Evangelization & Culture Podcast Broken Altars: Secularist Violence in Modern History w/ Thomas Albert Howard
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Nov 25, 2025 Join historian Thomas Albert Howard, a professor at Valparaiso University and author of *Broken Altars*, as he dives deep into the myth that religion is the main source of violence. He uncovers how combative and eliminationist secularism have historically sought to suppress religious faith. Howard discusses influential figures like Voltaire and Marx, the ideological rationalization behind violence, and the global implications of secularist policies. His insights reveal a complex relationship between secularism and religious persecution throughout history.
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Secularism Isn’t Always Peaceful
- Many educated Westerners assume religion causes violence while secularism prevents it, but that doxa ignores broader history.
- Thomas Albert Howard shows secularist regimes inflicted far more destruction on religious communities in the 19th–20th centuries.
Three Faces Of Secularism
- Secularism exists in multiple forms: passive, combative, and eliminationist, with very different aims.
- Passive secularism protects religious liberty while combative and eliminationist actively oppose or seek to destroy religion.
Different Targets: Clergy Vs. Faith
- Combative secularism (Voltaire, French Revolution) targets clergy and church power, not always faith itself.
- Eliminationist secularism (Marx, Lenin) aims to eradicate religion as an obstacle to revolutionary progress.
