A Post Secular Society

It is hard to see what is so great about our nation today.

Our immigrant communities are paralyzed with fear as ICE reaches far beyond its stated concern of removing “violent offenders.”

The humanitarian crisis in Gaza daily reveals fresh horrors, with no political or peacemaking end in sight.

Our planet continues its spiral into ecological catastrophe, appointed bureaucrats have compromised our commitments to medical research and vaccine safety, and the economic security of the American people has been sacrificed at the altar of corporate and political greed.

We continue to see the erosion of the line between church and state, with a bevy of executive orders that prioritize certain Christian narratives over and against our nation’s diverse religious beliefs.

Every American is entitled to have (or not have) a view of faith. But having a faith commitment does not entail forcing others to have one too – this is a remarkable strength in the development of American democracy, one worth preserving.

When it comes to the story of faith in our nation, we might ask ourselves an important question: how do we understand the separation of church and state in our post-modern, secular context?

Over the past few months, we’ve seen at least one of those views loud and clear, expressed primarily through various far-right ideologies of sexism, xenophobia, and white supremacy masquerading as Christianity.

In place of the gospel, proponents of those views seek to enforce an old order of the world, grounded in a mythical notion of “tradition” and a “better time”.

In legal and academic circles, there is an ongoing debate about the origins of secularity itself and the degree to which our secular commitments today are informed by a Protestant infused Enlightenment.

Although there are very good reasons to explore the genealogy of our political and social commitments, that alone is not reason enough to swing back into an idealized vision of the pre-Reformation church. Theological differences and questions concerning ecclesiastical authority have always been a part of our institutional story – now is not the time for rose colored glasses.

We might also seek to understand the nature of the relationship between our faith commitments and our secular commitments. This is especially important given the collapse of the institutional and cultural systems that we have (mistakenly?) relied on for moral judgements.

I do not expect much clarity from our political, educational, or corporate classes. We have already seen what they will sacrifice to maintain the status quo.

So, what do we do?

We preach.

We pray.

We show up.

We embrace our differences, religious or otherwise, because we understand that God embraces each of us.

We set aside fear-based narratives and lean into God’s story of love and compassion.

We recognize that our fight has never been about preserving the status quo, the dominating narratives of oppression and empire, but that it has always been about the renewing of our minds.