The Pitfalls of Believing in Separation of Church and State

Jules Evans defined a religion as a system that binds us in religio: a kind of sacredness, obligation, faith and “cosmic certainty” towards a particular set of precepts. Those outside the religio are framed as “existential threats”, with a strong in-out dynamic bound by a common transcendent ideal.

I want us to better understand our position in the world relative to religion, particularly how our steadfast (if misguided) belief in secularism feeds into the idea of Western supremacy.

some of our commonly held “wisdoms” around religion are missing crucial context, and in the process, are letting many nefarious forces in this world go unchecked and under-examined. In addition, some of these talking points and universal claims about religion are unintentionally reproducing notions of othering, racism, and Western supremacy—even th... See more

Religion is just one category of power that is animating our world. In the fight for reproductive justice, for example, religion is accompanied by capitalism (a system reinforced by the traditional family unit and household), sexism (the belief that women’s bodily autonomy should not be determined by women themselves), and the state (which benefits... See more