It’s said that what happens in the USA eventually hits the rest of the world. But for the USA it usually beings first in California. In which case there are some things the church in the UK would do well to examine now. In fact, during a recent trip to L.A. in California it wasn’t the yard signs that I thought would catch my attention, but they did. In the space of just two avenues of wealthy suburban streets, the signs included phrases like love is love, science is real in rainbow colours proudly planted. They reminded me of communities in Pennsylvania where Scripture texts are placed in the lawns of staunch Presbyterians, or the Trump 2024 signs springing up here in Florida. The signs in L.A. read like a creed, and according to, Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World by Tara Burton that is precisely what they are.
UK readers may think that this sounds a world away from their experience, however Burton analyses the origins, strength and the intentions of some of the new beliefs as they rush to fill the vacuum created by the retreat of Christianity across the western world. She points out that while, Protestantism is, perhaps, the ultimate religion of the printed book. The Remixed religions we’re about to explore are the religions of the Internet. This means that they are already permeating the lives of a younger generation on both sides of the Pond. So, before you think that this is just another example of crazy American beliefs the internet means that people anywhere in the world can now find these online communities.
Burton doesn’t suffer from a parochial view of the USA having studied in the UK for some time and is still a regular visitor. Instead, her approach is that of an informant. She begins with a vivid portrayal of the world of fandom, with some disturbing excesses, some of which she participated in herself. But her intention is not so much to shock but rather to draw attention to something deeper. There is a search here for transcendence as the fans she engaged with were people looking to create meaning, purpose and community through new rituals. In the second chapter she takes a step back in time illustrating previous attempts to do this which were outside of traditional religious practices. This is followed by a general overview of modern rituals and the impetus they receive from big business and the connectivity of the internet which helps to create a plethora of these new tribes. Then chapter four illustrates the power of stories to mould our lives, and Harry Potter is our guide through that.
After Harry, she spells out (pun intended) some specific movements gaining vast cultural traction. She examines the $4 Trillion Wellness movement that talks of energy and packaged rituals combining health, exercise and spirituality. Such amalgams flow through all the new rites, premised as they are on fulfilling individual desires where it is all about finding the best you. Burton then deals with the rise of the occult. That is not new, we’ve had the New Age for a long time. But she illustrates the rise in a deeply politicized Wiccan religion, and it turns out that Harry Potter is setting his sights on the White House! From magic we then jump into bed and look at the Sexual Revolution, where personal choice is once again the definition of what is right or wrong. Authenticity is the freedom to choose what you want and who you want to do it with, where negotiation is the only constraint. An honesty surfaces here as you sense her concern over the growing loneliness that this revolution is birthing.
The next chapter is called, Two Doctrines for a Godless World. Here the haunting necessity of hope is examined through two movements: the Social Justice approach and the Silicon Valley, techno – utopian one. Both are trying to get to the same destination but by different roads. We are all aware of the alphabet soup of LGBTQ etc, but this chapter vividly paints the passion, the theology, the evangelism of the Social Justice movement behind the letters. There is a committed ideology that sees traditional beliefs like Christianity as part of the problem not the solution to what ails our world. We in the Church are now the bad guys. At the same time some in Silicon Valley are exploring the, The Californian Ideology which, “promiscuously combines the free-wheeling spirit of the hippies and the entrepreneurial zeal of the yuppies… through a profound faith in the emancipatory potential of the new information technologies. In the digital utopia, everybody will be both hip and rich. Vast wealth is being poured into everything from Artificial Intelligence to cryogenics to defeat death.
The final tribe is the online world of single white, angry men, such as the Incles. As modern life is not going their way, they look more to the past for answers. But they see this as only attainable by humanity first going through an apocalyptic scenario such as fills our cinema screens. Only then will the manly virtues inherent in their DNA shine forth. Jordan Petersen is touched on here rather negatively, and possibly unfairly, as a potential gateway drug to darker and more right-wing tribes on the web.
There is one area that isn’t addressed in the book, yet it involves the same search for meaning and belonging. Much of the focus is on middle class American culture, but there is also immigrant America, which tends to be more traditional whether in its Catholicism, Pentecostalism, or Islam. From a European perspective the book may have benefited from a chapter on Islam in the West. In the absence of a revival of Christianity what would an Islamic attempt to fill the spiritual vacuum look like? Would it do so by repressing some or all these alternative rites?
Burton’s main premise is that despite the variety of these beliefs they share common aspirations for meaning, purpose etc. Therefore, she states, America is not secular but simply spiritually self-focused. I pastor in the States, and I think she’s right, the country is drowning in new ideologies and in the process becoming more divided than ever. Her analysis is also aided by the lens she examines everything through. It is that very rare one called theology. She has completed a Masters in Oxford, which married to her own experiences of fandom and her considerable journalistic skills have created a very prescient analysis of contemporary beliefs. It is a bonus that she has carried out her research through a subtle filter of theology, the language of the Christian tribe. She says nothing explicit about her own beliefs, but it’s clear that much of what she has investigated has left her with few avenues of genuine hope. Instead, I believe it may have initiated a different pilgrimage, perhaps towards the ancient rites of High Church Christianity and I suspect this may be the subject of a future book. But in the meantime, the reason Strange Rites is worth reading is simple, to be forewarned is to be forearmed.
Strange Rites by Tara Isabella Burton is published by Public Affairs, New York 2020 and is available here.
