"A Christian or a Religious Secularist, Which am I?"

The following couple of paragraphs are in the new book, "The End of Secularism" by Hunter Baker.

I have only read the introduction online but it looks interesting. The reason I have placed this in my blog is that as I read what he said about himself in his days before he was a Christian, I realized he describes many Christians today.

I hope you will read it and think.

"I believed in God, but I didn’t see what difference that made to anything outside my private world. Private religion is at the heart of secularism. My relationship with God was simple. If I felt fear, I asked him to protect me. If I wanted, I asked him to provide. His character was not particularly of interest to me. The God who existed in my mind during my life up until college was essentially a cosmic genie.

Beyond the realm of my personal desires and wishes, I saw no place for God other than in ceremonies like baptisms, weddings, and funerals. That god is an accessory to occasions. He is like a magical charm designed to do what we want him to do. There are times when we bring him out with ornaments, bows, and ribbons. Otherwise, we box him up in the attic and only occasionally remember or contemplate him. For me, the private god-in-a-lantern model was the appropriate way to think about God and/or religion."

Gripped by Grace,
Hal