The Religions of the Secular West that Dare not Speak their Name

One of the things about our superflat, secular culture is that spirituality is not talked about seriously; we repress our desire for the transcendent. Therefore as with most things that we push down they tend to pop up in unexpected places. We may have a functioning secular culture however old habits die hard. Christendom may have moved out of the apartment, but it left behind some of it’s furniture.

Thus many secular people act in ways that at first glance may seem to have nothing to do with spirituality but that upon closer inspection carry many of the hallmarks of religion. It could be how people follow sport, it could be some people hope in being ’saved’ from their life by winning the lottery, or the cathedral like function of shopping malls in many communities. One of the ways that this hidden or unspoken spirituality manifests is through our desire to follow leaders.

While many in the West are quite cynical over the role of politicians we still retain a hope that a leader will appear on the scene who transcends corruption and compromise, and how will usher in a golden period for our country or community. Every now and then such a leader seems to appear, they bask in a golden honeymoon for a while, but then they let us down, we see their weaknesses and we turn on them. But what was the problem in the first place? Our expectations or their leadership? 

Such a belief is messianic pure and simple. I believe that embedded in each of us is a desire for the perfect leader, for want of a better term, we each have a Christ shaped hole.  

When I first saw this poster for Barack Obama’s campaign I was struck at just how symbolically religious it was, the upward stare to a better world, the vague “JFK reincarnation” retro stylings, the simple yet messianicly laden tag line ‘hope’. This is not meant to be a comment on Obama’ or his campaign, almost all politicians, consciously or unconsciously overlay their campaigns and communications with religious overtones these days.

I have noticed that even the most hard bitten secular cynicist will gush like a naive school girl when a leader  comes along and seems to promise a better world. Such reactions prove that each of us has a blueprint in the back of our minds of what life should be like, secretly we all wish that someone will come and take away all the bad stuff and lead us to the promise land. Such a messianic belief makes a mockery of our supposed secular culture, and the death of religious behaviour.