In a compelling new video segment, renowned columnist and author Peter Hitchens has issued a stark and sobering assessment of modern Britain's spiritual state. He argues with characteristic force that the nation's conscious departure from its Christian heritage is not a mark of progress, but a profound and dangerous loss.
The Core of the Argument: Faith as Foundation
Hitchens, a former atheist who returned to the Christian faith, posits that the moral and ethical framework which shaped British law, culture, and compassion for centuries is fundamentally Christian. He contends that by discarding this foundation, society is not becoming more enlightened or free. Instead, it is severing itself from the very source of its concepts of right and wrong, human dignity, and purpose.
"We are living off spiritual capital," Hitchens suggests, implying that modern secular society continues to benefit from the ethical residue of a faith it has now rejected. He warns that this capital is finite and once exhausted, the consequences for social cohesion, justice, and individual meaning could be severe. The video captures his central thesis: that without this shared transcendent anchor, moral consensus fragments into a clash of subjective preferences and power struggles.
A Nation Adrift: The Practical Consequences
Moving from philosophical principle to observable reality, Hitchens links this spiritual abandonment to tangible societal issues. He suggests that the loss of a common belief in an ultimate accountability and a shared moral language has contributed to a coarsening of public life and a crisis of identity. The vacuum left by retreating Christianity, he argues, is not filled with benign rationalism but often by less forgiving ideologies, commercialised values, or a pervasive sense of nihilism.
This analysis is not presented as a nostalgic longing for a lost past, but as a urgent diagnosis of a present ailment. Hitchens challenges the prevailing narrative that secularism is inherently neutral or progressive, framing it instead as an active choice with deep and potentially destabilising ramifications for the nation's future.
A Personal Journey Informs a Public Warning
The potency of Hitchens' argument is undeniably sharpened by his own intellectual journey. His well-documented path from youthful Marxist atheism to his current position as a defender of Christian civilisation lends a personal weight to his claims. He speaks as someone who has occupied both sides of the ideological divide, offering his critique not from a place of inherited dogma, but from hard-won conviction.
In the video, his delivery is measured yet passionate, urging viewers to consider the foundations upon which their society is built. The segment serves as both a polemic and a provocation, designed to spark debate about the direction of British culture at a time when questions of national values and identity are intensely contested.
Ultimately, Peter Hitchens' video message is a clarion call to recognise what he sees as a foundational error. He implores his audience to understand that the abandonment of Christianity is not a simple shedding of outdated ritual, but a fundamental renegotiation of the principles that have long undergirded British life. Whether one agrees with his conclusions or not, his argument presents a formidable challenge to the secular orthodoxies of the age.
