OhOn November 11, activist and author Ayaan Hirsi Ali published an essay titled
“Why I am now a Christian.”
His statement naturally made waves. For 20 years, Ali has written, spoken and acted as a convinced atheist. Reject it
Islamic
With the teachings that indoctrinated her during her adolescence, she has long advocated secularism as a necessary goal to advance humanity and counter the evils of the world so often perpetrated by religious dogma.
Ali bases the explanation of his conversion on the usefulness of
Christianity
. I don’t mean “useful” in a trivial way, because one might find a spoon more useful for eating soup than a fork. Ali views the use of Christianity as fundamental on both societal and personal levels. In this way, Ali bases her turn toward belief on the same principles that led her to reject God and organized religion. She now sees Christianity not as an enemy of her cause but as a necessary ally.
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First, Ali outlines the crucial role of Christianity in building a just society oriented toward human good. Ali is a long-time advocate of human rights such as freedom of conscience, freedom of speech and press, and economic freedom. Before, she thought about these “secular” ideas and projects. Today, she says that Christianity played a major, even definitive, role in creating these best parts of the modern West. Christianity is committed to defending “human life, liberty and dignity.” In fact, the institutions that best uphold these principles come from and derive their necessary support from Christian doctrine, practices, and structures.
Atheism, according to Ali, does not and cannot provide this support for such essential values. It alludes to the inherent flaws of atheism that undermine true freedom and human dignity. But the most crucial weakness of unbelief concerns the personal realm.
Second, Ali found in Christianity the satisfaction of deep personal needs. As much as atheism relieved her of the hatred and shackles of Islam, it left her without an ultimate goal. She found her “God-shaped hole,” in her words, “unbearable” and “almost self-destructive.” The withdrawal of personal and collective religion results in a “nihilistic void” that is filled with concocted “irrational quasi-religious dogmas.” This is why Ali now sees “awakening” as an attempt to create religion out of non-religion, dogma out of a lack of doctrine.
Christianity filled that void for Ali. “Christianity has it all,” she writes with what seems like tired relief. And in what Christianity offers, she sees a way to relaunch for others the civilizational fight that she has been waging for decades. In this she is somewhat like Whittaker Chambers, who, during his own conversion from communist atheism to Christianity, wanted the West to regain its confidence and strength in its religious belief.
Christians should be grateful for Ali’s statement. This undoubtedly took a lot of courage, given his past commitments and his social circle. We should also give it careful support. She mentions at the end of her essay: “I still have a lot to learn about Christianity. I discover a little more at church every Sunday. Judging from her essay, she might still need guidance in understanding the centrality of grace in Christianity and how that grace is most manifested in the person and work of the Son of God, made flesh. Sometimes it takes time to know and feel these truths. In a sense, we spend our entire lives trying to rest in God’s grace, not saving ourselves, as is the case with normal humans.
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But we should also be grateful that Ali sees the political and social goods of Christianity, historically and today. In his testimony we see the dignity of humanity made in the image of its Creator. In his doctrine we see the need for a policy that protects the innocent, punishes the guilty, and protects the good. In Christianity we also see the need for mercy, not only from God, but also from each other as neighbors and citizens.
That such commitments to dignity, law, and mercy seem self-evident to many of us is not the vision of secular humanism. Ali joined us to see his origins in the God revealed in the Bible.
Adam Carrington is an associate professor of politics at Hillsdale College.
