Secularized Prayer?
Of course, no Christian can be a secularist. But she can, however, be secularized. Secularism is a formal philosophical system. Secularization is a sociological reality. According co Os Guinness, it is a process by which religious ideas, institutions, and interpretations are losing practical social significance.
That last phrase is the operative one. For instance, it is fine to pray in your support group; it builds intimacy and warmth. But when we need to get something done in the church? That calls for practical things: committees, not prayer calls; talking, writing, telephoning, spending, budgeting, mobilizing, organizing, and mailing. And those kinds of things take time. So prayer gets preempted. It’s a pleasant luxury that would be wonderful to spend more time on, if only we had the time to spend. But necessity presses in. After all, we have the budget to complete, the policies to formulate, and the proposals from the fellowship committee to act upon.
