Tuesday, as I listened to Dr. Gregory speak at the Forum, I was impressed by the similarity of his remarks to those of Elder Maxwell given more than 25 years ago here at BYU. Dr. Gregory spoke of avoiding both religious and secular bias in studying religions. He spoke of finding middle ground neither reducing nor building up the beliefs of particular religions.
Elder Maxwell spoke of secularism and irreligion in our government. In speaking at that Devotional he said, 'We will see a maximum, if indirect, effort made to establish irreligion as the state religion. It is actually a new form of paganism, which uses the carefully preserved and cultivated freedoms of western civilization to shrink freedom, even as it rejects the value essence of our rich Judeo-Christian heritage. ... rreligious imperialism seeks to disallow certain opinions simply because those opinions grow out of religious convictions.'
Quoting M.J. Sobran, he said, 'What the secularists are increasingly demanding ... is that religious people, when they act politically, act only on secularist grounds. They are trying to equate acting on religion with establishing religion. ... he consequence of such logic is really to establish secularism. It is ... to force the religious to internalize the major premise of secularism: that religion has no proper bearing on public affairs' (see Ensign, Feb. 1979).
Irreligion demands conformity to secular principles and discourages diversity. Secularism criticizes those who speak out of religious convictions and moral values. How can an elected representative represent his constituents if he is forced to conform to secular principles in the name of separation of church and state? How can there be such a separation when each individuals convictions are, in a large part, derived from their religious beliefs, whether those of a particular denomination or those of the secular church of irreligion? We would cringe at the thought of forcing religion on someone. Why then do we not cringe as irreligion is being forced upon us?
Dr. Gregory spoke of finding the middle ground between secularism and religious belief. Why then can't we do the same in government encouraging greater diversity, not stifling it, and allowing for truer representation in government, representation of the less vocal majority that are often forgotten due to their quiet 'acceptance'?
Irreligion and secularism continue to lead to greater wickedness as we turn against and away from God. This is evidenced as a case to remove the words 'under God' from the Pledge of Allegiance is pending in the high court. Irreligion had led our society to become one, which allows mothers to kill their babies and virtually embraces immorality.
Just as the disintegration of the family will, I believe irreligion and secularism 'will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets.'
Elder Ballard said in the last conference, 'Ours surely is a time when men 'call evil good, and good evil.''
He said, 'The time has come when members of the Church need to speak out and join with the many other concerned people in opposition to the offensive destructive.'
He counseled, 'emember Edmund Burke's statement: 'The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.''
Adam Galovan
St. George, Utah