We hear over and over from the evangelical right how secularism is destroying America and oppressing their religious expression. They seem to be unable to distinguish between secularism and certain brands of fascism and communism, even though it is obvious that they cannot even tell the difference between either.
So what is Secularism?
Secularism is a principle that involves two basic propositions. The first is the strict separation of the state from religious institutions. The second is that people of different religions and beliefs are equal before the law.
It is also pretty obvious when listening to religious discourse in the US that Christians themselves cannot agree as to what constitutes Christianity.
One secular failure in the US is that it fails to consider those with no religion whatsoever, just watch the mad dash of any politician has to do to confirm that they are indeed religious. The upcoming campaign should be interesting and whatever you don't propose a drinking game involving the use of "god", you might find out if there is an afterlife or not sooner than you might wish.
We often here the phrase the "America is a Christian Country", which brand? Catholic? Baptist? Lutheran? Calvinist? etc etc etc. Personally I have heard some pretty severe disagreements between them and history is littered with casualties from such theological debate. Hence the founders [who knew how this shit turned out] decided to protect all religions from each other by giving equal protection to all.
Hell, Lutherans cannot even agree.
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America [which itself has 3 subdivisions] believes the bible to be an historical record and not to be taken completely literally, they allow the ordination of women. Holy communion? If you like.
The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, sort of recognizes that women are not totally corrupt and allow women some official status. The bible is taken literally.
Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, no woman is to hold any office within the church. The bible is taken literally.
[note: I might be wrong on some of the variations as what is considered as the correct procedure might have changed, again.]
There are some more subdivisions: The American Association of Lutheran Churches, Church of the Lutheran Confession, Evangelical Lutheran Synod and the Association of Free Lutheran Congregations. There are probably a few more that I don't know of...
Now as for the bible, which version is to be taken literally, which interpretation is the correct one? Did the Council of Nicea [325 AD] make the right choices?
So say we scrap secular government, which religion and which version of that religion makes the laws governing the country? Now as outsider to patriarchal thought, how does that effect me? After all, historically speaking, the record is not a good one, the words doormat and chattel come to mind, as does the phrase "second class citizen".
Catholics once upon a time regarded everyone else as heretics, even protestants. When I listen to evangelical preachers I see the same pattern, in turn Catholics come under scrutiny as to their actual faith.
The one thing secularism does effectively, is allow them to express how they feel freely without prejudice. Can the same thing be said of how they would behave given legislative power? Historically, the signs are not good that they would be reasonable. Nothing seems to get people riled up quite like religion, and to reduce that problem, secularism was the intelligent choice.
Just a thought.