Popular Culture Review Vol. 5, No. 1, February 1994 | Page 114

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shameful we find personal bankruptcy; how urgent the ministrations
to those threatened by it of that new priesthood, the consumer credit
counsellors. The material and institutional aspects of our everyday
society would more clearly reveal their "religious" aspect and
observance, from government buildings, churches, and courts to police
stations, schools, and jails. As cathedrals dominated medieval
towns, silently witnessing where the action and values were for their
peoples, so today's towers of finance and sportsdomes speak for and to
us. The mythic narratives of our lives derive heavily from history
and the social sciences (through which most of us would explain our
official religions' coming-to-be), but increasingly also from the
sharing of personal stories through the many experiential groups and
networks that sustain us. We "religiously" attend the services of our
twelve-step groups in person; but as television brings us more
traditional liturgies, so does it welcome us into other communities.
The talk-shows of (Dprah and Phil provide in the convenience of our
homes the sharing of pain and trouble, of preaching and benediction
for which our forbears sat less comfortably in other places. All of
these groups have their specific rituals, and the broader culture
includes the many rituals of the entire arts and entertainment worlds,
as well as all our varied-but-universal observances of key occasions in
family lives (birthdays, weddings, graduations, et al.). The
em otional aspects are inseparable from several of the above
dimensions, and all such emotional sharing to some extent binds us
together with others. Thus, much that we take for granted or as
trivial actually engages us in countless overlapping communities or
networks. (And how much all aspects of our groups' lives are
transformed by computer technology!
Its imperatives and
empowerments have brought down the old U.S.S.R. and transformed
Scripture studies, not to mention more obvious changes.)
Even though we might argue over particulars, it seems clear
enough that we so-called religious believers and unbelievers share, in
Fromm's words, a "framework of thought and action" that so orients
our world-perception and participation that we live it like folks used
to live their religion. Functionally, our common faith is the daily
secular culture we serve and co V