Secular ‘gods’ are failing so many in the time of Covid
The number of enquiries about the Christian faith is growing because our contemporary gods are no longer helping people to navigate these difficult days, says Gavin Matthews
There are no true atheists! In reality everybody worships something. This was pointed out by the Pulitzer prize-nominated secular writer David Foster Wallace who said, “Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And an outstanding reason for choosing some sort of God or spiritual-type thing to worship … is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things, then you will never feel you have enough … Worship your own body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly, and when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally plant you … Worship your intellect, being seen as smart—you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out.”
When people are under pressure their responses can be revealing about who their true ‘gods’ are. Sometimes the thing we fear losing the most is what we have actually been ‘worshipping’ all along. The current crisis has put several of our contemporary gods under the microscope. One of the reasons many churches across the country are reporting a spike in enquiries about the Christian faith is because of the failures of these secular ‘gods’ to satisfy or help them navigate these difficult days.
While vaccines have been hailed with almost messianic enthusiasm, the deification of the pursuit of longevity fails every test that David Foster Wallace set out. As wonderful as science, vaccines and the NHS are, if our response is to cheerfully roll-up-our-sleeves in order to avoid facing the truth of our mortality, then we’ve taken a spiritual sedative with our viral inoculation. The truth will still be waiting for us when we awaken.
The ‘god’ of perpetual economic growth is another popular deity whose credentials are looking shaky. The economic shocks of pandemics, lockdowns and our exit from the EU should concern us all. However, they will shake to the very core anyone whose ‘worship’ consists of the accumulation of things.
The numbers of people investigating the Christian faith at the present time can be interpreted in several ways. CS Lewis famously wrote: “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” By stark contrast, naturalistic atheism stunts the quest for answers to ‘why questions’, saying that there are no answers to be had; things just ‘are’ Meanwhile, religious systems that picture God as distant, detached or uncaring don’t meet the heart cry of the suffering, and karmic-systems which blame the victim for their suffering are hard to swallow when a loved-one lingers on a ventilator.
But what I personally continue to find compellingly attractive is the character of God revealed in Jesus Christ. The God who knows vulnerability, who lived with us, suffered and died with us – yet was raised to life again. He holds his arms open to a broken world; to any who will come to him for forgiveness, meaning, purpose, peace, joy and eternal life. And the hope he gives doesn’t crumble when tested by pandemics or recessions but shines ever brighter in the darkness.
Gavin Matthews for Solas