Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Evangelical
Politics and Religion
On Anti-Christian Conservatism

On Anti-Christian Conservatism

Last updated on: May 25, 2023 at 6:00 am by Gene Veith

0 Comments

On Anti-Christian Conservatism 2023-05-21T17:46:18-04:00 Gene Veith

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

R. R. Reno, the editor of First Things, gave a talk on “The Future of Christianity” that was published in The American Conservative. In it, he discusses three trends that he believes will be facing the American church: (1) “The battle between conservative Protestantism and the secularized liberal Protestantism represented by the progressive left will be ongoing.” (2) Christianity as a whole will grow more conservative. (3) “A growing challenge to Christianity from the anti-Christian right.”

I want to focus on number 3. Says Reno,

For most of the modern era, Christianity been criticized by Enlightenment rationalists and those committed to progressive moral causes. That won’t end, but it will be supplemented, perhaps eclipsed, by a Nietzschean vitalism and cult of power that blames Christianity for the suicide of the West.

Nietzsche criticized Christianity not for its failures to live up to its ideals, as in conventional anti-religious rhetoric, but for its noblest ideals and highest accomplishments. The Christian exaltation of love and compassion, he said, keeps the weak alive and makes the strong feel guilty. It flies in the face of Darwinian survival of the fittest, with our animal instincts of sex and aggression, and the individual’s will to power. Therefore it makes for weakness, sentimentality, and cultural dysfunction. As Reno explains it,

Friedrich Nietzsche formulated influential criticisms of Christianity at the end of the nineteenth century. He argued that Christianity champions weakness, while denigrating strength. Its teachings celebrate slavery while condemning mastery. As a consequence, Nietzsche concluded, Christian culture tends toward lifeless mediocrity, inculcating a hostility toward all that is strong and excellent. Against Christianity, Nietzsche preached a pagan vitalism, one that celebrates strength and mastery.

In its secularized form, so the argument goes, this Christian ethic has given us progressivism with its values of social equity, exaltation of the “marginalized,” and moralistic restrictions on freedom in the name of “compassion.” Reno believes that the revulsion against “wokeism” will become so extreme in some circles that Christianity will be blamed.

There seems to be a deep well of resentment, even anger (which in my humble opinion is justified). The world of speech codes, sensitivity training, and endless efforts to promote safety is felt by many to be suffocating. They want something heroic and adventuresome. . . .

There are a growing number of voices on the right who agree with Nietzsche. Christianity, they say, is the source of today’s progressive culture.

Indeed, the libertarian right as championed by Ayn Rand has long attacked Christianity for its altruism, in which individuals are taught to deny themselves and to love their neighbors, which goes against the self-interest required by free market capitalism. Rand sought to replace the Christian virtues of love and selflessness with “the virtue of selfishness.”

Now we are also seeing anti-Christian conservatism in the alt.right, especially the neo-fascists and neo-pagans who laud tribalism, the warrior ethic, and rebellion against moral constraints. Says Reno,

Christianity faces something new (or at least rare). Throughout the modern era, attacks on the Church came largely from the “left.” The Christian God has been deemed an authoritarian dictator, and Christians were thought to be dangerous dogmatists eager to impose their views on others.

Influenced by Nietzsche, there was a radical right in the first decades of the twentieth century that attacked Christianity as “Jewish,” an adjective meant to conjure the image of an unmanly and groveling religion. Hitler and his spokesmen preached bold deeds and promised the courage to strike hard blows. Something of this mentality is returning.

So how should Christianity respond to those kinds of attacks? It is surely telling that Christianity is opposed both by the progressive left and the retrograde right. The progressives attack Christianity for oppressing the poor, while the conservatives attack Christianity for helping the poor. The former blames Christianity for causing wars, while the latter blames Christianity for promoting peace.

This is, of course, what G. K. Chesterton noted in Orthodoxy. Some attack Christianity for its optimism; some for its pessimism. Some for enslaving women; some for being “too feminine.” Some for fighting too much; some for being too pacifist. And on and on. (Read this section available online.) Chesterton concludes,

And then in a quiet hour a strange thought struck me like a still thunderbolt. There had suddenly come into my mind another explanation. Suppose we heard an unknown man spoken of by many men. Suppose we were puzzled to hear that some men said he was too tall and some too short; some objected to his fatness, some lamented his leanness; some thought him too dark, and some too fair. One explanation (as has been already admitted) would be that he might be an odd shape. But there is another explanation. He might be the right shape. . . .Perhaps (in short) this extraordinary thing is really the ordinary thing; at least the normal thing, the centre. Perhaps, after all, it is Christianity that is sane and all its critics that are mad—in various ways.

Indeed, it is absurd to react against one extreme by rushing to its opposite, to oppose progressive sentimentality by rejecting compassion altogether. Or to reject progressive “social justice” by rejecting justice altogether. What we need is a way to correctly order our desires, needs, and values. And Christianity offers that.

Christians, though, should realize that they will find atheists among conservatives, just as they will find atheists among progressives. Religion and politics may influence each other, but they are not the same. Sin and rebellion against God exist across the political spectrum, as Christian political activists soon learn.

Photo: Ayn Rand, By portrait credited to “Talbot” (though not on original dust jacket). Published by the Bobbs-Merrill Company. – Scan via rohrbachlibrary.wordpress.com (direct link to jpg). The portrait as originally published on the dust jacket of The Fountainhead can be seen at this listing on Worthpoint., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=90393760

anti-Christian conservatives

atheist conservatives

Ayn Rand

Friedrich Nietzsche

G. K. Chesterton

reaction against progressivism

Previous Post

May 24, 2023

Political Faith vs. Political Skepticism

Next Post

May 26, 2023 DISCUSSION: Should Conservatives Avoid the Culture War?

Recent Comments

0 | Leave a Comment

"I know wired earbuds are making a comeback (I never stopped using them as I ..."

reg

Luther on Tools

"VCRs, tape decks, and cassette players are all having a revival among a segment of ..."

Tom Hering

Luther on Tools

"As a (retired) lawyer I see potential liability from sharing things like power or sharp ..."

reg

Luther on Tools

"I am not sure the items you mentioned, though disused, discontinued, discarded, could be considered ..."

reg

Luther on Tools

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category America Apologetics Art baseball Bible Blog Christ Church crime Culture Economics Education Ethics Family Food Football Government History Holidays Holy Week Humor International Islam Language Law Life Issues Literature Media Medicine Movies Music Nature News Personal Philosophy Politics psychology Reformation Religions Sacraments Science sex Social Science Sports technology television terrorism Theology Uncategorized Vocation war

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What did God place on Jeremiah’s mouth as a sign of his calling?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Burning coal His words A scroll A staff

Books by This Author Books by Gene Veith

See All Titles »