Today, I would like to invite us to reflect on the 5th of our 7 principles….. “The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large.”
Over the past couple of weeks of thinking about this reflection, what I have found particularly clarifying, is the word “secular.” I find something in that word “secular” liberating just now. And I have become curious about what that was. How do you think about the word secular? Perhaps you might share your thoughts at the end on our uses of the word secular.
I’ve been trying out this word and found the word “secular” to be quite useful in trying to explain what chaplaincy in a public and multicultural university is and could be. Once in a while I have said that “I thought my religious sensibilities are secular.” I have to be a little careful where and how I use it. Some find the use of that word to be provocative and disloyal to the traditional calling of those who are “religious” professionals. How can you be a chaplain and be “secular”?
The full text of this interesting and provocative talk by the Rev. daniel Jantos can be found here.
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