How to Be Secular: A Call to Arms for Religious Freedom [Hardcover]

Jacques Berlinerblau (Author)

Book Description

Release date: September 11, 2012

“Berlinerblau mounts a careful, judicious, and compelling argument that America needs more secularists—not only among nonbelievers but among believers as well. It will change the way we think and talk about religious freedom.”
—Randall Balmer, author of Thy Kingdom Come: How the Religious Right Distorts Faith and Threatens America

Weary of religious conservatives urging “defense of marriage” and atheist polemicists decrying the crimes of religion? Sick of pundits who want only to recast American life in their own image? Americans are stuck in an all-or-nothing landscape for religion in public life. What are reasonable citizens to do?

Seen as godless by the religious and weak by the atheists, secularism mostly has been misunderstood. In How to Be Secular, Berlinerblau argues for a return to America’s hard-won secular tradition; the best way to protect religious diversity and freedom lies in keeping an eye on the encroachment of each into the other.

Berlinerblau passionately defends the virtues of secularism, reminds us what it is and what it can protect, and urges us to mobilize around its cause, which is for all Americans to continue to enjoy freedom for—and from—religion. This is an urgent wake-up call for progressives in and out of all faiths.

www.jacquesberlinerblau.com

Editorial Reviews

Review

“How to Be Secular serves as an important reminder that, as I have noted in the past, we protect our rights to our personal beliefs by preserving the rights of our neighbors to believe otherwise. I agree wholeheartedly with Berlinerblau’s argument and highly recommend this powerful book.”
—Mario M. Cuomo, Former New York State Governor

“As someone whose faith is an important part of his life, I highly recommend this book and Berlinblau’s defense of religious freedom. With great insight and clarity, he explains why it is important to protect and preserve secularism as a philosophy and he then lays out a twelve step program to revive it.”  
—Ambassador Dennis Ross, Counselor to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and former U.S. peace envoy to the Middle East

“In this new look at church-state relations in America, Berlinerblau manages to be serious and sprightly in equal measure. This is a call to reject extremism of any sort and return to the American genius for accommodation of our differences—even, indeed especially, our differences over the role of religion in our public life.”
—Elliot Abrams, former Deputy National Security Advisor

“This book brought tears to my secular Jewish eyes, it was so good. Berlinerbau is not just an astonishing secular thinker; he knows how to turn a phrase, and he knows how to keep the pages turning. Now put that down that tefillin and read it!”
—Gary Shteyngart, author of Super Sad True Love Story, among others

“As the nasty strife has heated up between religious leaders who intrude their particular values into public life on the one side and noisy atheists who insist that religiously-inspired voices should be banned from the public square on the other, I have looked for a book that sorts all this out in a reasonable and convincing manner. This is that book. Well-informed, even handed and crafted in a readable, engaging style, it shines a clear light into the murkiness.”
—Harvey Cox, professor of divinity at Harvard and author of The Future of Faith

“This insightful book is not designed to convince you of the non-existence of God or the afterlife; it exists to convince both the non-theistic and the religious that if we don't find a way to work together, we will all pay a heavy price. Berlinerblau makes a compelling, urgent case, with rigorous regard to history as well as a keen eye for the relevance of today's many new variations of fundamentalism.”
—Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State

“Jacques Berlinerblau mounts a careful, judicious, and compelling argument that America needs more secularists—not only among nonbelievers but among believers as well. The author’s argument merits a wide hearing and will change the way we think and talk about religious freedom.”
—Randall Balmer, author of Thy Kingdom Come: How the Religious Right Distorts Faith and Threatens America, among others

“Passionately arguing secularism as essential for observance of the First Amendment’s religion clauses, Berlinerblau eloquently divorces it from absolute separation and atheism, traces its history, emphasizing the mid-twentieth-century period of its greatest influence and the expansion of civil rights that abetted, and advocates its revival.”
—Booklist

“Berlinerblau offers a solid history of secularism in America and a defense of its virtues at a time when conservative Christians attack it as a moral evil and advance the 'flawed' idea that one cannot be both religious and secular...An impassioned argument for 'a firm and dignified defense of the imperiled secularish virtues and moderation, toleration, and self-criticism.'”
—Kirkus Reviews

“Berlinerblau succeeds in making concrete the current threats to secularism and offers a reasoned blueprint for an organized secular movement to regain its political power.”
—Publishers Weekly

About the Author

JACQUES BERLINERBLAU, professor at Georgetown University and director of the Program for Jewish Civilization, is the author of four books. He has appeared on radio, television, and print, including NPR, CNN, Al-Jazeera, The Economist, The Jerusalem Post, U.S. News and World Report and the Washington Post. He is the host of the webcast "Faith Complex," which appears on The Huffington Post and elsewhere.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (September 11, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0547473346
• ISBN-13: 978-0547473345
• Product Dimensions: 1.3 x 5.8 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #181,399 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars [Political] Secularism = Disestablishmentarianism August 11, 2012

By Misanthrope™ TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

First, the most important thing to know about this book is that it is not about how to be irreligious, agnostic, atheist, humanist, or any other point on the non-belief to belief spectrum. It is simply a book on secularism, and the purpose is to explore how we can have or maintain a secular government in the face of trends toward theocracy in the last three decades. As a nonbeliever, myself, I am interested in the possibilities, and do not think it is productive to exclude others who think differently, when freedom to think differently is at stake.

Berlinerblau does a wonderful job of accomplishing this purpose, and he explores the origins of secular thought from Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation through John Locke, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison. The point of this is to show that secular thought had religious origins, and the point was to allow people to approach their religion (or not) according to their own conscience, and not at the direction of the state or church power, as well as to protect the state and individual from the church. Secularism only addresses the relation between state and religion, but it does not imply that all religion is removed entirely from the state's sphere, any more than the state can be removed from religion's sphere.

In short, he laments that virtually all organizations calling themselves secular are identifying themselves with non-belief, exclusively. Since nonbelievers are a very small percentage of the population, and the most unpopular group in the U.S., it is virtually impossible to have any influence these days over keeping our government secular. Because of this, it is important for secular groups to not forget the portions of the population that have always had much interest in keeping the relationship between government and religion impartial -- religious and quasi-religious citizens from varying traditions that do not want the government telling them what or how to believe. This would consist of an easy majority, since the Revivalist Christian Right probably is no more than about a fourth of the U.S. population. Wouldn't the other three-fourths prefer to not be under a fundamentalist Christian theocracy, with all that could entail?

This is a political book of an academic slant, and as such, Berlinerblau's recommendations make good political sense. He stresses the difference between political secularism vs theological secularism, the former being the object for which he's aiming, which would be desirable for all parties involved, since it would allow for maximum freedom to think and act as one wishes, as long as it does not infringe on the rights of others, or bring disorder on the state.

A couple of other interesting points he covers are regarding how these things are handled elsewhere, such as in France, where the government is somewhat hostile and controlling of religion, compared with some other European countries that have established religions, yet allow freedom for other religions (and they're not such bad places to live for nonbelievers). The Soviet Union was extremely hostile and controlling of religion, and when that experiment failed, religion came back with a vengeance. Religion won't be going anywhere anytime soon, regardless of what the New Atheists say.

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent "How to" book. April 17, 2013

By G. E. Branthaver

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This should be required readng for all Secular Humanists. Very informative. Actually more than "how to". Mr. Berlinerblau describes how to be a positive activist.

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant! April 14, 2013

By April Blake VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

I wish "How To Be Secular: A Call To Arms for Religious Freedom" was on everybody's reading list, and that everyone approached this book with an open mind and a willingness to listen. In recent years, the meaning of "Secular" has been confused with "Atheist," and that's not at all what it means. Secular is a political approach. If a religious (or atheist) person had it in them, they can also be secular. This doesn't mean that "[people who believe in God] have no place in the public square," as a recent also-ran for President said. What it means is if we keep the government secular, we actually have MORE religious freedom- ALL of us, those who are seeking freedom OF religion, and those seeking freedom FROM religion.

Contrary to what many on the Religious Right have to say, this country is not a "Christian" nation. Many of the founders may have been Christians themselves, but they founded this nation as a place where everybody could practice his religion or not. They did this because there is no one way to see God (or a lack thereof), so giving one religion preference over another officially in the government impinges on the religious freedoms of those who do not share that worldview. Look it up. There is no "official" religion in the United States.

As this book states, keeping our government and government institutions- such as public schools- secular should NOT mean that "prayer isn't allowed here," but that if you want to pray, do it, but don't be obnoxious about it and insist EVERYBODY prays with you, and if you don't pray, don't, but don't be so offended when people do pray. People on both sides of the religion in public debate too often are like hypersensitive car alarms, reacting to the slightest perceived slight, and by reacting, I mean going the heck OFF. The argument sounds like a parking lot full of Civics with their perimeter alarms screaming. Nothing gets accomplished because nobody can hear one another, nobody can think. They can only yell about how their rights are being attacked- ATTACKED!!!

"How To Be Secular" offers a voice of reason and speaks to all sides in this argument. The message is that by allowing the government and its institutions to be secular isn't a taking away of rights. By letting someone exercise their religious freedom, it does not mean your right to your religious freedom is diminished. It just means everybody gets a fair shake. It's putting more back into the hands of the individual to decide, instead of allowing some religious (or not) person at the top telling us all what to think and do. It's exciting and unsettling.

This book is well-written, well thought-out, smart, and easy to read. It doesn't talk down to anyone. It doesn't stoop to name-calling and derision. It assumes intelligence on the readers' part, which is what we all need to remember to do: assume intelligence, speak and listen with respect, and THINK.

Please, make this book a must-read for yourself. There are infinitely many ways to see the world and its higher powers. This book helps explain how to be comfortable accepting the validity of everyone's individual opinion without feeling as though your own rights are threatened.