Religious and Secular
Andrew Sullivan thinks they’re compatible goals, and he’s right, of course. Despite what some liberals and a few talking heads would have you believe, being secular doesn’t mean you’re not religious. Here’s one of the quotes he used, from author Bruce Ledewitz’s blog:
A group of self-announced atheists, such as Christopher Hitchens, is currently trying to push secularism toward atheism and away from religion. But secularism need not be atheism. The secularist rejects many things the religious person holds dear: a traditional God, life after death, miracles and so forth. But the secularist can still have a conception of God or Godhead. The secularist may see a deep pattern in history and may feel a profound connection to all that is. Secularism can be holy.
I’m sure there are other religious paths just as worthy as consideration, but lets take Deism.
If there is a line of thought toward religion that better matches the above paragraph, I don’t know it. Deism is all about disavowing the tradition image of a god, miracles, etc. Given that they believe in a more distant deity, they’re probably not bringing religion much into the public square, telling people what’s going to happen at the end of time. Yet, these people still believe in a god and can still feel connected to the universe as much as any Christian, Jew, or Muslim.
Yet, secualarism need not be regulated these kinds of believers. Followers of the Abrahamic religions can also be secular, which is where I part with the above paragraph. I would argue that a Christian who chooses to keep their religious practices to the private sphere is a secularist. Some might say that these people are not true Christians, but I disagree. You can live your public life without letting your theological views guide your every move, but then go home and pray with the family. Besides, unless you’re a minister (or an evangelical), you probably already live your daily life in this way.
By the way, I’m not talking about your value system. That’s always going to be directed by the dominant religion. It’s just unavoidable. I’m talking about actual religious practice and theological teachings affecting one’s daily life, which can be different.
Secularism is a value that developed in this country in a mostly religious context. Congregationalists didn’t want Baptists to persecute them and vice versa, the peace making accommodation, the genius solution, was to say that no sect gets government endorsement. This civilizational impulse was born, as i say, in a very relgious context. I wish that the evangelicals would learn this. The only context in which any religious group could respectfully advance their beliefs is a secular one. Proof of this is the fact that the evangelicals never recover from their victories. [prohibition, scopes, and the most recent resurrection of their causes led by Falwell types, (we can expect the same from the more intellectual PHC types as well.)]