Do you think of ancient tree worshippers dancing by moonlight? Well, an authority on the subject says that notion is out of date. These days, says Dr. Robert George of Princeton University, the term "pagan" ought to conjure up images of affluent, well-educated Americans — including many who go to church.

George's definition of paganism was presented at a recent meeting of Toward Tradition, a group that brings together Orthodox Jews and conservative Christians. He said paganism is not confined to the past, with primitive peoples offering sacrifices to the sun or praying to golden calves. Instead, the temptation to worship false gods is "a permanent threat" and "a constant temptation."

You see, the essence of paganism is idolatry — the worship of false gods in place of the one true God. But, sadly, many modern Christians fall into pagan practices and don't even know it, and some attend churches that actually promote it.

So, how do you know if you're among them? There's a fool-proof test, George says. "False gods demand the blood of innocents. Where the innocent and just are slain ... the god being worshipped is not the God of Israel." When Christians of the past burned heretics, persecuted Jews, and enslaved Africans, they were serving, not the biblical God, but false gods.

The false gods of modern pagans are even more bloodthirsty. "Today," George says, "the unborn, the partially born, and the handicapped newly-born are ... sacrificed to the false gods of choice, autonomy, and liberation. They're sacrificed on stainless steel altars, by priests robed in surgical whites." And advocates of assisted suicide and euthanasia are their fellow believers.

By contrast, George notes, faithful Christians and observant Jews worship the Lord of life — a God who "endows every human being — however humble, however poor, however afflicted — with a sublime dignity." It is for this reason "that the life of every innocent person is ... equally inviolable under the moral law."

Modern pagans — including most secularized Christians and Jews — wrap their pagan ideology in a cloak of virtue. They speak of compassion, even as they rationalize their "choice" to kill the innocent. In reality, they're worshipping, not the God of compassion, but false gods of depravity and death.

It is a fact of history that every civilization that has sacrificed children to the gods has been destroyed. The God of the Bible has brought judgment on even the most powerful empires. That's why, when friends of mine visited Mother Teresa a few years ago and asked what they could do to help her, she responded, "Go back to America and stop the slaughter of the innocent babies. Hurry, while there's time, or God will judge you."

She was right.

Today's false gods masquerade under the name of "choice" and "compromise." But as Professor George says, "A pagan culture is ... a culture of death."

It's important that you and I learn to recognize these beliefs and practices, which can infiltrate our churches and are pervasive in our culture. Not only for the sake of the innocents who are being killed, but for the sake of our nation's soul and our survival.