New York Times: He Gave a Name to What Many Christians Feel, by Ruth Graham:
I traveled to Carmel [Indiana] in February to talk with Mr. Renn about the ideas that had made him a new star in conservative Christian intellectual circles.
Mr. Renn loves city life, and has lived in Manhattan, Chicago and Indianapolis. Carmel is different. Here, church bells chime full hymns over the town square. It’s a place where it’s easy to forget Mr. Renn’s best-known idea: his warning to Christians that America is in an era of distinct hostility to believers like them, and that they must gird themselves to adapt to, as the title of his recent book put it, “Life in the Negative World.”
Mr. Renn’s schema is straightforward. Modern American history, he argues, can be divided into three epochs when it comes to the status of Christianity. In “positive world,” between 1964 and 1994, being a Christian in America generally enhanced one’s social status. It was a good thing to be known as a churchgoer, and “Christian moral norms” were the basic norms of the broader American culture. Then, in “neutral world,” which lasted roughly until 2014 — Mr. Renn acknowledges the dates are imprecise — Christianity no longer had a privileged status, but it was seen as one of many valid options in a pluralist public square.
About a decade ago, around the time that the Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges made same-sex marriage legal nationwide, Mr. Renn says the United States became “negative world." Being a Christian, especially in high-status domains, is a social negative, he argues, and holding to traditional Christian moral views, particularly related to sex and gender, is seen as “a threat to the public good and new public moral order.” …
It’s just one instance of what Mr. Renn depicts as a pattern: Christians who hold traditional beliefs about a range of social and political issues have come to be treated as pariahs by secular elites even if they have made an effort to avoid gratuitous offense. The phenomenon goes beyond “cancel culture” to describe a kind of wholesale skepticism of many Christian beliefs and behaviors in domains like academia and the corporate world. …
Mr. Renn’s notion that Christians have no choice but to exist as a countercultural presence in “negative world” sparked a furious and continuing intra-evangelical debate. His critics say Christians should be a countercultural presence regardless of the prevailing cultural atmosphere, because true Christian values do not map neatly onto partisan politics. They also point out that Christians remain the country’s dominant religious group.
But “negative world” is now the dominant framework for many people trying to understand their place in contemporary America. The idea has inspired conferences, sermons, and countless response essays and blog posts. A reviewer in Christianity Today called it “among the most thought-provoking ideas pertaining to American evangelicalism this century.”
“Negative world” has turned Mr. Renn into a kind of Malcolm Gladwell of conservative Christianity, a skilled taxonomist known for distilling and naming a phenomenon that many were feeling but none had articulated. …
[T]hese days, Mr. Renn is wondering whether a new epoch is dawning. …
Mr. Renn was his class valedictorian and an obviously intelligent student, but no one around him suggested that he apply to any prestigious colleges. … He chose Indiana University because he was a fan of their sports teams, and majored in finance because he wouldn’t have to take a foreign language. After graduation, he moved to Chicago and began working for Andersen Consulting, which later became Accenture. …
In Chicago, he began reading and listening to sermons by a Presbyterian pastor in Manhattan, the Rev. Tim Keller, who was popular among urban creative-class evangelicals. Mr. Keller held that Christianity was politically neither right nor left, and that the church could minister and appeal to urbanites without compromising its core beliefs. …
Was Mr. Keller right about the evangelical church’s place in 21st-century American culture? Could a winsome Christian with conservative views on sexuality and gender, or one who asserts that belief in Jesus Christ is the only path to salvation, be welcomed by the liberal establishment the way that, say, Billy Graham was invited to speak to the country after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001?
One answer came in 2017, when Mr. Keller was selected to receive a major prize for “Excellence in Reformed Theology and Public Witness,” to be awarded at Princeton Theological Seminary. Students, alumni and faculty at the liberal seminary quickly protested, because Mr. Keller’s denomination does not ordain women or L.G.B.T.Q. people. The school backed down, and Mr. Keller ultimately delivered a lecture but did not receive the prize. (He died in 2023.) …
Mr. Renn’s description of the contours of “negative world” range widely, and include the spread of sports gambling, legalized drug use and even tattoos. But the framework might not have electrified evangelical America if not for the perception on the right of a new secular orthodoxy around sex, gender and race. When you ask someone who embraces the term to discuss their own experiences in “negative world,” the answer is almost always connected with this cluster of issues. …
On the Christian right, then, a thesis is emerging: If conservative Christians are no longer a “moral majority” but a moral minority, they must shift tactics. They ought to be less concerned with persuading the rest of the country they are relevant and can fit perfectly well in secular spaces. They don’t. Instead, they must consider abandoning mainstream institutions like public schools and build their own alternatives. They must pursue ownership of businesses and real estate. And they must stop triangulating away from difficult teachings on matters like sexuality and gender differences. Resilience over relevance. …
From the perspective of a certain kind of conservative Christian, the last few months in American politics and culture have frequently been exhilarating. Donald Trump became president. Tech companies are pivoting to the right. Bible sales are booming. The decline in the share of Americans who say they are Christians seems to have stopped, or at least paused. Celebrities, activists and former atheists are publicly converting. …
A few days before Mr. Trump’s inauguration, Mr. Renn devoted an installment of his newsletter to the question on many of his readers’ minds: “Is the Negative World Coming to an End?”
Mr. Renn is not ready to answer definitively yet. It’s far too early, he says, and the “vibe shift” is too fragile. But he says he does see a clear new openness to Christianity among some people, and a broader course correction to the right.
“The Overton window of what you can say and do is much wider,” Mr. Renn said. People on the left are more comfortable criticizing what they describe as the excesses of diversity and inclusion programs, for example. And Mr. Renn noted that when an employee of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency resigned following the discovery of racist online posts he had made in 2024, Vice President JD Vance wrote online that the man should be reinstated, referring to the posts as “stupid social media activity.”
Mr. Renn condemned the employee’s racist posts. But he said the context for forgiving the employee was important, coming after years in which, he claimed, “you could say anything you wanted about white people, but you could have your life destroyed for anything slightly out of line regarding minorities.”
It is a familiar theme: Things may be bad, but liberals started it. The election of Mr. Trump as president is only possible in “negative world,” Mr. Renn said. In “positive world,” an extramarital affair tanked Gary Hart’s presidential campaign. In “neutral world,” Bill Clinton was damaged by his infidelity but survived politically. In “negative world,” with the safeguards of “Christian moral norms” out the window, it was too late for liberals to make any coherent critique of Mr. Trump’s open licentiousness.
“The very people who were the most supportive of tearing down all the old moral standards and rules of fine society that they didn’t like are the ones who are most horrified by Donald Trump,” he said, with what looked like a flash of satisfaction. “You think you’re going to get a multi-culti paradise or something, and instead you get Donald Trump.”
Aaron Renn, Life in the Negative World: Confronting Challenges in an Anti-Christian Culture (2024):
Learning how to live in today's new social and cultural environment will require examination, trial and error, and adaptation over time. But there are ways to live with integrity and follow Christ today, even in a negative world.
From a peak in church attendance in the mid-20th century, Christianity has been on a trajectory of decline in the United States. Once positive toward Christianity and Christian moral teachings, cultural shifts toward the mid-90s led many to adopt a more neutral tone toward the Christian faith, seeing it as one option among many in a pluralistic public square. Today, however, Christianity is viewed negatively, and being known as a Christian often means a lower social status in elite society. Christian morality is openly repudiated and viewed as a threat to the new moral order.
In Life in the Negative World, author Aaron M. Renn looks at the lessons from Christian cultural engagement over the past 70 years and suggests specific strategies for churches, institutions, and individuals to live faithfully in the "negative" world—a culture opposed to Christian values and teachings. And since there is no one-size-fits-all solution, living as a follower of Christ in the new, negative world and being missionally engaged will require a diversity of strategies.
Reviews
'American Christians aren't used to living in a society hostile to our core beliefs. This book is a much-needed wake up call. Renn lays out the challenges and gives sage advice about how to bear fruitful witness. A must read for every Christian leader.' — R. R. Reno, Editor, First Things
'Rarely does one encounter a writer and analyst who can cut through the noise on Christianity and culture the way Aaron Renn does. His content is rich, analytical, insightful and comes from a place of authentic faith.' — Hunter Baker, Dean, College of Arts & Sciences, Professor of Political Science, Union University
'Renn's insights guide me in my own thinking about fidelity under fire. Life in The Negative World is both a work of practical hope, and a serious book for serious believers learning how to be strangers in a strange land.' — Rod Dreher, author of The Benedict Option and Live Not By Lies
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