To the fringes…

The thrust of seculariztion is not to destroy religion but to make it irrelevant.^[1] The individual's faith is to be a private matter that has no bearing on public actions. This is a shaky position though. In fact, it is impossible to maintain. Once faith, any faith, is purely private, then the implication is that faith is devoid of objective truth and irrelevant. Religious people then are irrelevant as well, because they cling to something that "society" has deemed passe and untrue.

This played out in a startling at a UCLA student government meeting:

It seemed like routine business for the student council at the University of California, Los Angeles: confirming the nomination of Rachel Beyda, a second-year economics major who wants to be a lawyer someday, to the council’s Judicial Board.

Until it came time for questions.

“Given that you are a Jewish student and very active in the Jewish community,” Fabienne Roth, a member of the Undergraduate Students Association Council, began, looking at Ms. Beyda at the other end of the room, “how do you see yourself being able to maintain an unbiased view?”

For the next 40 minutes, after Ms. Beyda was dispatched from the room, the council tangled in a debate about whether her faith and affiliation with Jewish organizations, including her sorority and Hillel, a popular student group, meant she would be biased in dealing with sensitive governance questions that come before the board, which is the campus equivalent of the Supreme Court.^[2]

Unbelievable.