The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines secularism as: the belief that religion and religious considerations should be ignored within the social or political aspects of a country. In many ways such a definition denotes that religion or an individual’s religious beliefs should be carried out in a personal and private manner and not in a public forum. Secularism can relegate the idea that religion has no public place in our American society. This does not say faith is something which is non-existent, especially for a Christian, it is that faith has no relevance for the day-to-day operations of one’s social, professional, or political activities.
Secularism, in other words, has not been nearly as successful in disproving faith as it has been in dismissing faith. Within a secular framework, faith is relegated to the realm of the personal and the private, irrelevant to larger questions about reality or truth.
[In his monumental work A Secular Age, philosopher Charles Taylor argued that the marginalization of religious belief has led to the “disenchantment” we experience in the modern world. While the sacred aspects of life and reality were plain and obvious to prior generations, those who have been shaped by the ideas, technologies, and habits of a modern world tend to miss the sacred, the transcendent, and the Divine.
In other words, we live in a world where the assumptions that govern how we think and what we do are almost always secular ones. For many in the modern West, life proceeds without even considering God. Good things come from our hard work and planning, not from the gracious hands of our loving Father.] Colson Center: Breakpoint Daily Devotion March 29th, 2023
Dear fellow Christians, this is a battle we are all constantly facing in today’s America. Advancements in electronic technology (especially with concern for Artificial Intelligence design), medicine, space research, and Academia have caused a great deal of tension for us as people of God. There is a force (secularism) which is pressuring you and me to drift away from worshiping the Lord God Almighty as the ultimate authority and controller of all things in heaven and under heaven. This is a fight we cannot lose or a mindset we can never succumb to. For to do so would be turning our back on the God who made us, saved us, and sustains us each and every day of our lives. God is to be the main influencer when it comes to our social, professional, and political interactions. If you are going to be a slave be a slave to the Lord and not this world (secularism)! What then is navigating your life: God or secularism? Pastor McCarty
Comments