Word: secularism
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...turns in a patient, slow-building, ultimately satisfying rendition of 'Amazing Grace' -- an impressive feat, since the song has been covered so exhaustively by other performers that it's nearly impossible to find a fresh take. It's Motown with angels' wings, and gospel at its finest -- taking something secular and making it divine...
Thus Sotheby's has secured something that no manufacturer of luxury goods or services in the world was ever able to get: the endorsement of Jackie O, America's chief secular saint (there are no male contenders), on a line of products for sale. A posthumous endorsement, to be sure; but relic hunting, by definition, has to be posthumous. If the Virgin Mary had died surrounded by Chinese soup tureens and minor Hellenistic antiquities, instead of the wooden bench (workshop of St. Joseph, estimate 20 to 30 copper pieces) and the simple tin cup that presumably furnished her abode...
...stuck, then, for our morality gurus with Bill Bennett and Leviticus? Not necessarily. Carter could have advanced the cause of a secular morality if he'd bothered to give a little content to Step 1. Moral reflection, if it is to lead to moral results, has to consist of an exhaustive and empathetic assessment of the impact of one's actions on others, including even the despised and the outcast. If we define moral reflection this way, some good people might indeed be pro-choice and some might be pro-life, but none could be pro-genocide...
...Student Affairs Committee, correctly attack them as parochial. But the real problem with most displays is that they are completely shallow. Sometimes they are so shallow that no one can even agree if they are religious at all. Christmas trees are ironic in that Christians often consider them secular, while non-Christians consider them religious. Several house committee chairs have told me they would be ambivalent about religious events sponsored by the house but simultaneously have defended "holiday" (a.k.a Christmas) decorations as inclusive...
...much as he might object to some forms of secular learning, Farmer has a doctorate in chemistry from Harvard. And many other church members said they are pursuing advanced degrees at local universities...