The Don Newsletter

Archbishop Jose H. Gomez of Los Angeles, the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, articulates a constructive Christian response to the challenge posed by “woke” secular ideologies and social justice movements.

This will be a three-week breakdown of the Archbishop’s address.

My friends,… You have asked me to address a serious, sensitive and complicated topic – the rise of new secular ideologies and movements for social change in the United States and the implications for the Church. With that understanding, I want to offer my reflections today in three parts.

First, I want to talk about the wider context of the global movement of secularization and de-Christianization and the impact of the pandemic. Second, I want to offer a “spiritual interpretation” of the new social justice and political identity movements in America. Thirdly, I want to suggest some evangelical priorities for the Church as we confront the realities of the present moment.

(For this article in THE DON, we will take Part 1: Secularization and de-Christianization in the world.)

Secularization and De-Christianization
…Patterns of aggressive secularization have long been at work in the world.

An elite leadership class has risen in our countries that has little interest in religion and no real attachments to the nations they live in or to local traditions or cultures. This group, which is in charge in corporations, governments, universities, the media, and in the cultural and professional establishments, wants to establish what we might call a global civilization, built on a consumer economy and guided by science, technology, humanitarian values and technocratic ideas about organizing society.

In this elite worldview, there is no need for old-fashioned belief systems and religions. In fact, as they see it, religion, especially Christianity, only gets in the way of the society they hope to build.

That is important to remember. In practice, as our popes have pointed out, secularization means “de-Christianization”. For years now, there has been a deliberate effort in Europe and America to erase the Christian roots of society and to suppress any remaining Christian influences.

Here we are alluding to things like “cancel culture” and “political correctness”. And we recognize that often what is being canceled and corrected are perspectives rooted in Christian beliefs – about human life and the human person, about marriage, the family and more.

In our society, the “space” that the Church and believing Christians are permitted to occupy is shrinking. Church institutions and Christian-owned businesses are increasingly challenged and harassed. The same is true for Christians working in education, health care, government and other sectors. Holding certain Christian beliefs is said to be a threat to the freedoms, and even to the safety, of other groups in our societies.

One more point of context. We all noticed the dramatic social changes in our societies with the coming of the coronavirus and the way our government authorities responded to the pandemic.

I think history will look back and see that this pandemic did not change our societies as much as it accelerated trends and directions that were already at work. Social changes that might have taken decades to play out, are now moving more rapidly in the wake of this disease and our societies’ responses. That is certainly true in the United States.

The new social movements and ideologies that we are talking about today, were being seeded and prepared for many years in our universities and cultural institutions. But with the tension and fear caused by the pandemic and social isolation, and with the killing of an unarmed black man by a white policeman and the protests that followed in our cities, these movements were fully unleashed in our society.

This context is important in understanding our situation in the United States. The name George Floyd is now known worldwide. But that is because for many people his tragedy became a stark reminder that racial and economic inequality are still deeply embedded in our society.

We need to keep this reality of inequality in mind. Because these movements that we are talking about are part of a wider discussion – a discussion that is absolutely essential – about how to build an American society that expands opportunities for everyone, no matter what color their skin is or where they came from, or their economic status.

TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK…