Pope St. John Paul II said there were two atheistic materialistic societies: Communist Russia and the Unrestrained Capitalism of America.

American Atheistic Materialism: A Creed of Despair?

by Dwight Longenecker


From American Atheistic Materialism…Good Lord Deliver Us.

And the plea is appropriate because prayers for deliverance are a kind of exorcism, and if any society needs exorcism it is the American Atheistic Materialistic society.

Pope St. John Paul II said there were two atheistic materialistic societies: Communist Russia and the Unrestrained Capitalism of America. The philosopher pope asserted this not because he hated America or was against capitalism per se, but because he was against the kind of unrestrained capitalism which is a form of atheistic materialism.

“Materialism” is a popular nickname for greedy consumerism. We say a woman is “materialistic” if she does nothing but go to the mall and shop until she drops. We call a man “materialistic” if all he cares about is his financial success, his career and the prosperity, power and pleasure his success will buy him. These forms of materialism are symptoms not the disease. The disease is far deeper and more incurable for it is a disease of not only the mind but also the heart.

At depth, materialism is that philosophy that assumes and asserts that there is nothing more than the material world. “What you see is what you get.” The true materialist does not believe in life after death, heaven, hell, demons, angels, miracles and “all that medieval stuff.” Instead he wants “all that modern stuff”, and by that he means the goodies, the treats, the treasures, not just the house, but the lake house, the mountain house, the beach house and the rental house. He wants more and more and more material stuff because that is the only stuff he believes is real.

This tragedy is that this American materialistic atheism is lauded as not only the right way, but the only way. We worship the Almighty Dollar, not the Almighty Deity, and our materialism is as much a socially accepted—yea mandated—form of atheism as communistic atheism was accepted and expected in Soviet Russia.

Most astoundingly, this materialistic, atheistic philosophy has taken over most of the Christian churches. Mainstream Protestants, a majority of Catholics and an increasing proportion of Evangelical Protestants have endorsed and embraced a religious form of materialistic atheism.

Embarrassed by the supernatural, the Christian teachers and preachers have gradually and gently de-mythologized religion so that it no longer deals with man’s interaction with the supernatural realm, but instead aims to simply save the natural realm. American Christianity is no longer about the salvation of souls, but self help and social justice. The preachers are increasingly silent about the other world, settling for the chance to improve this world.


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