In a recent episode of The Political Animals podcast with Jonathan Cole, Michael Bird, New Testament lecturer at Ridley College, claimed that secularism is not only good for society, but it’s also good for Christianity.
Forget grandiose ideas of building “Christian nations.” Bird gets “frustrated” with those who talk of such things. It’s secularism, not Christianity, that will truly protect the people from harm.
So, what exactly is “secularism”? According to Bird, there are various kinds of “secularism,” and “there are different ways of doing secularism.” The secularism of North Korea differs from the secularism of China. The secularism of Turkey differs from the secularism of France. The secularism of the United Kingdom differs from the secularism of the United States.
