{"id":447,"date":"2014-01-17T17:09:12","date_gmt":"2014-01-17T17:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beta.dminlgp.com\/?p=447"},"modified":"2014-08-12T23:44:19","modified_gmt":"2014-08-12T23:44:19","slug":"is-secularism-good-or-bad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/is-secularism-good-or-bad\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Secularism Good or Bad?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hindus in India are currently celebrating a weeklong festival that occurs during mid January each year; one that bears social and religious significance and goes by different names depending on the region of the country.\u00a0 These festival days are considered exceptionally auspicious, that people throng to popular pilgrim locations, ancient temples and \u2018holy\u2019 rivers for a darshan <\/em>(glimpse) of their favorite dieties.\u00a0 VIPs such as political leaders, movie stars, business magnates and people who can afford offerings of significant financial proportions receive preferential treatment in these \u2018holy\u2019 places.\u00a0\u00a0 Today\u2019s front page headlines carried the news that a person with underworld connections\u00a0 found in the company of two political leaders, was treated \u2018royally\u2019 and instead of just one, was able to have two darshans<\/em>. \u00a0Religious Mafia; that\u2019s hard to even imagine. \u00a0The second page of the newspaper had a picture and a half-page article of the Governor of a State being allowed the privilege of performing a puja (ritual) <\/em>in the same renowned temple in South India;\u00a0 a deeply religious politician.<\/p>\n

To a foreigner these practices that are part and parcel of Indian daily life may seem peculiar while I am looking at these seemingly weird happenings in the light of my current reading of A Secular Age<\/em> by Charles Taylor; seeking meaning and understanding of the concept in my context of life and ministry. \u00a0Spiritual roots go deep in the Indian culture and remains entwined in every part of daily life; from that vantage point, it may be said that India is still at the point which Taylor describes as \u201cvirtually impossible not to believe in God\u201d\u00a0(Taylor 2007); a culture that is still religiously \u2018embedded\u2019 and \u2018enchanted\u2019. Unfortunately, this condition poses a complex set of problems for the political structure of the nation, dividing it on religious and communal lines.<\/p>\n

Taylor writes from a Western and Christian standpoint tracing the history and evolution of secularity to its present state in the Western world.\u00a0 The main question he poses at the very outset, \u201cWhat is it that has taken the Western society in which it was virtually impossible not to believe in God, to one in which faith, even for the staunchest believer, is one human possibility among others,\u201d\u00a0 provides a substantial summary of his central thesis.\u00a0 He goes on further with this theme, \u201cThere are many now for whom belief in God is no longer axiomatic.\u00a0 They have alternatives.\u00a0 And this will also likely mean that at least in certain miliewx it may be hard to sustain one\u2019s faith\u00a0(Taylor 2007).\u201d \u00a0How does this translate in the Indian context?<\/p>\n

India is constitutionally declared a secular democracy; however, secularism as defined in this context is slightly different from that which Charles Taylor discusses in his book The Secular Age<\/em>.\u00a0 In the Indian context secularism implies tolerance and acceptance of all religions and the provision of equal space to every faith in the social and political sphere.\u00a0 Both, the meaning and the sentiment behind the use of the term in India is conveyed well in Mahatma Gandhi\u2019s words: \u201cI do not expect India of my dreams to develop one religion, i.e., to be wholly Hindu or wholly Christian or wholly Mussalman (sic), but I want it to be wholly tolerant, with its religions working side by side with one another.\u00a0(Secularism in India n.d.).\u201d<\/p>\n

During the time of the struggle for national freedom from colonialism, \u2018secularism\u2019 emerged as a dominant theme and a principle underpinning the cause. History reveals that along with the struggle for freedom there was an equally if not greater struggle to build and maintain such secularism.\u00a0 However, in the pluralistic context in which India finds herself in, it has been a difficult, complex and arduous task of social leaders then and now.\u00a0 For secularism in the spirit of India\u2019s constitution to be restored is a dire need and that is the heartcry of the Indian Church. Having said all this, I must add in closing, the Church has a great responsibility to live out its faith in real life. While the West mourns the birth of secularism, the East mourns its death; what a paradox. In Rudyard Kipling\u2019s classic words: \u201cEast is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet, \u00a0\u00a0Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God\u2019s great Judgement Seat.<\/p>\n

Bateman, Chris. 2008. http:\/\/onlyagame.typepad.com\/only<\/a> \u00a0 a\u00a0game\/2008\/09\/a-secular-age\/\u00a0(accessed January 14, 20014).<\/p>\n

Morgan, Michael. http:\/\/ndpr.nd.edu\/news\/23696-a-secular-age\/2008<\/a> (accessed Jan 14, 2014).<\/p>\n

Secularism in India.<\/em><\/p>\n

Taylor, Charles.\u00a0<\/span>A secular age<\/em>. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of<\/p>\n

Harvard University Press,\u00a02007.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hindus in India are currently celebrating a weeklong festival that occurs during mid January each year; one that bears social and religious significance and goes by different names depending on the region of the country.\u00a0 These festival days are considered exceptionally auspicious, that people throng to popular pilgrim locations, ancient temples and \u2018holy\u2019 rivers for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2,186,189],"class_list":["post-447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dminlgp","tag-taylor","tag-taylor-secular","cohort-lgp3"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1775,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447\/revisions\/1775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}