Defending Secularism

Lisa Miller’s “defense of secularism” is a courageous piece. There has been too much of made pf religion, particularly in Newsweek that’s beginning to look like an encyclopedia of the world’s religions. Miller, in zeroing in on the word secularism, sums up the idiocy of undue emphasis on faiths incessantly conjuring another form of class warfare—separatists vs. modern churchgoers.

In my heyday a secularist was one who believed in good plumbing and transportation; churchgoers welcomed the day off and the practice of dressing up for an hour of prayer—both were inseparable. FDR’s recital of the Lord’s Prayer in behalf of the nation and the troops landing at Normandy was a sincere “blessing” whether religious or “secular.” My mother, however seldom breeched, would prohibit family squabbles over religion and politics.

Churchgoers today take for granted clean water, ultramodern plumbing, three square meals a day and then some, healthy kids, good education, and fine cars to drive up to their palatial places of worship—”sexperts” notwithstanding, what's not to like about secularism?

Copyright © 2008 Richard R. Kennedy All rights reserved. Revised: February 21,  2008.

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