The Secularism versus Faith Debate: The Self-Defeating Angst of Oren Cass

A fundamental issue for all Americans today is the question of “What exactly are the Principles upon which the American Republic was created,” and from whence did those principles arise? If we are to truly “Make America Great Again,” to create a better, more productive, more moral future for generations to come—to Make America Great in the fullest meaning of that phrase—these questions are not idle or academic speculation, but a vital concern for all of us.

In the current October 2024 issue of First Things, Oren Cass, the founder and leader of the (pro-American System) American Compass, has published an article titled “Constructing Conservatism in the Secular Age.” First Things is the publication of The Institute on Religion and Public Life. According to their website, “The Institute on Religion and Public Life was founded in 1989 by Richard John Neuhaus, a Lutheran pastor who later became a Catholic priest. The Institute’s mission is to advance a religiously informed public philosophy for the ordering of society.” Cass’s article was based on a speech he delivered on March 4 to a symposium sponsored by First Things, held in Washington, DC.

Although well-intentioned and containing a laudable discussion of the Catholic Social Teaching of Pope Leo XIII, Cass’s overall argument is likely to make the issue of religion and politics even more confused than before, while it also demonstrates a dangerous failure to comprehend the profound nature of the American Revolution. Essentially, Cass has fallen into the trap which was sprung in the summer of 1789, with the unleashing of the French Revolution.

Oren Cass, executive director of American Compass, delivers the 2024 First Things Lecture in Washington, D.C. His lecture is entitled "Constructing Conservatism in the Secular Age."

The axiomatic issue of the American Revolution was the declaration that human beings are not beasts, serfs, slaves or playthings of an oligarchy, but free individuals, whose “inalienable rights” derive from God. The monotheistic Abrahamic religions all assert (truthfully) that Man is made in the Image of God, the Image of the Creator; that—unlike all other creatures—we are possessed with the creative and inventive power of human reason, and that within our hearts lies the power of agápē. As Saint Paul advises, “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love (agápē).”

This comprehension of the Human Identity is the only legitimate definition for the term “Natural Law,” and it forms the basis for both our Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. Once one grasps the full implications of this historical reality, much of the confusion evaporates. Unfortunately, Cass misses this point entirely. His lecture devotes a great deal of time to the question of “faith versus reason,” a most unfortunate and inaccurate posing of the problem.

Cass’s argument stumbles because he accepts the sophist definition of “human reason” as that given by Robespierre and the French Jacobins, with their atheistic “Cult of Reason,” but the term “reason,” as defined by the 18^th century materialistic French Philosophs, is an absolute perversion of “human reason” as understood by Plato, Saint Augustine or Nicholas of Cusa. Cass also references favorably the arch-British oligarch Edmund Burke, an individual whose imperial role was to sabotage the emerging American Republic during the Washington Presidency. Thus, he falls into the commonplace error of describing the historical debate as one of Edmund Burke versus Tom Paine, an utterly incompetent understanding of what actually transpired in the 1790s, and a mistake that still poisons the religious/political discussions of today. It is clear that Cass is struggling with these ideas—he describes himself as sort of a moral but non-religious Jew—but it is also clear that he fails to perceive the axiomatic issue.

Cass seems to be trapped inside this conundrum of “faith versus reason.” But this is a dead-end fraudulent maze. Under our Constitution we are guaranteed freedom of religious worship. This means that all versions of “revealed religion,” i.e. religious belief which depends solely on faith, are Constitutionally protected; yet no such individual faith-based revelation can be imposed on the people as a whole. Such Constitutional protections, however, must not be misunderstood or perverted.

Human beings, although biologically part of the “animal kingdom,” are not beasts. Contrary to Adam Smith and Jeremy Bentham, we are not governed by our lustful passions. The upward progression of the human species is one of ongoing Creation, whether that is witnessed in the great Florentine Duomo, the Apollo landing on the Moon, or the creation of the American Republic. We are not simply another animal species. We are made in the Image of the Creator, and our imperative is to create a better future, to unlock the secrets of the universe for the benefit of all. This recognition of the true Human Identity is not faith-based; it is a demonstrable reality.

Cass spends a good deal of his piece discussing the vexing problem of modern “secularism.” But, again, he misdefines the problem and, thus, fails to arrive at a viable solution. What we are dealing with today is not a cultural problem of secularism, but rather the underlying parasitical atheism of an arrogant oligarchical class. They don’t believe in God, in a higher creative power. Rather, they see themselves as gods. Theirs is an Olympian view in which they play the collective role of Zeus. In their deployment of ultimate power, morality ceases to exist, and human creativity doesn’t exist. Human beings become commodities to be exploited or culled, as one chooses. The joint admonition, by both Cotton Mather and Benjamin Franklin, “To Do Good,” because our Creator intends us to do good, is meaningless to the imperial elites of today.

Perhaps the most revealing quote from Cass comes part way through his article when he states, “Lofty ‘America is an idea’ rhetoric cannot possibly be true.” But America is an Idea! The Commonwealth is an Idea! That “All men are created equal,” and that we derive our Inalienable Rights from God is an Idea! It is not that Americans are somehow biologically the only group of people to embrace these Ideas, but what is unique is that America is the only Republic to be founded upon and grounded in the principles of these Ideas. No nation in Europe can make that claim.

Cass states that, “Being an American is a moral accident, as it were.” Hopefully, he will come to abandon that view. I wish him well, and I state here my appreciation for the efforts of American Compass to revive knowledge of the American System of Economics, particularly given the negative influence of the Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025.” But being an American is not an accident. In 1778, at a time of great crisis during the Revolutionary War, Gouverneur Morris predicted, “The portals of the Temple we have raised to Freedom, shall then be thrown wide, as an Asylum to mankind.” An Asylum to mankind. The mission of American was and continues to be the eradication of oligarchical rule and oligarchical culture. To create a future in which human beings are valued, as God intended, for their creative contributions to future generations. Thus, we serve as a “Temple of Hope and a Beacon of Liberty” to all Mankind.