Our New Religion

May 19th, 2024

“When men choose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing, they then become capable of believing in anything.”

G.K. Chesterton

I had a conversation recently with a friend and we talked about how politics divides our society. He remarked that now it sometimes happens that a family will get into an uproar if a member of that family, usually someone young, decides to marry a person who belongs to an opposing political party or who advocates partisan views that the family finds abhorrent. Maybe this sort of thing has always happened, but I don’t think it was as common years ago. I remember that political arguments were loud and passionate in my parents’ families, but I don’t recall that political disagreements were ever enough to tear a family apart.

I do remember how religion could and did tear families asunder. My wife is from Germany, and her parents were in a mixed marriage. Karin’s mother was Lutheran (Evangelisch) and her father was at least nominally Catholic (Katholisch). The parents of Karin’s father were extremely upset that he married a Lutheran woman. In my own family, it was unheard of in my parents’ generation for a Catholic to marry a Protestant. It simply did not happen.

I married a Lutheran. Karin was raised in her mother’s faith, and I was raised as a Catholic. My parents weren’t thrilled with the situation, but they accepted our decision to wed. They assumed that eventually Karin would convert to Catholicism. Actually, she did, but that was after seventeen years of marriage, and not due to any evangelizing on my part. The general attitude when we got married forty years ago was that somebody would convert, or the marriage wouldn’t last. The theological and cultural differences between Catholicism and Lutheranism seem miniscule now, but at that time they often presented insurmountable obstacles to a stable relationship. Nothing was negotiable. Each belief systems had aspects that could not be reconciled with the other.

Now that our own children are adults, religious differences do not factor into their decision to marry, if they choose to marry at all. Young people may choose partners based on a wide variety of reasons, but religious affiliation does not seem to be one of them. Religious preferences hold the same status in a relationship as favorite ice cream flavors.

Previous generations placed great emphasis on religious beliefs partly because they provided the foundations for understanding an irrational universe. These beliefs were the scaffolding for a meaningful life, and maybe a pleasant afterlife. People had a strong faith and, right or wrong, understood that they had the truth. That meant it was impossible for others to believe different things and also have some part of that truth. Religion was a big deal, sometimes the only deal.

For better or worse, attitudes have changed. Not many people assume that they have all the answers, at least with regards to faith. Religion is no longer a big deal. Members of my children’s generation may have a belief system, but they don’t fight about it. My generation doesn’t argue about it much either.

What do we fight about now?

Politics.

Apparently, humans need something, anything, to believe in wholeheartedly. In our culture we have traded religious dogma for political zealotry. It is probably a bad bargain. Religion has many negative aspects, regardless of the tradition. However, religions have been practiced and refined for centuries, in some cases for millennia. Any belief system with a moral code that can last for thousands of years must have some validity. Politics, on the other hand, is ephemeral and is only tangentially related to morality.

Political views and partisanship are our new religions. There was a time when we founded our political views on our religious beliefs. Now we choose our religion based on our politics. We put our faith in parties and movements, none of which will be relevant a century from now, or perhaps even a decade from now. We have abandoned our history to grasp at a nonexistent future. We hate and ostracize other people simply because they don’t like our favorite candidates.

Is it all worth it?