Christian Philosophy

 The Secular Humanist Influence

on the Church[1]

 

 

by Ralph Martin

 

 

A good way to capture the religious flavor of secular humanism is to read the "Humanist Manifesto II," a statement of humanist beliefs written in 1973 by a group of humanist intellectuals. 

THE GOSPEL IS BEING TAMPERED with and eroded not just in countries where the Church is being infiltrated and subverted by Marxist agents and ideology, but also in the United States and Western Europe.

Ø      Here, the thinking and action of many Christians - including many priests, nuns, and even bishops - is being radically influenced not so much by Marxism as by a collection of anti-Christian ideologies known as "secular humanism." 

 

From a purely human point of view, the accelerated de-Christianization of the United States and much of Western Europe in the last thirty years or so can be attributed to many factors. I would like to draw attention to two of them.

1.     First, affluence and an increasingly secular­ized higher education have contributed to a growing religious and moral lukewarm-ness and indifference on the part of many of the Christian people in the Catholic and the major Protestant Churches.

2.     Secondly, a relatively small group of committed and knowledgeable anti-Christian secular humanists have been extraordinarily successful

-        in gaining control of key institutions and organizations and

-        in chang­ing both national laws and the minds of the people to reflect their goals.

 

Secular humanism: a Religion?

 

Secular humanism has most of the characteristics of a religion.

Ø      Broadly speaking, secular humanists place man at the center of all things, apart from God.

Ø      Most secular humanists have a profound - and to a Christian, a profoundly naïve - faith in the perfectibility of man by his own efforts.

-        Contrary to all evidence, they believe that man is making progress toward a more human society.

-        They believe that further progress comes as man shakes off the fetters of religious and moral beliefs.

-        Another tenet of the secular humanist creed is the idea that men and women should be free to behave in any way they wish, constrained only by the vague qualification, "as long as it doesn't hurt anybody else."

 

A good way to capture the religious flavour of secular humanism is to read the "Humanist Manifesto II," a statement of humanist beliefs written in 1973 by a group of humanist intellectuals.

Ø      This document provides an insight into the ill-founded optimism and faith secular man must possess if he believes in his own ability to "fulfil himself." In essence, the "Humanist Manifesto II" gives extraordinary testimony to man's stubbornness and resistance to the Good News and to an accu­rate perception of reality itself.

Ø      The first Humanist. Manifesto, published in 1933 by leading intellec­tuals, proclaimed man's ability to perfect himself, both on an individ­ual and a societal level.

Ø      It described Christianity as an obstacle to progress because it distracts mankind from the real work at hand and gives him illusory hopes. In 1933, the humanists noted many hopeful signs that mankind was indeed making extraordinary social, political, and economic progress.

 

The preface to the second Manifesto, pub­lished in 1973, puts the best possible face on the horrors of the subsequent forty years:

Ø      “It is forty years since Humanist Manifesto I (1933) appeared. Events since then make that earlier statement seem far too optimistic.

 

Nazism has shown the depths of brutality of which humanity is capable.

Other totalitarian regimes have suppressed human rights without ending poverty.

Science has sometimes brought evil as well as good.

Wars - Recent decades have shown that inhuman wars can be made in the name of peace.”

 

The beginnings of police states even in democratic societies, wide-spread government espionage, and other abuses of power by military, political, and industrial elites, and the continuance of unyielding racism, all present a different and difficult social outlook. In various societies the demands of women and minority groups for equal rights effectively challenge our generation.”

 

In the face of this bleak picture, the 1973 humanists propose a leap of "faith" : 

“As we approach the twenty-first century, however, an affirmative and hopeful vision is needed. Faith, commensurate with advancing knowledge, is also necessary. In the choice between despair and hope, humanists respond in this Humanist Manifesto II with a positive declaration for times of uncertainty.

 

As in 1933 humanists still believe that traditional theism, especially faith in the prayer-hearing God, assumed to love and care for per­sons, to hear and understand their prayers, and to be able to do something about them is an unproved and outmoded faith.”

Salvationism, based on mere affirmation, still appears as harmful, divert­ing people with false hopes of heaven hereafter. Reasonable minds look to other means for survival.”

 

The "Humanist Manifesto II" rules out Christianity as unscientific. Yet, on the grounds that "an affirmative and hopeful vision is needed," it declares belief in man's ability to perfect himself and to solve the world's problems without God.

Ø      This assertion bears all the ­earmarks of a religious creed with no scientific foundation whatsoever. In fact, the evidence mounts daily that secular humanism is illusory.

Ø      With ­Christianity eliminated as an option, the alternatives are despair and blind hope.

Humanists opt for the blind hope, based not on God's Word, but on wishful thinking.

 

Indeed, secular humanism is not scientifically established at all. Rather,

Ø      it is a "faith" based on the rejection of God and the affirmation of man's autonomy. Of course, this is precisely the root dynamic behind man's original fall into darkness and disaster. It cannot possibly repair the consequences of man's fall, but assures they will continue.

Secular humanists view orthodox Christianity as an enemy and an obstacle to their program.

Ø      Since the Church cannot be destroyed imme­diately, some secular humanists use the same strategy as the Marxists: they attempt to subvert the Church.

Ø      They try to win Church leaders over to a secular humanist program which will ultimately lead to the demise of the Church.

Just as Marxists set up front organizations to enlist Christian support for Marxist causes, so do secular humanists establish fronts to lure religious support. For example, Catholic groups supporting abortion function like front organizations. Also, like the Marxists, secular humanists attempt to discredit Church authority and divide Catholics from their pastors and the pope.

 

Tactics and strategies

 

They consciously employ tactics meant to break the will of the Church to resist and to render it ineffective.

Ø      They make special efforts to gain control of key communications media in society at large and within the Church.

Ø      This strategy is working. The secular media have little respect for Church authority. Even Catholic publications are affected by this influence.

 

The secular humanist tactics follow a now-familiar course.

 

1.     First, a plea is issued for a dominantly Christian society to "tolerate" what appears to be deviant behavior.

 

2.     Then pressure is applied to place the deviant behavior on an equal footing with traditional Christian values.

Secular humanists argue that a pluralist society cannot do otherwise.

-        They then try to make the deviant behavior seem normal and

-        behavior governed by Christian values seem abnormal - a threat to a pluralist society.

 

3.     The last step is often to use the legal system to protect immo­rality and to undermine what Christians have always considered righteous behavior.

 

The role of the mass media

 

A well-known Catholic historian pointed to the role of the media in this whole process:

 

The media's alleged commitment to "pluralism" is at base a kind of hoax.

The banner of pluralism is raised in order to win toleration for new ideas as yet unacceptable to the majority.

Once toleration has been achieved, public opinion is systematically manipulated

-        first to enforce a status of equality between the old and the new,

-        then to assert the superiority of the new over the old.

-        A final stage is often the total discrediting, even sometimes the banning, of what had previously been orthodox.

 

This final step is now underway in the United States and in many areas of Western Europe.

Ø      Societal and legal support for marriage as it has been lived in the Judaeo-Christian tradition is being stripped away.

Ø      Education is being used as a tool for secular humanist indoctrination.

Ø      As laws supportive of Christian morality disappear, as the place once allotted to the Christian people in society severely narrows, we can see the first signs of punitive laws and social pressure against Christians.

Even the rights to live the Christian life freely and to educate one's I children according to Christian principles are coming under attack.