Standing at the Crossroads
One of the inescapable realities is that we presently live in a secular, pluralist, post-modern … what? I want to say “society” or “culture,” but part of the challenge is that society and culture imply a cohesiveness that we don’t know exists any longer. So, let’s settle for “milieu” or “environment.” Whatever it’s called, and for better or worse, Christian communities and organizations in the West now live in a milieu that no longer takes Christian values, forms and structures to be “the” way to live. What does grace have to say about this?
Secularism
To begin with, secularism refers to a belief in the separation of church and state. At one time many Western countries had a state church. While this has never been true in Canada, even some of the original states of the United States had “established” churches. This meant that kings and governors had a role in appointing bishops and other church officials, and in turn those church officials had a role in legitimizing the kings and governors. We can’t imagine this happening nowadays. Places in the world that are experimenting with it―especially “fundamentalist Islamist states”―are reported on with some fear and enormous incredulity. Whether we come at it from the side of ordinary citizens and elected politicians or from the side of ordinary church members and ecclesiastical authorities, we will defend a division of power between state and church.
