Wednesday, August 31, 2022

Sacred, Secular, Sacred Secular

 Ok everyone, here is an interesting idea.  It has to do with divisions of things that are sacred vs secular, which many times is a false division and some things are supposed to just be "good." That has been discussed many times in many contexts.  But I want to add an idea which is another possible category of "sacred secular," which would refer to things that are supposed to be secular and are sacred because of their secularity.  Like a movie that is not supposed to be religious and isn't.  Or just a fruit stand with fruit.  Or a coke machine.  Okay so that is the idea, it is kind of simple, but think also how it could get ruined, or "profaned." Such as when people mix sacred with secular in a bad way.  I don't mean to judge but one example is a particular yucky feeling from the unitarian mistakes, like that certain sense that all the religions got mixed together in a bad way.  Or when you go get a barbecue sandwich at a restaurant and they are playing really extreme christian music and it is like, okay, I am just getting a sandwich.   I think some people really are "good unitarians," and there is also such thing as a good evangelical witness in a more secular environment.  But I just wanted to suggest that there could be some nice worldliness that has its place, and to point out that secular isn't the same word meaning as "profane." Would I go so far as to say there is such thing as "sacred profane?" Actually, probably yes. Like that really well timed curse word or something like that. One more example that I think people can relate to is when a lot of people used to skip church on Sunday and read the New York Times.  It could be a happy thing sitting in the sunlight with coffee and reading the news during free time on the weekend.  That is what I mean by sacred secular. However, now the New York Times more actively and overtly persecutes evangelicals, so it is an example of how the sacred secular has been ruined and defaced into an ugly horror reminiscent of that bad feeling you get when a doctor molests you.

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