There are many explanations for the secularization of our formerly Christian countries, and Cameron Hilditch's article, "How the West lost God," provides one which is rarely considered. Reviewing recent research, he notes that, “Religion is thought to be an essentially uneducated, rural, preindustrial, precapitalist phenomenon consisting of poor, ill illiterates who lived their lives under the specter of an imminent and likely painful death.”
Who today does not believe that religious belief wanes as wealth increases, education improves, people move to the cities, and fewer children are born? However, it is a thesis unsupported by fact. Hilditch argues that statistical evidence today points to a different explanation, namely that the cause of secularization is tied closely to an increase in government control over education. In a sentence, “The content of schooling shapes religious commitments.”
Shockingly, few in the church understand this, which is why the cause of Biblically based Christian education languishes. Most things in life defy a simple explanation, and this is certainly the case here, too. No account is made, for example, of the persuasive elements in modern society that aggregate easily to justify or facilitate non-Christian lifestyles and world views. Furthermore, there is no reference to the forces within the church which encouraged a dismantling of a religiosity which had come increasingly to look like self-righteousness and smug satisfaction with historic privilege (cf., Revelation 1-3). So, while it is true that none of the sciences in and of themselves created a need for the marginalization of Christianity, nor did science even have a natural propensity to do so, there were forces at work in the church that made it easy for those who desired a “broad pathway,” rather than a narrow gate (Matthew 7:13), to choose secularism rather than Christianity.
In countries like Canada, public education was Protestant education well into the twentieth century, which is why special rights and funding was made available for a separate, non “public” Roman Catholic educational system. In light of this it is possible to argue that while government control of education is the cause of secularism and not increased wealth, better education, a greater focus on science, and fewer children, nevertheless we need to look for first causes which go even deeper into the heart of human beings. This is why we at CATE seek to promote transformational education. While Hilditch does not explicitly acknowledge the need for redemptive transformation, he hints at it in his concluding thoughts on next steps. Government control of education may appear to be the “problem” but it, too, like science is neutral in the sense that “government” is run by people who can be persuaded to act in ways that permit the flourishing of a society grounded on truth.