Because They Just Aren’t Done
By J. Jeff Toler for Shenandoah Christian Alliance j.toler@sca4christ.org
In 1989, political change across Eastern Europe and mounting unrest in Germany pressured the East German government to relax restrictions on travel to the West. That same year, on December 25, Romanian president Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife, Elena, were executed.
On November 9, East German spokesman Günter Schabowski announced at a press conference that citizens could travel into West Germany immediately. He failed to mention that certain regulations would still apply. Western media reported—incorrectly—that the border had been fully opened, and crowds quickly gathered at checkpoints on both sides of the Berlin Wall.
Passport checks soon collapsed, and people began crossing the border freely. The fall of the Wall had immense political, economic, and social impact, further destabilizing East Germany. Less than a year later, on October 3, 1990, Germany was officially reunified. [https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/8-photos-of-the-fall-of-the-berlin-wall]
The collapse of the Wall marked the beginning of the end for the Soviet Union and communist rule in Eastern Europe. The Soviet Union formally dissolved on December 26, 1991. It was the end of a communist empire.
But it was not the end of communism—or Marxism, or socialism, or leftism. I recently came across this truism, supposedly from the Age of Enlightenment:
“Religion breeds violence, and secularism sets us free.” History tells a different story.
The so-called “progressive” secular regimes of the twentieth century proved just as capable of brutality—and usually far more so—than any church-entangled state.
Thomas Albert Howard
In Broken Altars, Thomas Albert Howard traces how governments bent on secularizing society inevitably brought misery, destruction, and death to countless religious communities. Howard identifies three strands of secularism evident since the Enlightenment: passive, which coexists uneasily with faith; combative, which seeks to marginalize it; and eliminationist—which seeks to erase it altogether. It is the latter two, he argues, that fueled some of the most violent chapters of modern history.
The implications of this observation should be of particular concern for people of faith—especially Christians.
As for a passive example, you may recall the bumper stickers that spelled COEXIST with symbols from the major religions. This was the explicit message of the passive variety. Later, I remember my daughter being forced to write an essay on tolerance by her very left-leaning high school history teacher, who later tried to embarrass her in class for being a Christian.
Then came the four years following the release of the COVID pathogen: lockdowns of churches, a redefinition of “tolerance,” and the rise of combative rhetoric. The term “White Christian Nationalist” emerged. It’s important to know that Leftists and Marxists are masters of inventing and manipulating terms. A Christian can be a Christian, because he loves Christ. A Christian can also be a nationalist, because he loves his nation. To be clear: a nationalist is one who prioritizes the interests, identity, and sovereignty of their nation above outside influence or global concerns.
At this point, evidence for the third phase is already observable. It began, as it always does, with the Jews—this time with wild-eyed students chanting, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” The phrase is understood as a call for the elimination of the State of Israel, since the land “from the river to the sea” encompasses all of modern Israel.
Those in the West often overlook these signs because we mistake passive secularism for the full story. But when we broaden our view—looking to the Soviet Union, Turkey, Mexico, Spain, Czechoslovakia, Albania, Mongolia, China—the myth unravels. What emerges is not the triumph of peace over religious strife, but a sobering reminder: secularism itself, far from being the cure, has often been the source of violence.
If I were to make a prediction (and I am usually loath to do so), I would say the third stage has already begun. Indeed, we have faced eliminationist secularism many times before.
This is when well-meaning students and teachers of Christian theology begin to see signs of the end of the age—the end times. Just because such predictions in the past have failed to materialize, doesn’t mean they won’t one day be right.
The assassination of Charlie Kirk may well have bent the arc of history, as Andrew Klavan describes it. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qO-sKeMJznM] Then again, many thought the destruction of the World Trade Center would do the same. It didn’t. But Kirk’s murder has created what some call a national “vibe shift.” This time, it could be different. I certainly hope so.
If for no other reason, this event has exposed just how deep the divide has become in our collective response. This is not about making a choice. By following the example Charlie set for us, it is about making a difference.
Winston Churchill, in his typically blunt manner, once wrote of the Muslims (Mohammedans, as they were called in his day): “… the Mohammedan religion increases, instead of lessening, the fury of intolerance. It was originally propagated by the sword, and ever since its votaries have been subject, above the people of all other creeds, to this form of madness. In a moment the fruits of patient toil, the prospects of material prosperity, the fear of death itself, are flung aside.”
That remains true today with much of Gaza’s Palestinian population. More than 1,200 Jews were slaughtered on October 7, 2023, and the people of Gaza rejoiced. On that very day, protests erupted—even on American college campuses—calling for the end of the Israeli state. Many of those same students also openly advocated socialism and Marxism. Make no mistake: this is a volatile mix ready for ignition.
The new wave of extremism we now face is chaos itself. The latest shootings by the mentally ill, disaffected, and outraged have been absorbed into one of cultural Marxism’s most pitiful constructs: the politicized, trans-identified misfit, furiously attacking churches, schools, and public figures. Is everyone they hate always a “fascist”? It would be laughable if it weren’t so deadly.
Apart from God, people lose the meaning—and the beauty—of their lives.
- “In him we live and move and have our being; as even some of your own poets have said, “‘For we are indeed his offspring.’” —Acts 17:28
Photo by Mikhail Siskoff on Unsplash
