Secular means neutral
OPINION — A recent letter defended the influence of Christianity in public affairs. The author included the statements, "Religious morality is condemned as ‘sectarian’ while secular progressive ideology advances under the camouflage of ‘neutrality.’ But that is not neutrality. It is secular privilege."
Let's parse this out. Nobody is condemning religious morality, so let's eliminate that phrase. Calling secular ideology "progressive" is just adding a label meant to demean, so we take that out. "Neutrality" is not a "camouflage," it is how the Constitution demands we act under the First Amendment. Finally, the phrase "secular privilege" suggests an unfair weighting towards neutrality when in fact this is what our Constitution requires.
So, we are essentially left with the complaint that the Constitution puts up an inconvenient barrier to those who wish to force religious (and particularly Christian) principles onto those who don't share that (or any) religious belief system. Sorry, but not sorry.
You want a religious government? When one religion gets privileged status, the next one in line will want the same. If you can't see where that leads, check out European history for the past thousand years.
Our only hope is to keep our government rigorously religiously neutral so that all religions may thrive. We're the only nation in history to manage this feat, but now some want to throw away our greatest achievement. Shame.
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