Is growth of secularism hurting national unity?

During his inaugural address, President Donald Trump promised Americans would be “winning” like never before. Trump optimistically predicted a “new national pride (will) …heal our divisions.” Trump even quoted

Psalm 133, “How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity.” But even the prosperity many Americans have experienced under President

Trump hasn’t produced national unity. Indeed, a recent poll by Georgetown University finds political divisions so bad that voters believe the U.S. is two-thirds of the way to the “edge of a civil war.”

Rarely has winning felt so much like losing.

The dark change in our national mood has prompted a shift in describing America’s cultural scene from that of culture war to cultural revolution. For example, the Milwaukee Independent headline read, “From Red Hats to Red Guards: How America’s Social Crisis Parallels Mao’s Cultural Revolution.” The Wall Street Journal headline said, “The Cultural Revolution Comes to North America.” The term “cultural revolution” suggests a desire to overthrow the existing American culture.

The reasons given to Georgetown pollsters to explain our national disunity ranged from President Trump and Fox News to social media, large newspapers and MSNBC. But do these explanations accurately diagnose the true cause of our national schism?

In 1776, Americans went through what historians call the American Revolution. In 1818, John Adams — a signer of the Declaration of Independence and this nation’s second president — wrote to a friend to share his perspective on the roots of that Revolution:

“[W]hat do We mean by the American Revolution? Do We mean the American War? The Revolution was effected before the War commenced. The Revolution was in the Minds and Hearts of the People. A Change in their Religious Sentiments of their Duties and Obligations…This radical Change in the Principles, Opinions, Sentiments and Affections of the People was the real American Revolution.”

Could it be that a radical change in the religious affections of the American people is the real cause of our current cultural revolution?

From a religious perspective, Americans have become increasingly secular. The word secular comes from the Latin which can mean a span of about 100 years, or a long human life. Secularism is the belief that when biological human life ends, there is nothing more. The song of former Beatle John Lennon sums up this view perfectly: “Imagine there’s no heaven, it’s easy if you try. No hell below us, Above us only sky…” Lennon’s lyrics called people to reject traditional religion and unite around the belief that there is no God. And many Americans did.

On Sept. 5, 2012, secularism appeared during the Democratic National Convention when President Obama realized that Democrats, in their haste to craft their platform, had left out the word “God.” So as not to appear godless, a floor vote to amend the platform was taken. In order to pass, the amendment required a two-thirds vote of all delegates present. When Antonio Villaraigosa, the moderator, called for a vote to insert God into the platform, the delegates responded with a vigorous “no,” twice. On the third attempt to pass the amendment, the “no’s” were louder than ever. Visibly frustrated, Villaraigosa announced the amendment passed — even though everyone, including millions watching on TV, knew it hadn’t. This spectacle prompted the quip, “Democrats were against God before they were for him.”

It is a mistake to think our current revolution involves a struggle between religious and irreligious people. For example, in their first Humanist Manifesto, signed in 1933, the authors recognized “radical changes in religious beliefs…” have occurred. They then set forth the 15 guiding principles of their new religion called “Religious Humanism”… a religion that denies the existence of God.

Long ago another president, struggling to mend a nation torn by conflict, wrote, “We have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God…we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!” His name? Abraham Lincoln.