The Defining Moral Issue of Our Day

The famous poet, T.S. Eliot remarked in a series of lectures given at Cambridge University in England just prior to World War II that the future of Western societies would be determined by a contest between Christianity and “modern paganism.” This is becoming more and more apparent, and is one of the reasons I wrote the book Modern Paganism, as an exposé of what is going on and what we can do about it.

Although paganism came from ancient times, was initially under the auspices of mythical gods, and was virtually eradicated by the rise of Christianity, it has always lingered and seeks to reassert itself in modern times, absent its Greek mythology. As I define in my book, paganism is a “belief system that life is to be governed by personal desires, instincts, and indulgences without reference to a divine revelation, such as scripture.” In this broad definition, you can find paganism both in and out of the church. You can belong to a religious organization, but are you accountable to scripture, or is it just a religious posture? The issue is where one gets their morality. It can be tradition, family, the culture, or something more transcendent. Christianity, when it has not been corrupted by culture or unbelief, professes allegiance to the God of the Bible and His laws, as revealed by scripture. It’s not a religious we are making up as we go along.

This allegiance to God and His laws and principles has created the moral code of Western civilization in general and of the United States in particular. We call it Judeo-Christian morality. Nowadays you hear the term traditional morality or common sense morality (such as criminals should be punished or men can’t pretend to be women to compete in sports or be assigned a women’s prison), but it is the Judeo-Christian moral code and worldview that is being referenced. It was the overarching canopy forming both our laws and our traditions for most of our history.

Where do you get moral validation?

A strange thing has happened in many of our cultural institutions. The imposition of pagan morality (whatever pleases me) over Christian morality has called into question things that most of us have taken for granted, such as free speech. The modern pagan seems to have no problem with censorship. Freedom of thought and speech is considered a basic human right, but it did not exist prior to the advent of Christianity. There is a reason this is happening. It has to do with many of our so called leaders. Those in positions that bring status – CEOs, academics, journalists, politicians, etc. seem to be governed much more than the average person by what is fashionable. They need to be seen by the rest of us as taking us into ‘the future.’ Since Christianity is our past, it must be something different than that. What is its replacement? It is not secularism, as many profess. Secularism, along with atheism which is its religious foundation, declares there are no real morals. Personal choice is to reign supreme. It is the ultimate enthronement of selfishness. The problem is, after a while, it becomes difficult to justify a life given over to selfishness. We all seek moral validation, whether we recognize it or not. It is an innate human need. When people reject Christianity, they also lose the moral validation that comes with it. In the last one hundred plus years, Marxism has been the replacement for Christianity as a moral system, among our so called intellectuals, mostly in universities, and among cultural influencers, usually in entertainment. What is cultural Marxism? Some of you know this as socialism. Socialism is at the outset an economic system – the supposed equal distribution of goods and income, regardless of talent or effort. It is a philosophy advanced by Karl Marx in the late 1800s in Germany. But the morality behind this is that there are victims and oppressors. People with money must be the oppressors as are business owners. Marxism requires a victim class to operate. Whereas the old Marxism railed against the rich, many of today’s wealthy in tech, politics, and the corporate world seek to replace the moral vacuum caused by their abandonment of Christianity with the new Marxism, also called cultural Marxism. The new victims aren’t necessarily poor. Victimhood today might be based on gender identity, race, or even mother earth. The poor can still be a victim, as long as they fit into one of the other categories. So a poor black person is a victim of oppression but not a poor white person. Thus the new Marxists can be both rich and still be seen as virtuous, which explains the strange phenomenon of some people who got rich in capitalism who want to so quickly denounce it as evil. You see this in entertainers, and some of the recent tech billionaires, such as Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg. They become prey to the false guilt imposed on them by the new pagans. The moral validation that faith used to provide is no longer there, and the existing moral and spiritual bankruptcy must be answered. This explains the religious fervor in the new pagans to posture as moral and promote the new morality. And if suppression of disagreeing voices is needed, so be it. When your cause is religious, coercion, censorship and cancelling are justified. Marxists have been suppressing speech for over a century. If you don’t believe that this is the replacement morality for Christianity, ask yourself why the Marxists are always godless. Why is religion outlawed in communist countries?

Self indulgence or self discipline?

Each of us has to decide where we get our moral guidance. Who provides it? Is it tested by time? Jesus said wisdom is justified (known) by her children (Matthew 11:19). In other words, a course of life, a value system, and personal beliefs must be evaluated by results. Does it just allow me to conform to those around me, feel good about myself for a while, or does it actually help me and others really live better lives?

It’s tempting to listen to these new moral guardians sidestep Christian morality, especially sexual morality (which is usually the issue to begin with) and give yourself to a life of self gratification. All you have to do is recycle, maybe buy an electric car (if you’re pretty well off), and say you care about diversity and tolerance and you can live however you want. If the gnawing emptiness and moral vacuum continues to assert itself inside you, maybe you can turn up the volume and become an activist for ‘minority rights.’ You know, people can never have too many rights. Be careful though, we’re running out of minorities. Since we’re running out of people groups, animals are next. Not sure after that.

Judeo-Christian morality has helped set the boundaries of behavior during our history, restraining self indulgence and creating the self discipline needed for success in life, work, marriage, and raising families. Modern pagans want the fruit of Christianity (equality and compassion for instance) and the prosperous society it has created while throwing out the moral code that got us here.

Transcendent or transitory

While pagans fight against divine revelation, encoded in scripture, Christians understand the peace and security that adherence to scripture brings with it. Yes, it challenges things like self indulgence, inordinate passions, envy and unforgiveness. But a having a belief system that is bigger than my emotions, bigger than the fickleness of culture, and that is beyond the corruption of those who would seek to replace it with the vulgarity of ancient paganism is an anchor like nothing else. Modern pagans are always tossed around by the transitory nature of their shifting morality. The pagan evangelists of yesterday are the martyrs to the newest pagan definition of virtue, like the feminists of yesterday being punished by the transgender activists, as in the vicious persecution of J.K. Rowling. The sad thing is no one did more to elevate the status of women in the ancient world than Jesus Himself. If early feminists had been aware of this, they never would have had to buy into a replacement morality as many did. One morality (pagan) is transient – always shifting. The other is transcendent, meaning beyond man. It is a revelation ‘from above.’

Each one of us has to decide where we get our moral guidance. My vote is for the transcendent.