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(LifeSiteNews) — On this week’s episode of The Van Maren Show, Jonathon analyzes the rise in people identifying as LGBT in light of the collapse of “cultural Christianity.”
He begins the show by offering a definition of “cultural Christianity,” stating that it is when people identify with a given Christian tradition for communal, social, or familial reasons as opposed to actually believing in the tenets of the given tradition, much like an Italian who identifies as Catholic but goes to Mass only on Easter and Christmas. “When we’re talking about a post-Christian reality,” Jonathon adds, “we’re talking about people [who] are a generation or two removed from having any solid understanding of what faith actually constitutes and what Christians actually believe.”
Pointing to a quote by Ernest Hemingway, Jonathon asserts that the effects of the collapse are going to be felt “gradually and then suddenly.” Looking also to the United States, Jonathon acknowledges that, until recently, religion played an active part in the culture wars and American politics, but that there has been a shift, along with “ominous indicators” that the future could not be “shaped by the same forces as the present.”
Examining the shift, Jonathon points to the rise of the “nones” – those who do not have any religious identity at all, a phenomenon especially present among youth. While youth in the past would become more conservative and religious after starting a family, the rise of technology and the collapse of cultural Christianity has led youth to be disinclined to marriage, which is exacerbated by pornography addiction and by the isolation caused by technology and social media.
Jonathon also explores statistics related to the American case, noting that only 11 percent of Christians have read the entire Bible at least once, that 40 percent of Americans believe the Bible is “ambiguous on abortion,” that 34 percent say abortion is “morally acceptable,” and 34 percent likewise reject a biblical definition of marriage. Catholics, meanwhile, are the American Christians most in favor of redefining marriage.
Jonathon explores what he considers the cause of this collapse, suggesting that as it is becoming “socially inconvenient” for people to identify as Christian, people are opting instead to identify as something else. He points to former President Barack Obama as an example, noting that Obama was a man who “had no Christian beliefs, who decided to go to church for purely community and identity reasons, and then hung on to that identification as long as it was convenient for him, but abandoned that identification as soon as it was convenient for him as well.”
Since Christianity has diminished in cultural dominance, he continues, self-identified Christians have opted to change “their allegiance to the new cultural elites,” which he contends is “especially true” for younger Americans who are coming of age cut off from their cultural inheritance and are products of the public education system.
That many youths, furthermore, view religious liberty as a “poor excuse for bigotry,” the rise of LGBT youth, coupled with their atheism, “does not bode well for the future.” Identification with the LGBT movement, meanwhile, is experiencing an “astronomical rise.” For Jonathon, it is significant that a large number of “sexual identities” have been invented recently – in his view allowing heterosexuals to claim membership in the LGBT movement.
He points to an incident that happened last year at Brown University, whereat 38 percent of the student body identified as LGBT, with a large majority identifying as non-heterosexual but interested in relationships with those of the opposite sex, which LGBT activist Andrew Sullivan said was indicative that those identifying as LGBT were adopting a label rather than a lifestyle.
“You’ll notice that this is the case because just as people would identify as Christian without living as Christians or practicing Christianity, we are now seeing people defect to the new cultural elite group, the new group that dominates the culture, and that is at the moment the LGBT movement,” Jonathon asserts.
Positing another example, Jonathon looks to the case of Michaela Kennedy-Cuomo, daughter of former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and Kerry Kennedy (daughter of Robert F. Kennedy, Sr.), who in 2021 took to Instagram and announced she was a member of the LGBT community. A month later, Kennedy-Cuomo announced she was a “demisexual,” i.e., someone who is sexually attracted to someone only after they develop a close emotional bond.
Jonathon is not concerned with the demise of true Christian faith, however, since “the reality is one of the reasons we’re seeing the number of people who identify as Christian crater is not because people have been abandoning a sincere belief in the Apostles’ Creed in droves, it’s simply because people who used to identify as Christian for cultural reasons, for reasons of convenience, are now deciding not to do so, and that’s why we’re seeing the identification with Christianity drop as we see identification with the LGBT movement spike.”
“What we’re seeing is the herd move from the forces that used to dominate the culture, to the forces that currently dominate the culture, and those forces, I think, are going to have a profound impact on all of our countries going forward.”
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