Even though the sacred-secular divide can be difficult to define clearly, it can be best understood as how people view their lives based on a distinction or separation between someone’s sacred or religious beliefs and a person’s secular or worldly beliefs. In other words, some people find themselves living in two different worlds where they would privately express their religious beliefs within a church setting or with their families while the expression of religion in the public secular world is discouraged. This discussion will mainly focus on how the sacred divide affects Christian’s ability to engage culture when religion tends to be pushed away from the public arena. Also, this discussion will mention how the concept impacts certain areas within my own life, and how it can be eliminated within my sphere of influence (Kim, McCalman, & Fisher, 2012).

According to one Christian music artist and minister, Lecrae Moore, he believes that the sacred-secular divide prevents Christians from engaging culture are churches are afraid of how society will respond to them. For example, since people get too caught up with the events of reality, churches fear the influence of corruption or harm of a society that does not share their same views. While society creates a sacred divide, Lecrae also believes that churches are considered a safe place for Christians, causing them to create a secular division to avoid the exposure of crime, corruption, relativism, and post-modernity towards their church (Murashko, 2012).

I agree with Lecrae’s statement because our personal and faith-based beliefs can perceive to be an individual value to our own lives. However, since many people do not share the same religious beliefs, certain faith-based values tend to be pushed away from the public arena, causing Christians more difficulty with their abilities to engage culture. One area of my own life that I can depict the occurrence of a sacred divide from the secular world is in my professional job setting. Even though many organizations advertise that they are an equal opportunity employer and the pride themselves on the importance of values and ethics, they also require their employees to adhere to strict policies. These strict policies would prohibit employees from admitting their personal viewpoints. Like many people, I desire my career and personal life to be integrated through faith-based morals. However, since my job requires me to follow strict policies, I must have a secular mindset at work by putting aside my beliefs (Kim, McCalman, & Fisher, 2012).

Many Christian employees find it difficult to prevent conflict with the division of their sacred and secular beliefs. However, many Christian employees learn how to eliminate the sacred-secular divide by finding ways to accept the way of thinking at face value and ways to overcome their conflicts. For example, even though a company policy prevents me from sharing my personal or religious beliefs to other coworkers, Christian values can still be upheld in the work place by allowing me to maintain positive business morals and ethics. Christian employees can also defend their values through a commitment to care about the welfare of other employees, and also to provide a high-quality and honest service to customers (Kim, McCalman, & Fisher, 2012).