Secularism, Anyone?

For a surprising number of people, one of the things that the United States is now apparently fighting to defend is "secularism." George F. Will in the Washington Post: "And they hate America because it is the purest expression of modernity - individualism, pluralism, freedom, secularism." Joshua Micah Marshall of the American Prospect: "What our enemies hate about us is not so much our freedom and democracy as our diversity and materialism, our secularism and our tolerance." Katha Pollitt in The Nation: What would happen if the West took seriously the forces in the Muslim world who call for education, social justice, women's rights, democracy, civil liberties and secularism?" In the days since September 11th, I have heard several commentators on TV, including the columnist Thomas Friedman of the New York Times, speak almost patriotically about the importance in our society, and by implication in any good society, of "secularism."

Let's try to untangle this one. For starters, Joshua Marshall in his essay defines "secularism" as "a willingness to disagree about life's most profound truths." That's wildly inaccurate. The word "secular" comes from the Latin "saeculum," meaning "world," and suggesting the idea of "in the world." A secular activity, therefore, is one that occurs outside of the church ("in the world"). A secular officer is one who is not an officer of the church. It is correct, therefore, to say that the United States has a "secular" government, since U.S. government officials do not simultaneously serve as church officials. What is being described is function, not faith. Saying "secular" tells us nothing about whether the persons involved are pious or impious, or whether they are "willing to disagree" about something.

Then there is the quite different matter of "secularism." The main thing to know about secularism is that it is an "ism" - it's an ideology, a way of seeing the world. Secularism means the rejection of religion or hostility toward religion. The term dates largely from the French Revolution of the late 18th century, in which anti-clericism ran so strong that, according to one popular slogan of the day, it would be a fine thing to hang the last aristocrat "with the guts of the last priest." Marshall's confused claim notwithstanding, secularism is not another way of saying that you believe in tolerance of religious differences, or that you believe in the separation of church and state. A secularist, or someone who believes in secularism, is a person who dislikes and distrusts religion.

Now, there are certainly some people in the United States, citizens in good standing, who dislike and distrust religion. And it does not surprise me to hear certain Islamic militants, including some who support or participate in terrorism, cite this phenomenon as an example of our decadence and corruption, and as one reason why they hate us.

But do these facts mean that, in this new campaign against terrorism, we are suddenly marching as a society under a flag called "secularism?" Has hostility to religion become one of the things we are fighting for? Surely, for the great majority of Americans, the answer is no.

So here's the proposition. We obviously reject violent religious extremism, whether Islamic or otherwise. And as a society that values freedom of conscience, we do not assault or withhold respect and recognition from those who are philosophically hostile to religion. But as a society overwhelmingly comprised of religious believers - indeed, as a society in which the individual's freedom to seek and worship God is widely viewed as the most important freedom of all - we need not define ourselves, in war or in peace, as a society that draws strength and purpose from an ideology called "secularism."

Sources: George F. Will, "A Strike at the Pillars," Washington Post, September 14, 2001. Joshua Micah Marshall, "The Enemy Hates What We Are," New York Post, September 21, 2001. Katha Pollitt, "Put Out No Flags," The Nation, October 8, 2001. Iain T. Benson, "Secular Confusions," Centrepoints 8 (Ottawa: Centre for Cultural Renewal, Spring 2000).

First published Fall 2001.