The Enlightenment

Observers of contemporary U.S. politics should keep in mind that until the 18th Century, most European countries were sectarian Christian states. The confession of their monarchs -- Catholic, Lutheran, Church of England -- was either imposed absolutely on all inhabitants, or at the least followers of other sects were oppressed and forced to worship in secret or under constraints. England fought a civil war over religion and the back and forth between protestant and Catholic monarchs was the most salient feature of English politics. The  so-called Pilgrims who founded the settlement at Plymouth, Massachusetts left England precisely because their sect was oppressed.

The Enlightenment was a complex movement with a unifying core of questioning received wisdom and orthodoxy. Until the 1500s, the culture rested on the assumption that everything there was to know was known. The truth was in the Bible, and whatever was not found there was known to the ancient Greeks. The Reformation -- the rebellion against the Catholic church ignited by Martin Luther -- shattered the universality of belief. Although protestants were just as dogmatic as Catholics, and just as intolerant,, thinkers arose who challenged the very idea of orthodoxy. The term "toleration" was coined to mean that people within any polity should be free to practice any religion, or at least any version of Christianity, because it was not possible to declare any of them to be the one true religion. Not all Enlightenment thinkers extended toleration to Jews, Muslims and atheists, but as time went on more and more of them did. And so by 1789 this idea made its way into the U.S. constitution.

Now, however, more than half of voters affiliated with one of the two major parties are Christian nationalists. And, obviously, they don't mean Christian in general, they mean a particular version of evangelical Protestantism that also calls for the subordination of women, suppression of sexual and gender minorities, and in many cases for white supremacy. As the NPR story says, "The survey also found correlations between people who hold Christian nationalist views as well as Anti-Black, anti-immigrant, antisemitic views, anti-Muslim and patriarchal views."

 

In other words, these people want to take us back to the 15th Century. The scientific revolution was also a major component of the Enlightenment, and they reject that as well, demanding that the Biblical story of creation be taught in school and denying all other scientific conclusions that they find inconvenient or inconsistent with their preconceived notions. Why this explosion of ignorance, bigotry and superstition has arisen at this time is generally thought to be, as historian Kristin Kobes Du Mez says, that "these views are mostly a reaction to changing demographics, as well as cultural and generational shifts in the U.S. As the country has become less white and Christian, she said these adherents want to hold on to their cultural and political power." 

Well get over it. You were long ago consigned to the ash heap of history.