Secular Hope: What the Religious Right Really Want and Why Liberal Democrats Should Suport Them

Different understandings of the word 'secular' are at root of America's domestic and international political conflicts. Academics and legal professionals, by failing to heed Harvey Cox's 1965 warning to distinguish between 'secularism' as a closed ideology and 'secularization' as a healthy cultural process, are inadvertently fuelling fundamentalism and the culture wars. This distinction is critical to protecting the human right advances made by liberal secular governments. SECULAR HOPE, using Northrop Frye's Great Code, integrates the differing political assumptions of the religious right, modern liberals, the American founding fathers, and Islamic scholars to create a peaceful vision of a post secular future via secularization. The United States was founded on faith in secularization; the belief that only individuals can morally reconcile their religious and rational understandings of their own personal experiences. Deviating from this idea, which is deeply embedded in all monotheistic cultures, cannot be done lightly even when coming from the best of intentions. By comparing Canadian and American constitutional approaches to secularity, it is shown that while America's unique path is more contentious it is ultimately more hopeful. A post secular constitutional vision is offered that will safely bring down the Western wall of separation that currently is preventing America from moving beyond the Cold war and realizing its full potential as a global leader. SECULAR HOPE provides a historical, yet practical, understanding of what it means to live respectfully in a secular society today.

ANDREA L. PARLIAMENT was attending a meeting on Ontario’s private school tax credit on 9/11. Since then, she has been researching secularization in both Canada and the United States making use of her LLB/MBA from Dalhousie and BA in Social Psychology from the University of Alberta. Andrea lives on the Canadian side of Lake Ontario.