Religion
Today
Religion
Today is contributed by UW's Religious Studies Program to examine and promote
discussion of religious issues.
August
26 – September 1, 2001
To hear some people talk, you would think that religion and secularity
were enemies, and that secularization was an external force fundamentally
antagonistic to religious life. On closer examination, however, the
relationship between religion and secularity is friendlier than some people
think.
Many ideas and practices that we now view as secular originated or
developed in the context of religious life. Proven success within that
religious context enabled them to become more widespread. To some extent,
then, secularization involves the application, expansion and popularity of
ideas and practices outside the religious environment that nurtured them.
For example, protection of individual rights is a fundamental and
pervasive aspect of Western culture. You don't have to be religious to believe
in individual rights and, in some cases, you may be vulnerable to prosecution,
whatever your religious affiliation, if you violate them. The modern concept
of individual rights is partly rooted in ancient Greek ideas of citizenship
and in Roman law. But the idea of treating equally every individual,
regardless of birth or wealth, was not part of republican life in ancient
Greece. And it only became part of the legal traditions rooted in Roman law as
a result of developments within ancient and medieval Christianity (and to a
lesser extent, within Judaism and Islam as well).
This is not to say that ancient or medieval Christians always treated
people equally, or even believed they should be treated so. But
religiously-inspired Christians, Jews and Muslims who did believe in treating
people equally turned out to have a sound, practical idea that ultimately
caught on in Western societies and became part of secular law.
This process evolved further during the civil rights movements of the
20th century. In his efforts to gather popular support for equal treatment of
African Americans under U.S. law, Martin Luther King, Jr. repeatedly referred
to the biblical stories about God's freeing the Hebrew people from slavery in
Egypt and Moses' anticipation of the Promised Land. Many Jews identified
deeply with the same biblical stories and, motivated by their religious
ideals, supported the civil rights movement led by King. Other Americans, such
as Malcolm X, looked to Islam as the ultimate religious inspiration for human
equality around the world as well as in the United States. Christian, Jewish
and Islamic religions played significant roles in the advances made in civil
rights during the 20th century.
But religion's success in this regard is best measured in secular terms.
While religious people continued to support and advance them, the new laws,
social customs, and attitudes that resulted from the civil rights movement
stood on their own, independent of religious belief. And that secularization
of civil rights is evidence of religion's success.