Conquering the Religious-Secular Divide

A few weeks ago, I participated in a private convening with multifaith leaders who are working for justice. We were Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, and Sikh; sprinkled among the participants and facilitators were a few secular humanists, agnostics, and atheists. The passion for justice among all of us was fierce. Leaders in the group are fighting anti-Muslim bigotry; striving for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, or LGBT, equality; working to reduce poverty; and more. We are allies in the struggle for justice.

And yet, during one of the small discussion groups, a man who isn’t religious confessed that he often feels judged by his religious colleagues. It is never overt, he said, but rather a subtle hinting that his moral code—coming as it does from nonreligious sources—is somehow inferior to theirs.

He said this in the mid-afternoon—typically not a high-energy time of day. But all of us sat up in our chairs, and several people started talking at once. He had hit a nerve. Another man who is religious responded that he often feels disrespected, too—by secular colleagues who subtly imply that religion is a major source of bigotry and intolerance in the world.

Welcome to the religious-secular divide.

For many of us who work on justice issues, this divide feels like a pebble in our shoe—an irksome, sometimes painful nuisance that can be ignored for a while but eventually hobbles our work. While the sides are not neatly drawn—many of us identify with aspects of both the religious and the secular worlds—the gap in understanding, trust, and mutual respect is not a good thing.

In the hope that understanding will help us shrink this gap, here is a brief description of each viewpoint.

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