August 28, 2015 (Friday)
The TV Show, “Bones,” features a female forensic anthropologist who is married to a male FBI agent. The show is about solving crimes, but the couple has a unique relationship because she is an atheist and he is a devout Catholic. 
Occasionally, they have a mini conflict over these beliefs, but they resolve their differences lovingly and do not allow them to interfere with their marriage.
Unfortunately, real life does not seem to play out that way very often. Conflicts of belief can destroy relationships. America is very familiar with polarization, the great divide between extreme views of the way our culture should exist. These extreme viewpoints include politics but they also involve religion.
At one end of the cultural spectrum is absolute secularism, granting no place at all to religion of any kind. At the other end of these extremes is the outlawing and punishment of anyone who disagrees with the particular brand of religion that controls the government.
Consider these illustrations of the extremes: 1. At the height of the Communist era, religious belief and practice was against the law in Communist countries. 2. On the other hand, in the Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL) death awaits those who will not agree to believe in God in the prescribed fashion. Either extreme is unacceptable to a civil society.
The Constitution of the United States guarantees the free exercise of religion and at the same time requires the government to be neutral in matters of faith. We call that “Separation of Church and State,” and it’s a good idea.
Enter a new kind of religion that celebrates secularism and atheism as it teaches about God!? New prayer books 
can now be found in certain pews that offer prayers expressing doubt and disbelief alongside traditional prayers. Here is a small excerpt from a new prayer book: “MY LORD is not a shepherd and I am not His sheep. No monarch greedy for my praise is worthy of my prayers.”
This new kind of belief is nourished by the social pressures of our culture to create a system of belief that represents anti-Biblical ideas, one more shade of disbelief that clings to the idea of faith while denying it. Hopefully, it is “a flash in the pan” theology, but history warns us to beware of strange notions that seem to be gaining acceptance by growing numbers of people. Most of us probably see such weird beliefs as only a small cloud on the horizon today, but who knows what the future holds?