God Does Not Need Christians to Partner With Atheists to Fight Against Secular Marxism

A troubling trend that I'm seeing in conservative Christian circles is the willingness to partner with political conservatives of other religions and even atheists in an effort to stave off the influx of Cultural Marxism and "woke" ideologies that are taking over this nation's institutions and even our churches.

Even some people that I'm close to, and people in my conservative Reformed circle, have made moves to partner with atheists such as James Lindsay to fight Marxism and Critical Race Theory. People I highly respect have found it necessary to use their intellectual insights and secular perspective to identify the dangers of this subversive movement. Unfortunately, by doing so, Christians can inadvertently undermine the gospel.

This isn't a knock against conservative atheists like Lindsay -- he seems to be a fine fellow and an intelligent guy. However, when Christians begin to rely on these people as "allies" in the culture war and fight for the truth, we are acting with reckless disregard to the sufficiency of Scripture which is, interestingly, what we're fighting for.

Rod Dreher, a right-wing religious transient who has made his way through many religions over the course of his lifetime and eventually landed in Eastern Orthodoxy, is a conservative political commentator with whom I often agree on political issues. On religious issues, not so much. In 2017, during Hank Hanegraaff's apostasy into Eastern Orthodoxy, Dreher found it necessary to come to the aid of Hanegraaff while labeling me a "fundamentalist" "knothead" who apparently just doesn't understand Eastern Orthodoxy. To this day, I maintain that Hanegraaff, as well as Dreher himself, are part of a religion that preaches "another gospel" according to the Apostle Paul.

That being said, again, I have found myself in agreement with Dreher on most political issues.

Dreher, however, who recently published his book Live Not By Lies, ironically finds it necessary to partner with people who live by lies in order to fight the lie of Wokeness. In an article Dreher published on his website, The American Conservative, Dreher argues that wokeness has "come for Richard Dawkins" and that people like Dawkins -- who was disinvited from a debate at a Catholic college out of fear that his commentary may offend Muslims -- are "indispensable" allies in our fight against wokeness. For this, Dreher sees atheists like James Lindsay and Richard Dawkins as allies.

He writes,

[Lindsay is] not a religious believer, but secularists like him, his colleague Helen Pluckrose, Bret Weinstein, Heather Heying, and others, are indispensable allies to we on the religious and cultural right who are trying to resist this cancerous ideological pseudo-religion.

The problem with "we on the religious and cultural right" is that to people like Dreher, the Scriptures are insufficient to resist this "cancerous ideological pseudo-religion." But we shouldn't expect those from other religions, like Eastern Orthodoxy, to grasp the concept of the sufficiency of Scripture, anyway. Far more troublesome are those in Reformed circles who have embraced atheists like Lindsay.

First, we should be glad that some of these more conservative-leaning atheists like Lindsay do, at least, appear to have somewhat of a grasp on general revelation. God has revealed himself to all of mankind through creation. Some, like Lindsay, do not appear to have completely given up all knowledge of God's revelation despite the fact that he rejects specific, biblical revelation. This, however, could actually be a snare against the gospel, undermining it, when we, as Christians, legitimize these atheists as allies in our fight for truth. Lindsay's worldview is just as damning as the secular Marxists' worldview and by partnering with them, we could be inadvertently sending the message to them that they can be sure of the truth apart from God's revelation.

The bottom line is that Lindsay -- and even Richard Dawkins, for that matter -- may have interesting and even truthful things to say. But they cannot justify what they believe or why they believe it. As Christians, we can point to an ultimate source of truth in God's revelation, and we can say "this is why Cultural Marxism is wrong." The atheist cannot, they simply rely on their own, subjective opinions, which are just as fallible as the Marxists'. Just because they happen to be right doesn't mean they can prove it. As Christians, we can prove it. And God does not need us to partner with unbelievers to fight for biblical truth.

Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? -- 2 Corinthians 6:14-16