Word: secularism
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...member read from the Bible, a representative of Harvard/Radcliffe Hillel read a passage in Hebrew and Professor of Comparative Religion Diana L. Eck offered prayers along with a secular exhortation to keep working for greater justice...
...ministers looking for new positions but only 600 to 700 churches with slots to fill. In the Episcopal Church, which has lost 28% of its membership in the same period, full-time openings have become so scarce that some 1,800 potential candidates are earning a living in secular occupations...
...this is only a partial register. Scores of additional works are listed under such disparate categories as the solar system, the meaning of the Greek myths, the shaping of England, the birth of the U.S. and secular explanations of the Old Testament: "If the Biblical account ((of Jericho)) is taken literally, this is a miracle, but . . . while the defenders watched in fascination at the slow parading about the city, and listened to the awesome sound of the trumpets, they might not have had time to see and hear the very mundane activity of Joshua's sappers slowly undermining the city...
...University law professor Charles Whelan, "it makes sense to allow the display of a creche." But as Columbia University law professor Vincent Blasi points out, there is a catch. "In order to uphold the use of religious symbols," he says, "you have to officially describe them as having a secular meaning." Such a redefinition, says James Andrews, chief executive of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), "amounts to the trivialization of the Christian faith...
With confusion in the lower courts, the U. S. Supreme Court prepares to take another look at how many secular trappings must surround publicly supported creches and menorahs...