“Sectarianism”
NOTE: This post was originally published on December 13, 2006, on an old version of this site.
Twice in the last two days I have heard the word “sectarian” used to describe the efforts to dissolve the separation church and state and the zealous promotion of fundamentalist Christianity.
In yesterday’s panel discussion on Science, Faith and Darwin at the Franklin Institute, panelist Stephen Harvey argued that, far from being valid science, “intelligent design is not just religious, it is sectarian.”
And in today’s cover story for Salon, former Air Force officer Mikey Weinstein argues that the unconstitutional proselytizing of evangelical faith within the military is “as much of a national security threat to this country as al-Qaida” and calls a video of senior officers promoting their faith “blatantly and vociferously sectarian.”
I think the use of this word is appropriate and smart. The arguments of the very conservative Christian right are not representative of most Americans, nor even most American Christians, and the word denotes the political motivation and connotes the perilousness of their agenda.