There has been a lot of talk of late of the turning of the religious tide. New Atheism – that once beguiled students up and down the land – seems to be imploding. Secularist Atheism/Agnosticism, that has for so long, been the assumed default of most modern Brits, seems to giving way to a more religious, particularly Christian-leaning, openness. For many Christians, as far as the culture is concerned, the signs seem to be encouraging.

I don’t wish to dampen any enthusiasm on that front. If more people in the public eye, and more intellectual-types, are increasingly finding Christianity to be something more than the mere punchline for a joke, that isn’t an altogether bad thing. If some are even willing to align themselves as at least “culturally Christian” whilst others are willing to go much further and simply assert they are now Christian – something that would have been unheard of just 10 or 15 years ago and would be tantamount to signing your career suicide note (just ask Cliff Richard) – that surely isn’t a bad thing, is it? Certainly, if it curbs some of the excesses of the liberal atheistic cultural hegemony we’ve experienced over the last 30 years, that will be welcome. We have lived now with the hyper-individualism run rampant, the expunging of any mention or expression of religion from public view whilst giving a hall pass on the philosophical assumptions underlying Atheistic Secularism, the undoing of community and the general denigration of anything deemed ‘establishment’ even if it was established for good reason whilst considering any and all progress to be beneficial and the rest. If more and more in our culture are reconsidering these assumptions and questioning the fruit of them, at an absolute minimum, it may begin to make being a Christian in our culture a little easier.

Much as we may insist otherwise, it is hard not to conclude that this really lies behind much of the enthusiasm from Christian quarters. Indeed, the Christian Nationalist types – and those who eschew the label but track with much of the argument of many of it adherents and adjacent affirming voices – often seem to be pushing for their vision out of a sense of life being made easier. Wouldn’t just be easier if the country affirmed our values more broadly and we didn’t have to keep running into all those difficult conversations about what weddings it’s okay to go to and whether we can live with some of the things our schools are saying to our children? Wouldn’t it be great if we got rid of lots of a values that we rub up against that make our life difficult? And there is no denying that such would make life more comfortable. If we can just make everyone see the world like us, everything would be so much better. By which it is often meant, more comfortable for me.

And it is this beguiling idol that so often drives the latest political push. Who doesn’t want an easier more comfortable life? Why shouldn’t Christians have as much freedom to express themselves as secular Atheists and why shouldn’t we be as bold as the Muslims? Wouldn’t it be much better for the gospel too if we could bring people to Christ who already share the values and see the fruit of the Christianity we are calling them into? It is all so reasonable and credible; it is just that what often drives it is not much more than the idol of comfort. My life, my Christian life in particular, would just be made easier by these things.

Don’t get me wrong, I think freedom is a good thing. I am just not convinced it is particularly a Christian value. I don’t see any part of the New Testament, nothing in the early church, that campaigned or argued for freedom per se. It isn’t something that the gospels, the Apostles or Jesus himself seemed to encourage us to go after. The line in scripture repeatedly is ‘honour the emperor’ and ‘submit to the authorities’ – even those particularly heinous, freedom-denying authorities in power at the time. The idea of seeking freedom so that our life would be made easier is particularly lacking any biblical warrant. Rather, the entire tenor of the New Testament appears to be that suffering and persecution is simply part of the Christian life. Endurance and perseverance is encouraged, not so much campaigning for freedom, better conditions and the installing of Christian values on a societal level. There is a fairly strong line in denying ourselves comfort for the sake of the gospel and very little that would lead to the conclusion of encouraging Christian morals apart from actual conversion to make life easier or to aid the spread of the gospel or anything like it. Are these cultural matters really being encouraged and applauded by believers for the sake of the gospel or, if we’re really being honest, is it because they will make our life that much easier?

I suspect some of that lies behind our readiness to applaud those in the public eye for stating their newfound Christian belief (whether merely cultural or something deeper). It lends credibility to us, it affirms more publicly the legitimacy of our views, it makes it easier for us to stand in the public square with our beliefs when others in the public eye have already taken the flak for doing so. If those are legitimate and credible conversions, and it does help us that way, praise God that he is creating conditions that will serve us. It’s just clear that some of them are not legitimate and credible conversions. Some really are just a buying into a cultural view as a bulwark against some other cultural views they have come to view as much worse. Perhaps those are steps on the road to genuine conversion (I really hope so; I think some appear more likely to head in that direction than others), but to applaud and hail a cultural conversion may not be the win for the gospel we think it is.

After all, we had widespread nominalism in this country for a long time and, as far as I can see, it simply served to comfort an awful lot of people in their rejection of Christ as they clung to the outward rituals and essential values in a kind of legalism that did nothing for their souls. I would rather deal with those who know they’re unbelievers and seek to address the fruit of our evidently different value systems and present Christ and his gospel as a better way than try to convince those who already think they’re believers that they’re not and they’ve bought into a false gospel that is no nearer Christ than the secular Atheism they may have nominally held onto before. History tells us the adherence to the cultural values of Christianity doesn’t lead to more Christians; it leads to nominal pharisees convinced they’re alright as they are. If living in a society that rejects the gospel makes my life harder but simultaneously makes it much easier for the gospel to take root as we compare the fruit and we see people convert not just to a set of preferable cultural norms but to Christ himself, isn’t the harder situation for the average Christian the preferable one for the sake of the gospel?