Is Nothing Sacred?

We have been informed by several electronic preachers of the far right that the flood of secularism continues to mount higher and higher spreading out and engulfing an ever increasing area. These same T.V. preachers would have us return to the days of the past when at least according to them secularism was well controlled. We are accustomed to imagine that our predecessors lived in a quiet and orderly world, while we of this day are compelled to live in times when we must watch precious ideas vanish and venerable institutions decay. The truth of the matter is that our forebears all lived in eras of crisis and transition, they, like most of us, were bewildered by changes about them. And most of them fought the good fight but it was for a lost cause because change is inevitable. However, there were a few among our ancestors who refused to be bewildered by changes they saw going on around them. They refused to believe that the best days had been left behind. They refused to give up the ideals and the principles they believed to be eternal. They accepted the trend of their times and harnessed the seething tide of revolution that was sweeping all before it and used the very trend that had frightened the majority to bring about a new order--our American Civilization.

There is an aspect of the subject of the hour we ought to note before proceeding in our contemplation of the drift or trend in the world today. If we examine these religious bodies that, from our point of view, are the least progressive, that are opposed to the present trend, we find the number of sacred places and times and books and persons is even much larger than can be found in the Protestant world. On the other hand, if we come to those who prefer to think of themselves as rationalists, the number of those objects and persons is constantly decreasing. In other words, we find that the nearer we get to the past, the larger the number of places, times, actions, books and persons that are called sacred; and the further we come toward what promises to be, as far as we can see, the thought of the future, the less of this we find; that is, the area of the sacred is becoming continually narrower, and the area of the secular is ever increasing.

It might be well to ask at this point, just what is the philosophy of religion, if it can be called that, in and behind the sacred?

All primitive religion, and some not so primitive, have postulated a god, entirely outside the natural world and having little to do with the ordinary affairs of daily life, except, as God chose arbitrarily to interfere with them. Since God had been looked upon as external to nature and the ordinary life of humanity, this ordinary life had been regarded as common, as human, as secular. God has always been represented as a being who has come into the affairs of the world and human life; and certain places, certain days, certain actions, certain books, certain persons have been claimed by God, or assigned to God, to be used in certain ways for God's honor. With such an assumption as this, it logically follows that the divine, the sacred, in human life has always been looked upon as being the arbitrary, the occasional, the mysterious, the special and not as the regular, the ordinary. The ordinary happenings of the world were common, secular and God had little to do with the ordinary. God might interfere here and there, saying, "This day is mine; you must not work on it." God might choose someone to write a special book, and while the same things might be stated in other books, yet God could say, "This is my book." Or God could choose certain individuals and say, "These are my saints, my priests, my prophets, my ministers; you common people must give them reverence; you must pay attention to what they say; and do it, or else!"

Thus, it must be evident that the sacred, the holy objects and persons of this world have not necessarily been connected with human welfare and happiness. They have not sprung out of the wants and needs, the hopes and aspirations, of humanity. Rather, they have been injected into human life.

That is enough of what the sacred things are and how they came into existence. But, now, as the result of modern investigation, the development of knowledge, the growth of science, we stand face to face with a grave problem. As people have become wiser, as the spirit of science has become larger and larger, the area referred to as sacred has been diminishing.

We now confront some questions: "What is to be the outcome? Is religion to die out? Is the sacred entirely to pass away? Is the world all to become secular?”

The answer to these questions will depend entirely upon you definition of religion. If religion is to continue to maintain its arbitrary manner--only in the unnatural, the supernatural, the mysterious, the unknown, the occasional-- if it is to be inconsistent with the natural order of the natural world, it should stop now, for it is dead already, or it ought to be. If religion is but another method of thought control for the purpose of enslaving the minds of people, then it should be destroyed, and the quicker the better. Religion is certain to die unless there is a place in the everyday affairs of people for it.

But I do not think, not for a single moment, that religion, that is, real religion, will either die or become displaced. Real religion has to do with the power in the universe. It has to do with the proper relationship that one should have one's fellow humans. Perhaps this is obvious to some but perhaps we can make it obvious to others by raising a few questions: what is the essential factor in religion? Is a miracle essential to religion? Of course not. Is arbitrary action essential to religion? No, a thousand times no! What then, is essential? Let us examine the human heart for a moment in its relation to the outside world and see what we would call the religious attitude of humanity.

First of all, a religious person is most likely to be reverent and worshipful. The question is, in view of what has been said, is there any ground in the modern world, the secular world as some religious bodies insist on calling it, for worship? It seems to me that this modern conception of the universe gives a thousand-fold more range and sweep for these sentiments than ever dreamed of in the theories of the old theological and cosmological ideas. For the creative spirit, God, is not on some far away mountain top or on some vague white throne in a distant heaven up there somewhere, unconcerned about the situations and problems of the human race. God the creative spirit, the holy is here, a vital living presence in whom we live and move and have our being. Our conception of the universe, of the power manifested through it, of the infinite possibilities of human nature, of truth, beauty and goodness, of law and order--are not these things unspeakably grander than they ever were before? Do not the human heart and the thoughtful mind bow with reverence, with a sense of admiration and adoration--and this is the very essence of worship. Should anyone require an element of mystery in worship, never was there so much mystery in this old world as there has been given to us by these modern discoveries.

Another essential element in the religious attitude of people, is the sense of dependence--the feeling that we are in the presence of the infinite and eternal energy, that was here before we were and will be here a million ages from now. We are fully aware, thanks to modern knowledge, that this infinite power has given us life, on which we depend every moment and by whose laws we live.

Still another essential element is that the religious person recognizes the law of right, the law of duty, the law of life from which there is no escape. This power, this moral law, touches us on every side. We can no more evade, much less escape from it, than we can escape the atmosphere we breathe. Moreover, this law is consistent and constant, operating in every area of existence. In the "natural area" it is called the law of cause and effect, and in the human area, it is referred to in the terms of conduct and consequence; but it is the same law.

There is ground in this modern thought for trust, for hope, for aspiration. There is reason, as there never was before, for personal consecration to the highest ideal and the noblest conception of life. It appears to me that, so far from the elements of essential religion being in danger of dying or of being destroyed, because they are recognized as natural, as common everywhere, we are face to face with the inevitable fact that these things are coming closer to us, are becoming more intimate, and the more sacred because we are coming at last to recognize that they are really the dwelling place of the supreme spirit of fullness and plenty.

The question that many are wondering about is, “Are, then, special objects and persons to fade out of our life? Is there to be no more a sacred place, a sacred time, a sacred book, sacred actions, or sacred persons?” If these are to vanish with the ever increasing growth of secularism, then something of great worth will have been lost. While it is true that certain associations will have been lost--they are lost already and forever, as far as some of us are concerned--nevertheless less in getting rid of the old arbitrary, artificial, superficial associations and objects, we have gained immeasurably. We are at last in the position to recognize those items that are inherently, naturally vital and therefore really sacred. Are not our lives full of the memories of holy places, of places connected in our thoughts with noble deeds, high hopes and kindling aspirations? Are there not in our memories sacred hours consecrated to some noble truth, hours given to the service of loved ones or some noble cause? There have been sacred days and sacred times, and there will be many more sacred days and sacred times yet to come. What of the sacred books, the bibles of the world? Have we rationalists in religion really dethroned the Bible of the church as some insist? We have removed it from the artificial pedestal where certain superstitions had placed it, and we have demanded that all people recognize it for what it really is: a book revealing the growth of the idea of God in the mind of a great segment of humanity; a book that inspired our founding fathers and mothers to establish a government of freedom and equality for all, for all and not for a few; a book that needs no defense, for it speaks for itself and in my behalf.

Are there no more sacred men and women? Nonsense, sacred men and women are the ones who have ministered to us in our hours of necessity; they have comforted us in our sorrow, they have lifted us when we have been bowed down; they have made it easier for us to believe in ourselves and in the creative spirit, the holy, that some people call God. These people have no need of some ecclesiastical artificial canonization, for we have canonized them ourselves. What shall we say of the men and women who were the companions of Jesus--the men and women who braved pagan Rome in order to found the congregation, the beloved community of faithful souls? Most certainly they are saints, and so are Jefferson, Murray, Balou, Channing, Emerson, Barton, John and Abigail Adams, Howe, the immortal Lincoln, Stanton, Stone, Anthony, Martin Luther King, Jr. and many of those common men and women who give their all in the struggle for equality and freedom. What is sacred, what is holy, what is hallowed, if not these?

Call this a secular civilization if you choose. Call this way of life, the best, thus far in all history, "the cult of democracy" if you will. It makes little difference to the strong and the courageous, for we believe in the power of righteousness; we believe, with Robert Louis Stevenson, in the ultimate decency in all things; we believe that people are children of the creative spirit and hence have it within their power to recognize in all things the sacred, the holy, the religious. We believe that the creative spirit -- the holy, God -- is not dead, that the creative spirit is, and it is in the creative spirit that we live and move and have our being! We believe with John Murray, the founder of Universalism in America, that it is our sacred task to give to people ". . . not Hell, but hope and courage!"

Rev. Bertrand Steeves