Post-Secularism and the Future of the Family

• Post by: Steve Turley
• March 31, 2019

Everywhere we look today, the champions of secular liberalism are celebrating another victory. Whether it’s so-called same-sex marriage, or the 50 different gender options on Facebook, or lawsuits against Christian business owners, every day we are reminded that our world is changing in ways hitherto unimaginable. And yet, behind all the indignant insults and blustering banter, make no mistake, secular liberals are panicked. Over the last decade we’ve seen winds of change that are politically and culturally transforming the world, especially here in Europe, in ways secular liberals never imagined in their worst nightmares. What I want to do for you this morning is introduce you to a field of scholarship that actually predicted these changing winds long before they occurred, which will in turn give us a window into what to expect for the future. Several years ago, I was doing research for my doctoral studies, and I came across a field of scholarship called “post-secular studies.” That term shocked me. Post-secular? How can that be when it appears that everywhere we look, the world is becoming more secular, not post-secular? But there they were, scholar after scholar arguing that we are, in fact, entering a post-secular age. By post-secular, these scholars mean very simply that our world is currently going through a massive religious renewal. Today, according to the World Values Survey, four out of five people in the world—that’s 80 percent of the world’s population—ascribe allegiance to one of the major historic world religions. In sub-Saharan Africa, Christianity is actually growing faster than the continent’s population growth, suggesting massive conversion rates. In the Middle East, more Muslims are attending mosque than ever before in the history of Islam. China is currently experiencing what may be the single greatest Christian revival ever recorded in the history of the church. Hungary’s government has declared its commitment to the