Pluralism v. Secularism

Christopher Hitchens was discussing his new book about Thomas Jefferson recently on the Dennis Prager Show. They had an interesting disagreement over the meaning of the word “secular.” For Hitchens, secular describes anyone who accepted Jefferson’s belief in the separation of church and state. For Prager, however, secular means the near opposite of religious. Thus, they disagreed about whether the United States is a secular country and whether a religious person could logically advocate secularism.

Their discussion reminded me of one of the many valuable insights from Natan Sharansky’s, The Case for Democracy. He makes a distinction between a secular society and a pluralist society, which Hitchens would benefit from reading. Sharansky argues that America is pluralist rather than secular. He also argues that pluralism is superior to secularism.

I think Webster’s 4th definition is the one Sharansky means:

pluralism: (a) a state of society in which members of diverse ethnic, racial, religious, or social groups maintain an autonomous participation in and development of their traditional culture or special interest within the confines of a common civilization; (b) a concept, doctrine, or policy advocating this state.

Contrast that with Webster’s definition of secularism:

secularism: indifference to or rejection or exclusion of religion and religious considerations.

By these definitions, Prager and Sharansky are clearly right. America has historically been, and ought to remain pluralist. Western Europe, on the other hand, is much more secular. Ultimately, the two are incompatible. If you support pluralism, you should oppose secularism. People who are hostile to the influence of religion in public life generally blame religion for causing discord, strife, and murder. However, Nazism and Communism were both secular ideologies, and their combined death toll in the twentieth century dwarfs the number of people killed “in the name of religion.”

How many people have been killed to further a pluralist ideology?

This entry was posted on Friday, August 5th, 2005 at 5:47 pm and is filed under Church and State. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.