and a secular basis for society

Part 4: The freedom of faith compared with the shackles of identity

Compare the joyous, love-filled confidence that I have just described through faith in God with the modern ideologies’ reliance on gaining your identity from certain external categories to which you belong. These ideologies assert that your quality and worth and experience in life stem from these categories, categories which are often in conflict with each other, and which gain their supposed power from being in conflict with other categories. In contrast, the Christian, who gains their personal, individual security from the love that God has for them, has no need to rely on belonging to any external category, and is automatically in harmony with every other person who also acknowledges their relationship with God to be central to their life. In the love of God, all are one, and all externals are, well, external; they are only of accidental, contingent importance. For modern secular thinkers, a person is always trapped within their external categories, constrained by them and their supposed qualities and social dynamics. They are also constrained by the idea that the dynamics of their personal situation only works in conflict with those who belong to other categories. In contrast, the believer is free of all shackles to engage with and embrace all people as their equal and as utterly precious, because everyone is loved by God.

A religious and a secular basis for society

Part 3: Perfectly clear vision, perfect assurance

Let’s return to why being a “wretched sinner” has been turned into a positive rather than a negative. It’s because it intrinsically goes together with, “who is loved by God”. Here is my foundation in life. I can ask for no more because there is no more. God, who is the ultimate in all goodness, loves me. It is the supreme love. If God is for us, who can be against us? I don’t need the approval of anyone else; I don’t need to prove my right to exist; I don’t need to justify myself; I don’t need to cling to some tribal identity group for support. The God of love, loves me. Full stop! I am on top of the world. I rejoice in the life that God has given me. The tension that could be destructive is tuned to always be positive. So, I might compare myself to God so unfavourably – miserable sinner that I am – that I hide away and never dare show my face to anyone, let alone God. Instead, God calls me into his glorious light and freedom and joy to live under his gracious blessing. Though I am loved and blessed so much, I am not in danger of becoming arrogant, superior, or self-righteous because I am a terrible sinner. Though I know God will forgive me, in his great love for me, I don’t therefore become blasé about my sins, treating them as though they do not count. I am regularly in distress because of the way I let down the God who loves me. He loves me, and though he is so complete and perfect in himself, he calls me to share his life with him, and he bestows blessing after blessing upon me – and still I betray him, ignore him, dishonour him – wretched sinner that I am. Yet every time that I am cast down in despair because of my failures, the Lord, who is perfect in all goodness, comes alongside and calls me to walk along with him, because he loves me – and so, all is well.

Can you see what an invincibly powerful and positive force this is to imbue our human psychology with unconquerable, utterly resilient, never-ending confidence, security, assurance and hope? “Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine”, go the words of the old hymn, and it is this assurance that modern society so fatally lacks.

A religious and a secular basis for society

Part 2: The modern concept of identity is used to escape responsibility and challenge

However, as those who promote the pernicious identity politics ideologies have raised the question about my identity, I will try and answer it, to show where my confidence comes from. Many people today are too afraid simply to say, “I am me”; they fear that is not enough. So, why am I so confident in being me?

If I am forced to express my identity – I say “forced” because I see no need to, but if I am challenged to justify on what grounds do I stand as a member of society, or what is at the very core of my self-understanding, then I can do that easily: I am a sinner, loved by God. That is who I am! This gives me an invincible confidence, inexhaustible hope and unconquerable optimism.

It sounds like it might suggest the opposite – “So, you’re a sinner are you?” Yes, though I prefer to say, for effect, that I am a “wretched sinner!”. However, this does not make me feel down, a failure, or inadequate. What it does do is allow me to freely accept my faults, limitations and mistakes. This is in total contrast to the ideologies of the identity politics movements where an utterly bizarre development has happened. Even though we are now in a secular society, however a person happens to have turned out – down to the tiniest detail – must be considered as though it was ordained by a higher power from all eternity that the person should be exactly like that. This is far more than simply the frailty of those who lack the personal resilience to cope with challenges or disagreements. It expresses the core principle that modern ideologies have adopted that they cannot bear the possibility that anything in their life is contingent rather than necessary.

A necessary thing is something that cannot be otherwise. If you claim everything about your life is necessary then you cannot possibly have got anything wrong, and there are no possible grounds for anyone to criticise you, for nothing about your life could possibly have been otherwise. There are, in reality, relatively few things in our lives that are necessary (being born and dying would be two examples), so this stringent assertion that absolutely everything in a person’s life is necessary is a terrible sign of the insecurity and lack of confidence that so many people today suffer from. In contrast, something that is contingent is something that happens to be the case but might easily have been otherwise. It could be an accidental cause that has had a significant influence on our life. We often say, “that’s just the way the cookie crumbled” to express our correct analysis that this is just the way things turned out. Other things in our lives are definitely down to our conscious choice – often due to passionate conviction – but they are still contingent or “accidental” – they might have been otherwise, except that we chose this course.

It is at the heart of secular identity politics ideologies to refuse to face up to this simple truth. Even while people are making revolutionary, bold choices – choices that they might wish to take credit for as a principled decision – they cannot accept that they have made a choice, because that would open them up to challenge that they could be mistaken. Yes, they feel such and such a thing strongly, but they may lose a reasoned argument with those who think differently. However, if they assert that however they happen to be has an objective, absolute reality to it, and is an intrinsic expression of who they necessarily are, then there are no grounds for questioning, challenge or rejection.

Having made this ideological commitment, it leaves people with nowhere to go. If others do now want to say, “I disagree with you” it is understood to be an ontological rejection of who the person inescapably is, rather than a questioning along the lines of, “Yes, this is how the cookie has crumbled for you, but I see things differently”.

(An analysis in 7 parts of the ideological foundations of today’s secular society, as opposed to the former religious basis. It doesn’t fall easily into my usual three categories, but I have put it in the faith stream as being about fundamental values.)

A religious and a secular basis for society

Part 1: The emptiness of secularism, disguised by clamour over identity

In recent decades the UK has moved decisively from having a religious basis to a secular one. A key impact of this development becomes ever clearer in the distressing emptiness at the heart of society, as people desperately thrash around trying to find some alternative for what they have lost. The essence of what they have lost is the confident assurance that faith in God imparts. Having kicked God out of the picture, secular society was confident that it would usher in a brave new world of freedom and fulfilment. Instead, without God, there is an aching emptiness at the heart of society – because, of course, so many individuals feel an aching emptiness. The void, like any vacuum, does not, of course, remain empty. All sorts of bright, new alternative ideologies rush in, screaming for attention, but it is increasingly clear that society has searched for a beneficial alternative to religion – and failed.

As evidence for this I will cite many things. There is the epidemic of mental health problems; the intense anxiety and depression that so many feel, the absence of meaning and purpose. There is also the hollow falseness of the alternative ideologies being promoted – an emptiness that is obvious to anyone not brainwashed by the constant propaganda desperately trying to assert that true is false and false is true. The very extremism and fanaticism with which these ideologies are asserted is evidence that they could not survive if people took a clear, deep look at them, and so anyone who does not conform to the supposed new orthodoxy must be coerced into silence.

The religious view – so disparaged by the self-confident secularists who have taken power in the key centres of authority – is so much healthier than the secular view – yet this simple truth falls on deaf ears. Nevertheless, we must keep speaking until people rediscover truth.

The failure of modern ideologies is shown by their intense focus on “identity”. I have never had the slightest doubt about my identity. I have an enormous confidence that, “I am me” – and I use my name as a label under which I gather my lifetime of experience and actions and relationships. That is who I am. I have no need to agonise over it. Or assert my identity. Or get into conflict with others to prove who I am. I am just me. I am here. I deserve to be here because I am here. And nothing else needs to be said.