Published July 24, 2024
Consider Elon Musk calling himself a “cultural Christian” in an interview with Jordan Peterson as confirmation of a thesis I am making with increasing frequency: Christianity—and Christianity alone—has the moral coherence to it that serves as a dam holding back the full force of progressive ideology. We dare not overlook the significance of this development.
We are seeing more and more affirmations of the cultural elements of Christianity. From Peterson to Richard Dawkins to Peter Thiel to Ayaan Hirsi Ali, some of today’s most influential intellectuals and cultural architects recognize that Christianity is the only antidote to Western civilization disappearing over the abyss of progressivism. They have done so mugged by the reality that progressivism has taken its long march through all of Western civilization and undermined every decent pillar of import. Its academics espouse moral relativism. Sexual ideologues pulverize any concept of chastity. Feminism, sexual debauchery and license, abortion, critical theory, homosexuality, identity politics, transgenderism, and the regime of the therapeutic all consider human experience and human desire to be the currency of human interaction. All of these are acids to the worldview of revelational Christianity and its teaching about creation order. Where Genesis 1 communicates a worldview of existence, identity, purpose, and family life—in other words, the essentials for cultural stability—progressivism overturns them all.
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EPPC Fellow Andrew T. Walker, Ph.D., researches and writes about the intersection of Christian ethics, public theology, and the moral principles that support civil society and sound government. A sought-after speaker and cultural commentator, Dr. Walker’s academic research interests and areas of expertise include natural law, human dignity, family stability, social conservatism, and church-state studies. The author or editor of more than ten books, he is passionate about helping Christians understand the moral demands of the gospel and their contributions to human flourishing and the common good. His most recent book, out in May 2021 from Brazos Press, is titled Liberty for All: Defending Everyone’s Religious Freedom in a Secular Age.
