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David Brooks outlines recovery from secularism for Atlantic readers
"It's now clear that the secularization theory is untrue," David Brooks writes in a must-read piece for The Atlantic Monthly.

The human race does not necessarily get less religious as it grows richer and better educated. We are living through one of the great periods of scientific progress and the creation of wealth. At the same time, we are in the midst of a religious boom. … Moreover, it is the denominations that refuse to adapt to secularism that are growing the fastest, while those that try to be "modern" and "relevant" are withering. … Secularism is not the future; it is yesterday's incorrect vision of the future. This realization sends us recovering secularists to the bookstore or the library in a desperate attempt to figure out what is going on in the world.

With this in mind, Brooks outlines a six-step recovery process for secularists (apparently it's easier to recover from secularism than from alcoholism. Secularists don't do well with the whole "coming to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity" part anyway.)

First, Brooks writes, "You have to accept the fact that you are not the norm." Rather than researchers and academics trying to figure out why folks are so religious, "religious groups should be sending out researchers to try to understand why there are pockets of people in the world who do not feel the constant presence of God in their lives, who do not fill their days with rituals and prayers and garments that bring them into contact with the divine, and who do not believe that God's will should shape their public lives."

Step two is confronting fear—the fear of rampant religious conflict. It's a truly possible scenario, he says. Step three is getting angry (at secular fundamentalists).

Fourth, recovering secularists must "resist the impulse to find a materialistic explanation for everything." It's on this point that Brooks really hits his stride. "Human beings yearn for righteous rule, for a just world or a world that reflects God's will—in many cases at least as strongly as they yearn for money or success," he writes. "Thinking about that yearning means moving away from scientific analysis and into the realm of moral judgment. The crucial question is not What incentives does this yearning respond to? but Do individuals pursue a moral vision of righteous rule? And do they do so in virtuous ways, or are they, like Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden, evil in their vision and methods?"

He continues this theme in step five: "the recovering secularist must acknowledge that he has been too easy on religion."  It's no longer acceptable just to think of "religion," as secularists usually do, blending, merging, and confusing beliefs. It's not just patronizing, Brooks says. It's dangerous. "One has to try to separate right from wrong," he says.

The sixth step is Brooks's weakest: "Understand that this country was never very secular anyway." But that's not the same as saying we're similarly dogmatic, he says. America's sense of transcendent mission is not a theological one. "We are inescapably caught in a world of conflicting visions of historical destiny," he concludes. "This is not the same as saying that we are caught in a world of conflicting religions."

Pope speaks on sticks and stones
Speaking of secularism, here's an interesting quote from Pope John Paul II yesterday: "We know that the persecutor does not always assume the violent and macabre countenance of the oppressor, but often is pleased to isolate the righteous with mockery and irony." He was preaching on the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in Nebuchadnezzar's fiery furnace.

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February (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47