THE SECULAR CRITIQUE

THE DEBATE:

During his presidential tenure, Ronald Reagan appealed to the religious right, in particular evangelical Protestants, who felt that America and the American media had ushered in a new era of moral depravity through enhanced secularism. On many occasions, President Reagan linked communism with godlessness as a threat to the moral fiber of America, and labeled the Soviet Union Òthe focus of evil in the modern world.Ó The spoke out against abortion and pornography and advocated prayer in schools and a strong military arsenal to resist communism to battle modern day secularism. Many American journalists criticized the presidential rhetoric as political sermonizing. Others hailed him for standing up for their religious beliefs.


THE LEFT vs THE RIGHT

Commonweal
September 21, 1984
"Mr. Reagan's Civil Religion"

This article argues that it is not right-wing Christian fundamentalism that Ronald Reagan advocates, but instead the broader concept of Òcivil religion.Ó Civil religion, in this sense, is Òa generalized faith that binds together the nation and links the national purpose to some higher or deeper reality...Ó For those Americans who felt that secularization was being forced on them, Reagan offered them recognition and participation on a national level. For those who believed that secularism was receiving more equality than Christianity, Reagan evened the scales.
The article sees civil religion as inclusive and Òdemocratically healthy- and also much that is opportunistic and dangerously demagogic.Ó The article argues that ReaganÕs attack on secularism is unfair, and that to introduce religion into the justice system Òis a gross distortion of a process that has had numerous valid sources.Ó
Many of the PresidentÕs proposals are Òdouble-talkÓ, according to the article, and spirituality in America could be much better helped if Reagan addressed Òa host of other issuesÓ such as equal access for high-school religious groups.
The article ends with a scathing assessment of ReaganÕs Òcivil religionÓ as an unhealthy idolicizing of ÒThe American Way of Life.Ó The article argues that Mr. ReaganÕs civil religion is not Òan umbrella under which our particular beliefs can flourish... We are ready to love and serve our nation but not worship it.Ó The end perception is that the subversive effects of ReaganÕs rhetoric are more harmful than the service of civil religion in Òreintroducing an alienated segment of believing Americans into public life.Ó

New Republic April 4, 1983
"Reverend Reagan"

This article addresses a speech Ronald Reagan made to the National Association of Evangelicals in Orlando, Florida in early 1983. The article criticizes the President for sermonizing and implying to America and the world that he intends a holy war by stating that the enemy within is Òmodern day secularism.Ó
The article argues that by attacking secularism as ÒenemyÓ and the problems of America as Òspiritual,Ó the President simplifies the morality of politics. The author resents the link of secularism with communism as ÒsinÓ, and points to the consequences of these claims. Those who advocate abortion rights are guilty within the presidentÕs rhetoric of Òinfanticide and mercy killing,Ó and those who advocate a nuclear freeze of Òyielding to Ôthe temptation of pride...Õ.Ó The author argues that to defend laws against abortion privacy on spiritual grounds is a threat to society, Òa society that will pay dearly, with a new population of unwanted and unloved children...Ó
The article goes on to question the authority of the President to preach to America on moral grounds. ÒWe elected a President, not a priest.Ó
Furthermore, the article argues, the President is in error when he suggests that the Founding Fathers wrote the First Amendment to protect churches from interference from government. The Declaration of Independence, the author contends, is the most rationalist document of early America, a Òstrenuous pleaÓ for the strict separation of church and state.
The author criticizes the President for merging the political and religious spheres. To decide issues of abortion, school prayer, and parental notification of pregnancy goes Òagainst the American political tradition.Ó The author further argues that Reagan, by advocating religious doctrine in the political realm, recommends that the US go against the Supreme Court rulings that religion Òmust leave government alone.Ó Reagan dismantles the interpretation set up so that Òa majority [could not] use the machinery of the State to practice its beliefs,Ó states the article.
Secularism is misunderstood and misrepresented by the President, claims the author. By stating the values of the religious community, such as neighborhoods and families, that America was founded on, the author asks, ÒWho are the secularists who are not committed to these institutions and values?Ó The characterizes ReaganÕs rhetoric as Òdeeply divisiveÓ and states that ÒThe moral and sociological reality of this country refutes his tidy and tendentious distinctions.Ó
The author finishes by suggesting that Reagan misunderstands the Òsecular character of democracy.Ó Society is ruled by religious beliefs, but those beliefs should not be proscribed by the government. ÒThe President should cease these celestial navigations. There is business on earth. He is not in the White House to save our souls, but to protect our bodies; not to do GodÕs will, but the peopleÕs.Ó

National Review
April 15, 1983
"Reagan at OrlandoÓ
By William F. Buckley, Jr.

Buckley defends the President and his speech to the Evangelicals. He argues that there is a Ònoble analogueÓ to what Reagan is attempting. Crossfire homepage

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