Secularism is not the same as neutrality — it is a worldview that claims neutrality. It holds that the public square (government, schools, workplaces) should operate without reference to God, religion, or transcendent truth, and that religious beliefs should remain a private matter. The word "secular" itself has Christian origins — it originally meant "of this present age" as distinct from the age to come. A "secular" priest was one who lived and worked in the world rather than in a monastery; it was not a negative term. But modern secularism has turned the word against its origin, now meaning "that which excludes God." The fundamental problem with secularism is that it is not actually neutral. Every public square operates on some set of ultimate assumptions about what is real, what matters, and what a human being is. When secularism expels Christianity from public life, it does not leave a vacuum — it fills the space with its own assumptions (usually some combination of materialism, individualism, utilitarianism, and progressive ideology), which it then protects from the challenge Christianity would bring. Secularism is itself a religious commitment disguised as the absence of religious commitment. The Christian response is not to demand a state church but to insist that no sphere of life is outside Christ's lordship: "He is before all things, and in Him all things consist" (Colossians 1:17). There is no morally neutral ground. Either Christ is Lord of politics, business, education, and culture, or some rival is.