Thread by @shadihamid

Over the last two decades, America witnessed its sharpest decline in church membership in recorded history. Secularists hoped that religious decline would make for a more rational politics. That didn't happen. Be careful what you wish for.

theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…

In my work on pluralism and living with deep difference, I keep returning to the Dutch theologian Abraham Kuyper. He argued that all strongly held ideologies were effectively faith-based, and that no human being could survive long without a "pivot."

If deeply felt conviction is sublimated religion, then this has major implications. In my @TheAtlantic article, I cite the political theorist @SWGoldman who calls this "the law of the conservation of religion"

theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…

Religion, for all its faults in practice if not necessarily in theory, isn't ostentatiously divisive. On the other hand, wokeism is *meant* to be divisive. What is perceived as a bug is actually a feature

Wokeism is in many ways the worst of both worlds. It takes the certainty and conviction of religion, weaponizes it in the service of a false God while removing the possibility of grace, mercy, or forgiveness.

This is religion without religion.

theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…