Secularity

ABC Religion Online has had a number of articles debating the value of chaplains in schools and special religious education in schools. Generally they either argue that 'Secular means separate from religious content' or 'Secular can include religious content'.  Most recently, the editor Scott Stephens (SS) has posted to say that he thinks that the church is compromised when funded by the state, and suggested that we should be weaning off this particular teat.  I am inclined to agree, to some extent, but I think there is a problem with imagining that a line drawn between sacred and secular could be drawn justly by the non-believing part of the community alone. Part of the problem is atheism not being properly thought through and each atheist thinking that since he or she and all his or her friends assume the same value system, it is the 'natural one' which cursed stupid Christians deny.

Secularism assumes that if you strip away the religious layers, you can regain and share a common humanity, that there is a grounded human ethic to be found. It sees secular space not as a worthwhile but procrustean compromise to help us live together, but as the dominant, positive ethic of our society.

Funny old fellow that I am, I think secular space needs to be humble space - our community includes a lot of people who believe that the real answers of life are 'religious' and the secular part of our life needs to be modest enough to allow those answers.  The Secular is a great invention ( Jesus endorsed it when he said 'render unto Caesar that which is Caesar and to God that which is God's).  Secularism can become an ideology that would exclude religion from every part of public life if it could.