"Bittergate", Secularism and Pope Benedict

The disdain and arrogance displayed by Barack Obama, by his patronizing remarks this weekend, reveal the fundamental "heresy" of secularism.

Pope Benedict, arriving shortly on American soil, has been passionately engaged in the intellectual argument against secularism and it's progeny, relativism, since his Papal "acceptance speech." Therefore, it is rather serundipitous that the two episodes overlap.

What is the fundamental heresy of secularism? The late Eastern Orthodox theologian, Alexander Schmemann, in my opinion, has the best definition of "secularism." He states the following in his essay, "Worship in a Secular Age:"


"If in theological terms, secularism is a heresy, it is primarily a heresy about man. Secularism has been analyzed, described and defined in these recent years in a
great variety of ways, but to the best of my knowledge none of these descriptions has
stressed a point which I consider to be essential and which reveals indeed better than
anything else the true nature of secularism, and thus can give our discussion its properorientation. Secularism, I submit, is above all a negation of worship."


Basically, his point is that, man's nature, (by design,) is predisposed to worship. Predisposed to worship for a reason; each human being is made in the "image of God;" therefore, man is created to find ultimate fulfillment only in loving communion with his Creator. Furthermore, all of creation is an "epiphany" of the Creator. Creation is a "means of God's relvelation, presence and power."

To put it another way, "man" is most himself, (true to his being, ) when he worships, "in spirit and in truth." He becomes what he truly is through this exercise in love, the bride with the Bridegroom, as the Church characterizes it. Schmemann says, "worship not only posits {man's} humanity, it fulfills it." If man is not a "worshipping being" he is not fully man.

Obama, and others, who declare that the only reason man turns to God is out of bitterness, or bigotry, is striking a dagger through the heart of the very essence of "being." He is making a statement about the nature of man, namely, he uses religion for a "crutch." Sound just like Marx?

Obama, who said himself that "words matter," who is Harvard educated, is a "secularist." He did not make a mistake, he said exactly what he thinks. As a secularist, he "views the world as containing within itself its meaning and the principles of knowledge and action. " (Schmemann, same essay) No need for worship here, unless narcissism can be defined as worship!

Pope Benedict's word's, implicitly or explicitly, will stress the inherent gift in man for worship, indeed, it is his true vocation. How timely is his message, which will serve as a response to the Obama's of the world.

No, Obama, "ordinary Americans," do not "cling" to God out of bitterness or bigotry, they worship God, out of love. It is the ultimate dignity of man, made in God's image. Obama, in his pseudo intellectualism, wants to strip this inherent dignity away.

If man's passion and thirst for God is eliminated, in favor of worldly values, what is left? What is left, is "relativism" and a race for power.

A fine example of secularism, in modern times, expresses it's consequences well:

"Everything I have said and done in these last years is relativism, by intuition. From the fact that all ideologies are of equal value, that all ideologies are mere fictions, the modern relativist infers that everybody has the right to create for himself his own ideology, and to attempt to enforce it with all the energy of which he is capable. If relativism signifies contempt for fixed categories, and men who claim to be the bearers of an objective immortal truth, then there is nothing more relativistic than fascism. " —Benito Mussolini

Obama denigrates the "ordinary" intellect of the small town redneck who "clings" to an objective immortal truth and has an innate calling toward "worship." Worship is fulfillment, it is joy, it is the pinnacle of intellectual integrity!

Give me the common sense of these "ordinary" "Americans, who humble themselves before their Creator, who love their neighbor and give up their lives for liberty, anyday, rather than the sterile intellectual snobbery of Barack Obama's secularism, where no God is needed!

Welcome, Pope Benedict!