610. [574.] Martyrdom in the Blackwell Companion to Christian Ethics

Martyrdom in the Blackwell Companion to Christian Ethics, chapter 3:

“The “good work” to which Christians are called has often resulted in martyrdom. “Martyr” is but a word for witness. All Christians are called to be witnesses, but for some this means nothing less than the sacrifice of their lives. Martyrdom is unavoidable if the Philippian hymn is to be sung truthfully. The Church, as the New Testament makes clear, will be persecuted and some will become martyrs. This martyrdom is clearly anticipated in baptism. For some, who rightly see the Christian dying in Christ as a threat to worldly presumption, it is made all too actual. Those who die for the faith are those who either cannot, or will not, use force to persuade or coerce in order to convince. They are witnesses whose witness does not allow them to kill.

“A Church that faces persecution, a Church that is clearly out of step with the world that surrounds it, seldom feels the need to make explicit the relation between how it worships and how it lives. Such a Church has no time to contemplate or produce an “and” between theology and ethics. This is why the writings of the Fathers, the Patristics, have remained a touchstone for Christians. By reading Clement, Gregory of Nyssa, Basil, and Augustine, we hope to learn again how to live as Christians, that is, in a world where to be a Christian is a mark not of safety, but of danger.

“The Church does not seek to be persecuted in order to “prove” her faithfulness. There have been many times when the Church has been seen as a benefit both by those that rule and by those that are ruled – whether because of the Church’s network of organization, its significant practices, or its reputation for instilling good character in its adherents. This positive climate is one for which Christians should rightly be thankful. The eucharistic feast Christians share is believed to anticipate the heavenly peace. Christians, therefore, seek the peace of the city in which they find themselves (Jeremiah 27). Christian peace is one that makes them friends of God, one another, and the stranger. Christians, therefore, were and are obligated to offer hospitality to the stranger, a stranger they hope may become a friend, having learned from their Lord that he will continue to make himself known in the face of the hungry and despised. Christian witness will continue to be identified not by those to whom Christians give money, but by those with whom Christians take time to eat. That the Church can live as a people who believe they are sustained by the gifts of strangers is part of what it means for the Church to live eschatologically. Eschatology names the journey that Christians believe God has called them to undertake with his people Israel.

“The Church, therefore, is not surprised that in some circumstances those who do not share its Eucharist may nonetheless find Christian practices beneficial.”

609. “to be silent”

In truth, when Kierkegaard says, “because the human being is able to speak, the ability to be silent is an art,” he shows much more subtlety than Wittgenstein, when Wittgenstein seemed to be stating a logical necessity, saying, “whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must remain silent,” hence showing that Wittgenstein was apt when he further said: “Kierkegaard was by far the most profound thinker of the last century.”

Notably this from Kierkegaard is decidedly not a call to be silent in the face of injustice (as Kierkegaard’s life signifies). For example, according to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “A time comes when silence is betrayal.”

—

[I do love a good, long, well-formed sentence. They can run on like a stream, like poetry.]

608.

“leveling is a process of abstraction”

– Stephen Backhouse on Søren Kierkegaard, in Appendix 13 of Kierkegaard: A Single Life

—

[This should also be paired with a reflective singling out of uses of “abstract” by James Cone in The Cross and the Lynching Tree, along with further quotes from appendix 13.]

607.

“No other, but divine strength…”

– Ida B. Wells

—

If anyone really wants to know the depth and power of the Gospel, the good news about Jesus Christ, they ought to read or listen to books like James Cone’s The Cross And The Lynching Tree, the deeply Christian reflections within the Black American experience.

—

“For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of talk, but of power.”

– The Apostle Paul, 1 Corinthians 4:20, NIV

606. The God of the Cosmos, The Lynched God, and His Missionaries

It is because the God of the Cosmos is no mere local god, no spirit dwelling in a tree or a river or a tiny shrine, but the God containing within him galaxies and the universe itself, the God who made molecules and atoms – it is because he is the God of the Cosmos, the Shema, that he can afford to be the God of the Lynched, the weak and sick and poor and lowly and despised and falsely accused.

The lesser gods cannot afford such a thing. Their powers are too weak and local and poor.

But to show his power and the breadth of his care, this God of the Cosmos not only is known throughout Jewish and Christian Scriptures as the God of the falsely accused and lynched – but he is also the God who allowed himself to be falsely accused and lynched, in order that the lowest of humans may know the power of his dignity that he gives to us.

He is also the God who takes terrible, violent and powerful men like Paul, who have the authority to o jail and beat others, and he makes these men to become his servants, his chief missionaries – to be homeless and jailed and beaten and falsely accused and put to death.

In fact, it is because this is his character, because he says, “if anyone would come after me, he must take up his cross and follow me,” and his chief missionary says “when we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; … I urge you to imitate me [in this blessing and endurance]” – it is because this is the verifiable teaching of Christ and the chief writer of the New Testament and chief missionary, Paul, that we can say the following:

Any missionary who is a colonist is verifiably not carrying his cross, not imitating Paul. It is a quite literal and easy to test hypothesis.

Still, this same God can put up with being falsely accused yet again, having false missionaries (colonizers) claim to carry his name, and having people forget about the prominence of Christ and Paul and the actual content of the New Testament.

He will endure it, for this God, when he is cursed, he blesses, and when he is persecuted, he endures it – he is known for making his chief persecutors to become his chief and most humble missionaries, raising up the lowly at their own cost and humiliation.

“Let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation, and the rich in his humiliation,” as the Apostle James says.

This is the logic of the Shema and the Cross.

—

(Again, see 1 Corinthians 4:8-20, Philemon 1, 2 Corinthians 11, and Hebrews 11:35-12:15. The truth is not hiding about who this God is, even though some attempt to hide it, and others forget the depth and breadth of his care.)

605. “strangers in a strange land:” Immigration, Imitation of Christ – and Paul

[In response to comments on Facebook]

—

I do think that the issue of immigration has to do with religion. I have a lot to say, and it has more to do with the religion and what it means to be in it, than about immigration per se – but it does seem to me that the more we dwell on what it means to be within this religion, the more we should have a changed attitude towards things like immigration.

That said, I do not generally advocate breaking laws. Yes, civil disobedience can be required of Christians; and yes, as Augustine and Martin Luther King Jr both said, “an unjust law is no law at all.” So there is complexity here – but as much as possible, Christians ought to live within the limits of the law.

What follows are some thoughts about how immigration has to do with religion; again, they are not always directly related to immigration, but the more we dwell on these, the more it should change how we relate to foreigners, nations, laws, and borders.

—

1. Ethnicity and Religion

If someone is an atheist they are free to pursue or not pursue whatever example they wish. If someone belongs to just about every other religion, then it is essentially an ethnic religion.

But Christianity, as one scholar I read recently said, is the first thoroughly non-ethnic religion, and it is a religion driven by imitation of individuals – namely Christ and Paul. Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Taoism, Shinto, and other major religions do not advocate the idea that God has come to earth and we are to imitate him – nor do they have examples like Paul of someone who is sheerly human willingly going through virtually all the same sufferings as Christ, or more.

Any yet it is this only non-ethnic religion (with a possible exception of Buddhism) that has spread to every inhabited continent in a deliberately missionary mode, and as a result there are currently there are more Christians in Africa, South America, China, and India than there are in the United States, where there are less and less believers every year. But why is Christianity unique in this way, spreading across the earth like this?

Both Christianity and Judaism have in them a desire and a command to “be a light to the nations,” and to spread the Name of God (his known character and reputation, his known habits of acting) across the world. One line repeated by several prophets, Isaiah and Habakkuk, is that “the knowledge of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters fill the sea.”

Unlike the other, largely ethnic religions, Christianity and Judaism are essentially characterized as religions that are global, universal, transcending borders and laws (even as not supposed to unnecessarily offend against those borders and laws).

Christianity and Judaism are ultimately trans-national, trans-ethnic, and adherents of Christianity are even explicitly sent across borders to do God’s bidding – key examples being Moses and Paul, both of whom are called “Apostles” or “Sent Ones,” crossing borders to bring freedom to others – especially those in physical or spiritual captivity. This can quickly become complicated precisely because we absolutely must engage with the question: “how do I balance obeying the law as much as possible while also seeking to set captives free as much as possible?” It’s not that borders and laws do not matter, it is that they are not the only thing that matter, and some things matter more.

—

2. “strangers in a strange land”

Now I will speak less about comparison between languages and moreso with how Christianity (and Judaism) relate to the theme of immigrants in a deep way.

Starting with Abraham, God has told his servants to go and be a stranger in a strange land – and this has always been the way God works with his servants, those he sends out on the earth for his purposes. And so the Israelites when they left Egypt went from being “strangers in a strange land” in Egypt to being “strangers in a strange land” in Israel. God did this again when he banished Israel to Babylon. Jews have never really been able to feel at home on the earth. And yet again God continued this same theme over and over again with Christians.

When Christians are “born again” and enter the Kingdom of God, the family of God, the Bible is clear that they are essentially adopted into it – we do not, strictly speaking, belong in God’s family. But out of his grace he has adopted us – grace meaning “unmerited favor.”

According to Christianity all humans were made to live in paradise, but through the Fall we have broken away from what we were made to be in. In this sense, all humans are “strangers in a strange land” by living in a world of sin. We will never feel at home here (a deeply Jewish theme). And yet at the same time, because we are sinners, we do not quite fit naturally into the Kingdom of God, the family of God – so we are, in a sense, “strangers in a strange land” there, as well.

By the same token, Christ, wanting to bring us to him, became a “stranger in a strange land” by being a baby born in a manger. By doing this he was effectively immigrating from the Kingdom of Heaven into hell on earth – to bring heaven onto earth. Curiously, this is also how we see his Prophets and Apostles – they are commonly killed and severely mistreated, but they are God’s ambassadors and emissaries to the lost world, like a spiritual foreign nation. As I will show, this isn’t something only certain Christians are supposed to imitate – but all Christians are called to this.

—

3. The Imitation of Christ – and Paul

It is in this vein of thought that Christ spoke when he said, “foxes have holes and birds have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to rest his head,” or “if anyone would come after me, let him take up his cross and follow me.” Likewise, Paul, the closest, most detailed example of someone taking up their Cross in the imitation of Christ, wrote to the church at Corinth (1 Corinthians 4:8-16):

“Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! You have begun to reign—and that without us! How I wish that you really had begun to reign so that we also might reign with you! For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like those condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to human beings. We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored! To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly. We have become the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world—right up to this moment.

“I am writing this not to shame you but to warn you as my dear children. Even if you had ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. Therefore I urge you to imitate me.”

Anyone who is committed to following Christ and being a Christian should meditate often on this passage, and passages like Philemon 1, 2 Corinthians 11, or Hebrews 11:35-12:15 – but all throughout they should hear Paul’s words again and again, “I urge you to imitate me.” I would strongly encourage any Christian to do this, and to try to memorize as much as sticks out to them about these passages.

What does this have to do with immigration? Well, if you will dwell on these passages, then they will change you – and it will not necessarily call you to break any laws, but it will change the way you relate to the topic of immigration.

604. never able to go back

I want you to read this blog and never hear anything else the same – I want you to hear the worst, most dark, and filthy songs on the radio and know that what people really want is a dignity more durable than death, shame, and suffering. I want you to never be able to go back to hearing it the way you used to.

603. “deep inside ourselves, we received the death sentence”

“yes, deep inside ourselves, we received the death sentence. This was to stop us from relying on ourselves, and to make us rely on the God who raises the dead.”

– Paul in N.T. Wright’s translation of 2nd Corinthians chapter 1.

—

This is what I began to go through really in earnest over the last few years – certainly not so intensely as Paul did, and yet, much that I have held onto in life was tested, found wanting, burnt up, and I was left with nothing but God and his gift of dignity to stand on.

And the dignity he wants to give us is a dignity more durable than death.

[See also Voicing the Secret… which I wrote while coming to grips with this dying.]

And more and more since, I have found myself living with honest and thorough confession, and with less and less fear, and more and more readiness to suffer for those I love and for the dignity I am given through forgiveness and in spite of myself.

602. Solitude and Words

“In my solitude, mail and the written word in general became more and more important.”

– Edsger W. Dijkstra, Selected Writings on Computing: A Personal Perspective, found in the Preface, pg v.

—

It is uncommon for me to read such sentences in Computer Science texts which resonate so deeply with me – as I also have gone through intense solitudes, and have found the written word irreplaceable because of them.

He could have been describing what happened to me in high school.

(Not accidentally, it is this love of words fostered by solitude which also increased my deep love of other people, and having them near.)

601. Light, Wisdom, Binaries, and Growth

—

A Few Scriptures

There are three specific Scriptures I am thinking about:

Proverbs 4:18, Psalm 1, and Proverbs 27:17. I will not put Psalm 1 in this post, though it is worth looking up, but the two proverbs (in the NIV translation) follow below:

“The path of the righteous is like the morning sun,
    shining ever brighter till the full light of day.”

and

“As iron sharpens iron,
    so one person sharpens another.”

—

Binaries, Degrees, and Light

Here is what I am thinking about these verses.

If the Righteous who “bear their fruit in season” are also the light, then while it is true that they are binary in that they are not darkness, it is also true that their fruit is not always ripe in all seasons.

It is true, as that one song goes, that “there is a light that never goes out,” and the darkness has not overcome it nor comprehended it – but still, the way that that light shines through some people is a steady candle, and through others it is a huge bonfire.

Both the candle and the bonfire are light in the binary sense of not being dark, but the candle and the bonfire are not for that reason identical in every respect, anymore than either of them is the Sun, or, for that matter, the Light that shone at the dawn of creation.

Light is binary in that if it is present at all, it is, in fact, present, like a lightswitch switched to “on.” But even this One Light, the Light of the World, can show itself in degrees without ceasing to be binary – in Candles and Bonfires.

—

Becoming, Virtue, and the Way God Designed Seeds

In this sense, just like how iron sharpens iron, we are to understand who we are as human beings in ways that are, to use the ancient theological categories, not “being,” but “becoming.” Not to speak too much in terms of ontotheology, but we can in some sense affirm of God that He is being: “I am who I am.”

Yet by contrast, we who are in Christ are becoming more and more like him, growing “brighter and brighter until midday.” By God’s grace, I am much more like Christ than I was five years ago, or a decade ago, or two decades ago. I am a sharper iron than I was two years ago, beyond the shadow of a doubt.

Likewise, a similar point can be made in virtue ethics. Notably, virtue ethics is arguably the default and universal ethical framework built into human nature by God. Certainly virtue ethics is implicit in the language of Scripture. Yet it is generally recognized that the most reliable way to gain a virtue is to begin to practice it – badly at first, but slowly better and better, just like the morning sun approaching midday, like iron being sharpened, or like a tree bearing it’s fruit in season.

If I practice piano, I will be doing something binary in that I am, in fact, playing the piano; but I can gain in skill on the piano due to practice, and the quality of practice, and this is not binary. In fact, the qualitative differences between two piano players’ skill may be incommensurable (an indispensable term in science, aesthetics, morality and spirituality) – as the enjoyment from seeing two children play on a piano together who have never played before at all is fundamentally different from that which Frederick the Great must have had at having Bach sit down to play for him.

Growing in virtue is in many ways connected with things like learning to play the piano for reasons just like this. It is organic, like a seed sprouting from the soil. It is growing (a binary fact), but it is measurable in terms of degrees and so on, even while it remains binary. The existence of binaries does not preclude the correct usage of language of degrees – not even with regard to those very binaries.

—

Lies and Wisdom; Seeds and Growth

Curiously, even lies become more believable, as I wrote about in 600, when they are tinged with truth. If I tell a story with twenty truths but one crucial lie slipped in, then in a binary sense, we can say that I am being untruthful, even though most of my story is true. The correct use of binaries does not mean there is no correct use of degrees within the binaries. The majority of my story is still truthful – which is a binary issue when considered in connection with aspects of my story in some sense – even if my story is not completely truthful.

A great deal of difficulty in life is sorting out where one should speak in terms of degrees and where of binaries, and to what extent to use each. Wisdom is often recognizable in someone who is familiar with how to successfully navigate this difficulty.

None of this is a lie from Satan, “the Father of Lies,” but it is the way God, “The Father of Light,” made the literal seeds of the earth, which are so much a part of how God speaks of us and creation and of the Gospel and of the Kingdom of Light, – so much so that he begins his Bible with great emphasis on seeds, seed-bearing plants, and a mandate that humans are to “multiply and fill the earth” – and he ends his Bible with a mature and fully grown tree, “the leaves of which are for the healing of the nations.”

In it’s season, this tree will bear its fruit; the light of the world is still the light, even if in some people it is only a small candle that never goes out, and in others it is as John Wesley said of himself, “I light myself on fire, and people come from miles around to watch me burn” – and even if, as we read in the Psalms, it is above all in God himself that we can say, “in your light we see light.”

600. Lies Tinged with Truth … and Self-Searching Confession as the Ground of Repentance

—

Lies tinged with the truth are the most believable.

On the other hand, a thorough confession, which seeks out missing details of sin and shows them to others, is the beginning formation of a shamelessness which allows for the fullest repentance and healing.

—

What is curious here is that one must “above all, shun lies” when one is confessing, shun tinging lies with the truth, and in this way search back over what one has already said, in order to see if one has tinged one’s confessions with lies – so that if by any means one has invalidated one’s confession, by making it into a lie tinged with truth (whether deliberately or unwittingly), one can confess that as well.

This is all in Kierkegaard (see Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing, which I wrote about in, “277. Nightfall in the Black Forest“), but I have been thinking about this recently because of how I have recently seen confession itself shamed and put down, as though there were some other way to present oneself truthfully before God, oneself, and others, and some other way to begin to repent.

[A quote from the early chapters of Purity of Heart would go wonderfully here, but I don’t have the book on hand!]

I have found so much healing and freedom in confession – specifically when it rejects shame in the Name of Christ and taking on His dignity, and thus how it enables repentance. We all need to be known and to be able to improve and change our lives, and we cannot do that without a thorough self-searching confession as the ground of repentance.

599.

—

“He does not believe that does not live according to his belief.”

– Freud

—

Compare Shema, the parables of Christ on obedience, and “the purpose of a system is what it does.”

That gives us plenty to discuss.

598. A Prayer for An Abusive Man

—

God, it is Your delight to bring us curiosities of all kinds – and this is an understatement.

Regarding this man, [name], two other men have kept coming to mind: Paul and Moses, both called “Apostle,”or “sent one.”

—

Moses, who is also called an “apostle,” a “sent one,” like Paul, also was known for murdering an Egyptian. And yet You, God, have used him to bring us the Torah, your instructions of clarity and love, a light to our path and a lamp to our feet. You used Moses to part the Red Sea and deliver the Israelites out of slavery and into the promised land.

Not unlike Moses in his early days, Paul was a spiteful, powerful man, falsely accusing God’s people and trying to throw them into jail, threatening to beat them, even standing by in support of the unjust death of Stephen. Paul was, in a word – murderous.

And yet You, God, came to Paul and told him the truth, and You turned Paul around to begin to serve You, sharing the good news, humbling him, using any privilege he had to lift others up, even to the point of being beaten, jailed, and eventually killed by the Romans.

—

When these men began to walk in the Kingdom of Light, we are told that Moses, mighty in speech, became the most humble man, unable to speak, and Paul felt that he was at the end of a triumphal procession, “like those condemned to die” – and yet even he said that he wished everyone would become like him in his Joy in Your Good News, “except for his chains.” Paul said to those in the family of God, “I urge you to imitate me.”

And by Your grace, God, we have so much to imitate and admire about these formerly dangerous and abusive men!

As Paul said of the slave Onesimus to Philemon, the master, “if he has done anything wrong, or owes you anything, charge that to my account. … Receive him as you would receive me, … prepare a room for me.” And so, too, Moses approached You on behalf of the Israelites, asking that You have mercy on them.

Truly, You are a powerful and amazing God, humbling the proud and raising up the lowly – this is the Law of Christ, the Torah of Christ – “Let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation, and the rich in his humiliation.” And you show us what you mean by verses like this by the examples you give us, such as Moses and Paul.

—

It is unclear to me, God, if it is You bringing [name] to my attention. But if nothing else, merely because of how full of hatred and mockery for others this man, [name], is, and without any just cause – I want to bring this man to Your attention, God. Have mercy on him, soften his hard heart and show him the warmth and depth of your Love.

Perhaps You are calling this man, [name], to serve in Your Kingdom of Light in a similar way as Paul and Moses did, humbling themselves, ceasing their injustices, false accusations, hatred, and murderous thoughts, and using their privilege, power, and resources for Your Name.

As it says in the Gospel of Matthew, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’ But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment.” (Matthew 5:21-22, NKJV.)

But God, You are “not willing that any should perish,” and since it is known that hateful men unjustly accuse, threaten, beat and jail the innocent and persecute those who “seek peace and eagerly pursue it,” I pray that You would actually do something with this man, [name] – similar to what You did with Paul and Moses. This is a miracle of which only You, God, are truly capable of.

It may be that this is Your idea which I am only catching up on. Or perhaps this man will choose the darker road, “like the beasts that perish,” “like the haff that the wind blows away.” But I have hope, God, because of the curiosities you bring out into the earth and our history. I have known a man who was a violent abuser like this man, [name], but in his final months he realized that the jig was up, and he became exceedingly humble and grateful towards God. This has been immensely important to me to see – and I pray that this man will not wait until his final months to start hearing and obeying God, listening to Him and sharing His Name and reputation.

Have Mercy on this man, God!

—

Curiously, after God, Moses is most important to the Jews. And after Christ, Paul’s writings and example are most important to Christians. For us, God, You have given the example of Moses to show us how to be a caring shepherd and a gentle teacher, with compassion, clarity, and foresight. And to us, God, You have given Paul as the closest human exemplar in Scripture of someone following Christ, carrying their cross daily, lifting up others and also writing something like half of the New Testament!

It seems, then, that if powerful and hateful men allow themselves to be humbled by You, when You call to them, You are willing to use them for great good in Your family, Your Kingdom of Light.

You, God, are hardly afraid to use those who live in hate to change the world. You love even these unjust men, and I have a deepening hope for even these men.

—

God, show us Your will, Your love and Your Kingdom of Light.

597. A Prayer for An Abused Woman

—

I wrote this back in early August, 2021, in a prayer journal, in connection with Ruth 1:13, 20-21, 3:9, 11, and 4:11-15.

That is, the prayer is formed in direct connection with central words and themes of the Biblical book of Ruth, from the Hebrew Tanakh. (I primary use the NIV, for better or worse.)

—

God, please turn your face to this woman, [name], and take away her bitterness; fulfill your promise to her and let her share in Your pleasure. God of Ruth, Naomi and Boaz, show yourself as such to [name], be her God, turn her bitterness to become Your pleasure, fill her with 7 times what she lost, be present to her suffering, cover her with Your garment and like a kinsman buy her back from oppressions over her, show kindness to her when she feels like a foreigner, give her health, provide for her, walk with her, take away her fears and anxiety, do “all she asks,” and let her offspring (any children, biologically, but also spiritually) build up the house of God as Ruth brought us David who brought us Christ, “the Son of David.” Bless [name] thoroughly and soundly.

In the name of Jesus Christ who gives us far more than we can ever ask for or deserve, amen.

596. A Utopia Against The Cult of Power

The human (Federation) utopia, or near-utopia, which we find in the Star Trek lore is a great example of how modern Western secularism is a subset of liberal protestant theology.

It is accepted that there are struggles and so on, but that we will work together with grace and accountability for the good of all.

I simply don’t think it would take on the tone it does were it not for the precedence of Christianity.

(Compare, again, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Ancient Rome or Sparta – all the variations of the cult and praise of power.)

—

[A worthy counterpoint:

why Protestantism as opposed to, say, a sub-Spinozan secular Judaism?

I can’t answer that question very well; but my suspicion is that it remains a worthy question and yet that sketching the answer would leave secularism crucially intertwined with Christian liberal Protestant theology.]