Sacred vs. Secular

My poor Sociology students have to dive into the cold waters of religious studies during Week 5. Whereas students in other sections of the class also get to discuss education and the family - for me, I get to "talk shop" for a week and all my assignments are based on sociology of religion. I actually have a lead-in post apologizing for this fact and my enthusiasm; but, I just can't resist.

My first question is a discussion of sacred vs. secular practices in day-to-day life and I have the great fortune to have a Hasidic Jew in one of my classes. I still remember the light bulb going off in graduate school when a rabbi translated Halakhah not as Jewish Law but as "walking in a sacred way." At the time, I was also enrolled in a Native American Culture class in American Studies and had just come across that phrase - written by a Sioux medicine man (I cannot remember if he was Lakota, Dakota, or Oglala).

This highlights the difference between orthodox (right belief) religions and orthoprax (right action) religions. It seems to me that being mindful of practice enables one to draw the secular into the sacred and in a saint's life, for example, there would be no real difference between the two. I am so, so very far from that; however, I learned in my journeys outside of Christianity to see the sacred and hear the voice of deity in the most surprising places - like the lyrics of a rock song. We often try to limit our experience of God and I think when we do that, we close ourselves off of much that is holy.