Ideology is the New Religion?

Replacing God, Family, and Country? How Ideologies Are Redefining Priorities

Above: Ralph Fiennes in “Conclave,” which was nominated for eight Oscars last week. The acting and images are excellent, but there is one big problem: It shows a completely unrealistic ideological view of the Church (totally disconnected from reality) where every grim cardinal sees himself as a conservative or liberal fighting for political goals like “progress.” It shows how non-religious ideologues see religion as merely another political organization. Publicity photo courtesy of Focus Features.

Rules before relationships? Ideology is everywhere (but so is God).

“We’ve replaced religion with ideology,” Will Cain warned last week.

Are God, Family, and Country now secondary to Self, Power, and Pleasure? The worst problem of the past century? “Men have forgotten God,” Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn concluded.

Ideology is “the science of ideas,” referring to systematic beliefs like conservatism, liberalism, libertarianism, capitalism, communism, environmentalism, fascism, racism, feminism, gender ideology, woke ideology, authoritarianism, scientism, secularism, populism, nationalism, and globalism.

Test the theory: How many hours a day do you spend reading, watching, or thinking about politics versus your faith? Which comes first? Do you call yourself “a conservative (or liberal) Christian?” Or a Christian first?

Historian Edward Ericson argues it’s all about priorities: “I am both a Christian and a conservative. And I insist on that order: Christian first, then conservative; Christian, therefore conservative. Augustine is right: first belief, then understanding.”