Re: The Role of Religion in Secular Society. Recently one of our members responded to Margaret Somervile’s article which was published in the Edmonton Journal :

If you’ve paid any attention to the media over the last week — for instance, regarding whether the G8 “maternal and infant health initiative” should include abortion, or The Current’s and The National’s programs on CBC that focused on Marci McDonald’s new book, The Armageddon Factor, that raises alarm about the rise in political power and influence of the “Canadian religious right” — you’ll find this secularist truism espoused front, centre and behind the scenes: Religion and religious voices and views have no valid role to play in the public square. Indeed, many secularists are openly hostile to any such participation. But are they correct?” Read more of the letter 

Letter to the Editor by Frank Friesacher Margaret Somerville has created a straw man (or rather, men and women, in this case): where are these secularists who argue that freedom from religion means that “religion has no valid role to play in forming our shared  values and has no place in the public square?” This is certainly not the mainstream understanding of secularism, which predominantly focuses on the right to be free from religious rule and teachings, and the right to freedom from the government imposition of religion upon the state. Continue reading »