Why 'the Right Side of History' Keeps Getting It Wrong
Supporters of progressive cultural and political movements often declare their ideas “inevitable” and “on the right side of history.” The last few years, however, have demonstrated the need to take such claims with a grain of salt. Arguments and cultural fads that once seemed unstoppable now look dated, and those who persist in making the arguments and following the fads, failing to realize that history never had a “right side” to begin with, look a little silly.
For example, a recent exchange from the viral YouTube series “Surrounded,” produced by Los Angeles-based Jubilee Media, featured left-wing podcaster Sam Seder, a secular Jew who hosts “The Majority Report,” surrounded by a diverse group of Republican voters, most young and religious. One opponent, an excellent debater who caught the smugly secular Seder off guard, challenged the view that religious people shouldn’t impose morality through law. He pointed out that if laws are based only on a majority vote, they have no foundation other than the majority’s preference, which can be wrong or even dangerous.
Seder shot back that, in his view, legislation should be founded on “a humanist vision of what … creates as little suffering as possible for as many people [as possible].” Clearly, Seder considered his view self-evident, good, and in need of no grounding beyond what “we have decided as a society in a democratic way.” To which his younger opponent asked in so many words, if religious people once again became a majority of society, could they not democratically legislate their morality instead of Seders? It was as if Seder had never considered such an option before, and the big hole it punched in his moral philosophy.
His was a fate like what has befallen the “New Atheists” of the 2000s. After a meteoric rise, with figures like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens claiming to be on the right side of enlightened history, a new graph by sociologist Christian Smith shows that New Atheism was essentially a 15-year “flash in a pan,” with their media mentions spiking almost entirely between the years 2005 and 2020. In the end, all their books, conferences, and media appearances never made that many new New Atheists, with their numbers nationwide never breaking the low single-digits, percentage-wise. Today, the only real traces of their meteoric movement can be found in old YouTube videos and used book bins.
While it’s too early for a postmortem, the transgender movement seems to be following a similar pattern. Five years ago, gender activists were effectively holding universities, corporations, and governments hostage. CEOs, elected officials, and celebrities alike trembled at the threats from online mobs. Then came J.K. Rowling, the Cass Report, the closing of the U.K.’s main gender clinic, the backlash against male athletes in women’s locker rooms and sports, the wave of high-profile “de-transitioners,” and a new administration working to roll back the policy gains of trans activists. Now that sanity also seems to be returning to corporate America, even Target, the future of this supposedly inevitable movement is, to say the least, in doubt.
The lesson for us is that cultural fads often have a short shelf-life, and those who most loudly declare their fad “the wave of the future” are most in danger of being left in the past. “The right side of history” line is just rhetoric, something that, in the short-term, no one knows and, in the long-term, belongs only to Christ, the One who is sovereign over history.
When it comes to claims on history, in fact, Christians take the longest possible view, a kingdom view that is oriented around the creative and redemptive work of Christ, not some vague “long arc toward justice.” It also means keeping the defense of the faith sharp and nimble, ready to face new challenges, rather than constantly committed to being relevant to every new fad that claims the future.
After all, Christianity has already outlived a lot of opponents, many far more formidable than denying observable biology. Whether or not a revival of American hearts and culture to Christ is inevitable, His truth endures. The meek, not PRIDE, will inherit the earth (and history), which is why so many proud enough to proclaim their trendy ideas “inevitable” look, in a few years’ time, like flashes in the pan.
Photo Courtesy: © Getty Images/Volodymyr Zakharov
Published Date: March 26, 2025
John Stonestreet is President of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, and radio host of BreakPoint, a daily national radio program providing thought-provoking commentaries on current events and life issues from a biblical worldview. John holds degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (IL) and Bryan College (TN), and is the co-author of Making Sense of Your World: A Biblical Worldview.
The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of CrosswalkHeadlines.
BreakPoint is a program of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. BreakPoint commentaries offer incisive content people can't find anywhere else; content that cuts through the fog of relativism and the news cycle with truth and compassion. Founded by Chuck Colson (1931 – 2012) in 1991 as a daily radio broadcast, BreakPoint provides a Christian perspective on today's news and trends. Today, you can get it in written and a variety of audio formats: on the web, the radio, or your favorite podcast app on the go.
