… what is likely to move the country towards large-scale adoption of personal morality and decency?
I put this question to Noman recently, and I’ve been thinking about it a lot.
Religion starts with the awareness of your own sins and shortcomings, and it calls you to repentance. A person who genuinely “gets religion” has decided to change. He turns his eye inward, and he starts to see all his flaws in a new light, against a strict standard by an impartial judge who can peer into his soul. He becomes very concerned with being kind, fair and polite — not to win points on Twitter, but because that’s the right thing to do. He treats the opposite sex with respect. He doesn’t gossip. He knows that he shouldn’t believe things because they’re convenient, because many of the things he now believes are not convenient at all. He also believes that all people have dignity because they are created by God.
He might also latch on to some really stupid adjuncts that come along with this change, but beneath it all he is a different kind of man.
There is, of course, a minority who “get religion” and then become fire-breathing crusaders who are anything but fair, kind and polite. Unfortunately, they often rise to positions of influence, just as narcissists and jerks become presidents of companies. The fire breathers are one of the downsides of a religious revival.
But in my experience, and in my reading of past revivals, the majority who are effected by religion — the pew sitters — have a newfound sense of personal morality, and while that may not completely transform them, it forms the hook on which appeals to decency can be hung.
That’s what’s lacking right now. There is no underlying desire for people to care whether they’re behaving morally or not. At least not in the traditional sense of “behaving morally.” For most moderns, “behaving morally” means “advocating for my group” rather than conforming to a more neutral and objective set of shared values.
“Decency? To them? They don’t deserve decency. They’re evil! Crush them!”
Now that I’ve given some color to the topic, I put the question again. Aside from a religious revival, what social force is going to rescue us from the ugly divisiveness that’s getting deeper and more dangerous every day?