Temporal Lobe

The word secular comes from the Late Latin word saecularis, meaning temporal, or now.
I find it confounding, then, how in our use the word secular is so often seen only as the opposite of sacred and has little or nothing to do with time. We, as a culture, use the word secular as an almost derogatory term, as if it implies Satan worship, or at the very least, voting Democrat (sorry, necessary jab at the GOP's "Us vs. Them" rhetoric). Secular music vs. Christian Music (picture Ice T's "Cop Killa" vs. Michael W. Smith's "Friends are Friends Forever"), Secular Reading vs. Christian Reading (picture Das Kapital vs. any Max Lucado). Really?
Secular is essentially the same idea that Jonathan Larson presented in "Rent": No Day But Today. But the word usually doesn't sing quite so many songs.
I'd like to believe that the distinction isn't between secular and Christian, but rather between the temporary and the long-lasting. That what happens today is so important, because it is fed on yesterday and feeds tomorrow. So the secular is not "unGodly", it is simply a narrower focus. Taken alone, either way of thinking is damaging. Giving no thought for today, or giving no thought for tomorrow, regardless of spiritual belief. It is in the balance of the sacred and the secular, the temporal and the eternal where living must lie.

(Another thought: How much more powerful that definition of secular makes the thought of sacred!)

Sidebar: I'm currently reading Rob Bell's Velvet Elvis (blah), Jared Diamond's Why is Sex Fun? and doing Beth Moore's "Jesus: the One and Only" bible study, and listening to a seminar on marriage by Dr. Tim Keller from Redeemer Presbyterian in NYC. Let me tell you, its been quite the mix. So in a day I'll learn about pop culture and religion, why women have evolved to have concealed ovulation (instead of getting bright red asses like baboons), John the Baptists' mom and how its easy to fall out of like with someone you are in love with. Whew.