I just returned from an extraordinary trip to Paris. As I stared up at the Eiffel Tower and stood at the Museum D’Orsay awestruck by the beauty of Van Gough’s Starry Night, I felt the romanticism that Parisians boast about. I understand now why millions of people spend thousands of dollars each year just to experience its magnificence. But as I walked the streets, a gnawing haunted me. At first, I couldn’t identify its source. When Sunday morning came, it hit me like a ton of bricks.

God was visibly absent from the culture.

The Louvre houses magnificent paintings of Jesus, Mary, and John the Baptist and the majesty of Notre Dame illuminates miles of the night. So why, I wondered, did so many thousands of Parisians through the centuries jettison the foundations of their faith and take up the worship of the buildings, the history of the city, the art and the literature? Slowly, secularism has replaced Christian faith, and cathedrals and churches across the city are left only half full on Sunday mornings. At least, that’s the appearance.

So what’s the big deal?, we wonder. What’s so wrong with a city “softening” religious rules and traditions…