About a year ago, a traveling exhibition of The Dead Sea Scrolls
went on display at the local museum near where I live. These early
manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible dated as far back as the 3rd century before
Christ and are the second oldest known manuscripts of the type in existence.
The finding of these scrolls was a truly remarkable discovery. I
figured it would be fascinating to see these in person, so I sauntered on down
to the museum to spend the afternoon perusing them.
Immediately upon entering the exhibit, I
noticed the museum placards describing various artifacts and scroll fragments
were all listed in the ridiculous Before Common Era (BCE) and Common Era (CE)
notations. At first I was borderline amused, which quickly turned into
extreme annoyance. A museum placard at the beginning of the exhibit
explained with politically correct reasoning that the museum did not want to
upset those people viewing the exhibit that might be offended by the notations
of Before Christ (BC) and Anno Domini (AD) [Latin for “in the year of our Lord”].
Really?!?!
I would bet that anyone that was
interested in coming to see these scrolls which were a part of the Hebrew Bible
(aka part of the Old Testament) would probably not be offended by the
non-secular “BC” and “AD” notations. While I had been aware of the
ever-encroaching foolishness of political correctness manifesting itself in
hyper secularism, this really sent me over the edge and made my teeth itch.
Had the most remarkable religious discovery of the 20th century fallen
victim to politically correct secularism?
Secularism. What the hell is that?
It is not necessarily the same thing as atheism, although the two often
go together like the ACLU and hypocrisy. Secularism, in the classical
understanding of the term, is used to mean those things that dealt with earthly
matters or the temporal order. Today, the term seems to be used in the
context of an absence of religious belief or participation thereof. Indeed
in the modern era, seemingly more and more people embrace a type of purely
self-sufficient humanism – a secularism aimed at one’s material flourishing
without any consideration whatsoever of a transcendent order and reality. And that in and of itself is fine with me, if
such is a person’s choice. More power to him or her. After all, we still
live in a free country – well, kind of anyway.
That said, America as a nation was founded with an acknowledgement
of our “firm Reliance on the Protection of divine Providence” and those most
precious inalienable rights bestowed upon us not by the government, but by our
Creator; thus states our Declaration of Independence. Regardless, the
idea was that Americans could worship as they choose, in public and indeed in
government buildings and institutions, or they could choose not to do so.
Today, with the rise of this seeming virulent secularism, some twisted
notion that faith should never intrude into the public arena seems to be the
rule of the day.
And so we see this infectious secularism
now spreading to a historical religious exhibit at the local museum in the
guise of BCE and CE notations. This is really nothing more than a mere change
of a name. It is as if some secularist decided, “Don’t bring this Lord stuff
into the debate!” Okay. Fine, but then tell me, what is the single
defining event that separates BC and the silly BCE from AD and the sillier CE?
Is it not the birth of Christ regardless of the terms? I suppose if
one were to ask some quasi-scientist or politically correct historian what was The Event that delineated BCE from CE, he could
shuffle his feet and mumble something about a non-theologically significant
event --- or he could tell you about Christ.
Whether one accepts the divinity of Christ
or not, the historical fact of His existence and the undeniable fact that He
changed the history of the world since His human incarnation is the lone event
that ends the era “Before Christ” and ushers in the era “In the Year of Our
Lord”. The changing of the names of the eras to something that is
politically correct does nothing to change the actual event that delineates
those eras. Rather it simply points out in glaring fashion the degrees to
which secularism has ascended in our Western culture today.
The BC/AD to BCE/CE debacle is only one
small thread in this new secularist tapestry being woven by many of the
politically correct and secular humanists today. There are other issues on
the secularist’s loom that they are trying to remake too. For example, a denial of our country’s
history and its founding as a Christian nation is a pervasive meme found taught
by many of higher academia’s teachers today. Even President Obama has insisted
in the past that we are not necessarily a Christian nation.
The secularist’s axiom seems to be as
science and reason spread, religious belief will wane. The notion that science and faith are
inextricably linked seems like an utter impossibility to the secularist, and
any mention of God or faith in the public sphere is something to be shunned
lest it lead society backwards into the dark ages of superstition and the
supernatural.
Because of these new ideals, public prayer
or Christmas nativity displays are often banned in many cities today. And
yet debauchery is on display in some of those same cities with gay pride
parades and the like where members openly mock Christ and those things that a
majority of Americans still consider sacred.
Even during the Christmas season, it is often seen as an affront to PC
Secularists to wish someone “Merry Christmas!” instead of the more benign and
ambiguously indifferent “Happy Holidays”.
And what have we gained by this
metastasizing secularism? Are we a kinder, more generous and caring
people because of this? Is ours a society that strives to take care of
the least of our brothers and sisters in desperate need? Or do we simply
focus on the humanistic secularism that says we must “get ours first and
foremost” in a Darwinian survival of the fittest?
It has generally been my experience that
those people whom are the most militant in their secularism are often times the
most disagreeable and abrasive of souls too. They seem to be very
unhappy, and indeed how could they not be? If one believes in nothing
more than materialism and temporal matters alone, how could one be truly happy?
Love, beauty, and life itself are not magnificent gifts from God to the
militant humanist secularist. They are subjective things to be used as tools for a
means to an end to further one’s earthly gains. With such an outlook, I
suppose I would be grumpy and acerbic too!
Unfortunately though, it is not enough
that they alone hold this merely as a personal opinion. Rather, it
becomes incumbent upon them to spread this secularist mindset to all of society
so that nobody might be offended by God, His son Jesus, or religion at all.
Myself having once traveled down an
atheistic, if not secular road before, I found life to be very unfulfilling.
It was lacking in purpose – in meaning – and certainly in true agape
love. My heart was restless and often very saddened until, through God’s
grace and mercy, I eventually was lead back to Him. Indeed I pray that
this secularism is nothing more than a trend that will eventually pass like a
strong winter storm. In its passing, we will once again come into the
Spring of God’s blessings and perhaps many of those lost secularists will
return or perhaps for the first time come into Christ’s fold. Their need to
replace or wipe away any vestige of things that are overtly religious or even
having religious connotations, such as replacing BC and AD with secularist
substitutions in our museums, will no longer be necessary for them. Perhaps these would-be secularists can then finally
find some semblance of peace. St.
Augustine said it best regarding God, “You have made us for yourself, and our
hearts are restless, until they find rest in you.”
Indeed!
