Religion Without Faith Will Never Bring Fulfillment

In the introduction of his 1984 book, “The Naked Public Square,” then-Lutheran pastor Richard John Neuhaus wrote about the relationship between religion and politics in society,

Politics and religion are different enterprises, and it is understandable that many people would like to keep them as separate as possible. But they are constantly coupling and getting quite mixed up with one another … The naked public square is the result of political doctrine and practice that would exclude religion and religious grounded values from the conduct of public business. The doctrine is that America is a secular society. It finds dogmatic expression in the ideology of secularism.

Earlier this month, Dr. Arthur Brooks of Harvard University echoed this theme in a rather remarkable commencement address at Divine Mercy University. Speaking to the faithful graduates who are about to leave their school behind and enter the world, he talked about how they needed to become “missionaries in a secular society.”

The doctrine, as Neuhaus said, that America is a secular society has led many to hide the light of their faith “under a bucket” as Jesus warned in Matthew 5:15 (ESV). But, as Brooks pointed out, faith can never be truly hidden because, in his words, “Faith is literally the most natural thing in the world for Homo sapiens for our species research shows that humans have a religious instinct many believe is biological in nature.”

He added, “Religious secularism has torqued us away from the natural to the unnatural because we have this instinct.”

Thus, the question becomes not a matter of having faith, but instead what you place your faith in.

As I write in recent book, “Stumbling Toward Utopia: How the 1960s Turned into a National Nightmare and How We Can Revive the American Dream” (Fidelis 2024), it was during that decade that radical activists sought to take over mainstream religion by replacing faith in God with a new secular religion based on left-wing politics and activism. This was particularly true in the old mainline Protestant denominations.

But, as we have watched these denominations slowly wither and die, it has become evident that this new religion, based on secular values, is ultimately unfulfilling.

Brooks noted this, saying, “Fake religion doesn’t get the job done, my friends. That’s why politics and activism when they become an identity always lead to depression and anxiety.”

Religion, without a fundamental belief in a loving and just God, but instead based on secular values, is doomed to fail. Without genuine faith, it divides rather than unites us as people.

On the other hand, true faith—embodied by not hiding our faith under a basket but letting it shine—brings us together as a people.

Thus, is any doubt that we became a more divided nation when the religion of secularism ascended in the 1960s?

That is why I was so encouraged to hear Brooks’ closing words to the graduates, encouraging them to do as Christ has commanded all of us. That is to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, rather than return their attacks and mockery of our faith with hostility and scorn.

He concluded, “Begin the journey of love and excellence and truth which will bring you and me and all of us greater happiness and greater hope and greater holiness.”

I could not agree more because to do so requires a genuine, rather than manufactured, faith. It is genuine faith—based on love, excellence, and truth—” loving our neighbors” as Christ commanded—that we, as faithful people are called to proclaim to the world. We must reject the current fake religion based on secular values of division and seeking to conquer our neighbors.

It is that genuine faith that I hope and pray will be modeled by the next generations of Christians—regardless of their faith background. Such genuine faith, based on biblical values rather than secular values, will bring about the national healing and restoration so many of us seek. Rather than a naked public square, we can once again have a public square clothed in love, compassion, and hope for each other and for our nation.

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