In Defense of Secularism
Today I read an article in the Newsweek magazine called “In Defense of Secularism.” It talked about the meaning of the word “Secular”, and how the meaning affected us in the past and how it affects us now.
“Secular” means “godless”, and its neutral meaning has always been a negative one, but recently it has caused more of an uproar. “Secular” is a code in conservative Christian circles for “atheist” or “God hating”, all in all, the demons Christian conservatives have been fighting for more than 30 years: liberalism, sexual permissiveness and moral lassitude. In this article Ann Coulter accused the liberals and the secularists and atheists of using religion as a wedge or as a cover up. In his new book, John Bolton critiques the High Minded elite who worshiped at the altar of the Secular Pope. John Bolton says the secularist equals nonbeliever and that nonbeliever equals immoral God haters and that there was a better word like “humanist”. “Secular” was first used in the middle Ages to mean things and people not belonging to the church.
Well from what I read in the article, I see the Pope in a very difficult situation because from what the Secular word means can make people think of secularist around the world seem as evil beings that don’t believe in the church and don’t have a god. The word secular has many different meanings but I prefer to believe in the Webster’s dictionary meaning; things and people not belonging to the church. As I see it, just because you don’t belong to a church no matter what part of the world you are in it doesn’t make you something evil and it surely doesn’t make you someone different from everyone else.
Miller, Lisa. Newsweek Magazine. 25 Feb, 2008. pg 15
2 comments:
That was a very interesting article and I have never looked that deeply in the meaning of the word "secular". I agree with you that secular should be used by Webster's dictionary because to judge someone as not going to church as "evil" isn't right. Its not our right to judge others.
Makes you really think about how other groups view people who don't agree with their beliefs. It's apparent that the idea behind the word "secular", as expressed by those religious groups, is a biased opinion and short-sighted to say the least...
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