It is out of fashion to be secular (read “sickular”). What does it mean to be “secular”? Why are we averse (to the point of being “sick”) to anybody who identifies themselves as secular? – is the topic of this blog post.

First a confession : I believe that there should be no preferential treatment given to anybody based on their religion, i.e. ..err..yes..I am a secularist.

Being secular means – you believe in equality of all religions, and that you believe in separation of religion from all civil functioning and public education. If someone is averse to seculars, it is implied by the definition, that they believe in preferential treatment of religious communities by the government. However, isn’t this exactly what people behind the “sickular” propaganda are trying to oppose, i.e. they are secularists themselves?!

Now, there have been (and will be) be political groups which are preferential under the garb of secularism (surprise!), this is where the word “secular” gets its bad rep. However, let me break this to you as gently as I can – politicians lie. They lie all the time, they say what you want them to say, but do what they want to do. Believing in truly secular political parties, is like believing in unicorns, neither of these exist. However, this is no reason to taint a perfectly reasonable idea of being secular. More importantly, insult those who are truly secular.

Let’s stop secularist-shaming.

© Candidly Blunt, 2015