Their lyrical themes have traditionally pertained to Satanism and anti-Christianity.

The later albums have seen a turn to a more personal writing style, as interest in what Wakeford calls " knee-jerk anti-Americanism and anti-Christianity " has been rejected.

Their songs, which are sung in Spanish, are focused on Satanism, anti-Christianity, sex, immigration, narcotics smuggling, and politics.

He was instrumental to lift the nation's anti-Christianity policy to allow the influx of missionaries to evangelize, build schools and other western hospitals in the Hermit Kingdom.

Marduk's predominant lyrical topics are Satanism, anti-Christianity, Biblical tales, death, Third Reich history, and World War II.

Stoecker proposed that Jews ' innate anti-Christianity and foreign origin made it impossible for them being properly integrated without secularizing the rest of society and watering down German national values.

The band's lyrics from Dawn of Possession to Unholy Cult are largely anti-religion, especially anti-Christianity.

( John Meyendorff, professor of the Academy of St. Vladimir now in Scarsdale, New York ( associated with Columbia University )-and every bit as much a critic of the " Catholic novelties " and the Pope's anti-Christianity.

Their lyrics usually deal with Satanism, sex, anti-Christianity, and general acts of debauchery.

As Europe became Christianized, the pagan holidays lost their religious character and either changed into popular secular celebrations, as with May Day, or were merged with or replaced by new Christian holidays as with Christmas, Easter, Pentecost and All Saint's Day.

Elsewhere, " Hellene " or " gentile " ( ethnikos ) remained the word for " pagan "; and paganos continued as a purely secular term, with overtones of the inferior and the commonplace.

In his lifetime, the study of secular literature, especially pagan literature, was discouraged by the Roman Catholic Church.

The secular celebrations bear varying degrees of likeness to the religious feasts from which they derived, often also including elements of ritual from pagan festivals of similar date.

The official holidays can be divided into Christian and secular holidays, although some of the Christian holidays have replaced holidays of pagan origin.

" Outside a purely secular frame of reference, Nazism was felt to be the embodiment of evil in a modern twentieth-century regime, a monstrous pagan relapse in the Christian community of Europe.

The vast majority of English misericords date from the 14th and 15th centuries and are curiously most often depictions of secular or pagan images and scenes, entirely at odds with the Christian iconography and aesthetic that surround them.

At the same time, the culture of the ecclesiastical and secular elite is known for its monuments, which do not allow historians to make confident conclusions on pagan penetration of religious beliefs of Medieval Rus ’.

He loves showing us places where our carefully tended cultural boundaries — between Christian and pagan, sacred and secular, ancient and modern — are actually extraordinarily messy.

Gregory of Nyssa tells that Gregory Thaumaturgus, when still a pagan, having completed his secular studies, " fell in with Firmilian, a Cappadocian of noble family, similar to himself in character and talent, as he showed in his subsequent life when he adorned the Church of Caesarea.

The intervening 1000 year Middle Age was a time of darkness, not only because of lack of secular Latin literature, but because of corruption within the Church such as Popes who ruled as kings, pagan superstitions with saints relics, celibate priesthood, and institutionalized moral hypocrisy.

" Such groups " may consider established contemporary Christian artists such as Amy Grant, Petra, Steve Green and Twila Paris as reprehensible as secular bands like White Zombie and Marilyn Manson ".

By 1982 Norman had gained some acceptance as a substitute for secular rock artists.

In particular, he was unhappy that Christian artists were unwilling to play clubs and other secular venues, and he was very put off that artists were not " preaching " between songs and making the Gospel clear — in confrontational terms.

The technique is now used by both religious and secular artists and reportedly is also used by Arabic writer-artists.

The new standards resulted in complaints by some fans and artists after thirteen entries were disqualified as being too secular in the 1999 Dove Awards.

Christian artists generally use secular styles, pairing them with lyrics that display faith and spirituality to varying degrees.

Finally, Jesus music artists tended toward mistrust of secular corporations.

Despite his initial reluctance, like several former gospel singers Aretha Franklin, and Wilson Pickett, Burke was " molded into a more secular direction when he signed with Atlantic in the ' 60s ," and became one of " the " backsliders ," artists who " preferred a secular acclaim to the gospel obscurity ", after deciding eventually that " secular music was not the anithesis of the church but, rather, ' a new avenue, a new dimension to spread the gospel.

Like the other " backsliders " and all the artists who preferred a secular acclaim to the gospel obscurity ", like Aretha Franklin, Sam Cooke, Lou Rawls, Dinah Washington, Napoleon " Nappy " Brown, Ike and Tina Turner, Brook Benton, Jimmy Witherspoon, and Louis Armstrong, Burke recorded an album of gospel songs, " not to be ' saved ' or under any pressure but for their own pleasure and as a tribute to their roots, because, as kids, all of them, like all black children, had sung in church.

Occasionally, secular artists treated Christian themes ( Bouguereau, Manet ) — but only rarely was a Christian artist included in the historical canon ( such as Rouault or Stanley Spencer ).

The last part of the 20th and the first part of the 21st century have seen a focused effort by artists who claim faith in Christ to re-establish art with themes that revolve around faith, Christ, God, the Church, the Bible and other classic Christian themes as worthy of respect by the secular art world.

Bruce Moore writes in the e-book Metal Missionaries that during mid-1990s Christian metal " ceased to play catch up ( replicating secular bands ) and began to assimilate into its rightful place in the Extreme music scene and the artists who played became influential in helping to define this relatively new, but growing genre.

As a secular, non-sectarian, universal notion of art arose in 19th century Western Europe, secular artists occasionally treated Christian themes ( Bouguereau, Manet ) — but only rarely was a Christian artist included in the historical canon ( such as Rouault or Stanley Spencer ).

The last part of the 20th and the first part of the 21st century have seen a focused effort by artists who claim faith in Christ to re-establish art with themes that revolve around faith, Christ, God, the Church, the Bible and other classic Christian themes as worthy of respect by the secular art world.

However, the musical history of Utah, and much of its current distinctiveness, is owed to secular artists.

As some secular artists become ' born again ', Malawi has seen a rise in the diversification of gospel music, particularly in the urban genre.

Willing to cross the line between sacred and secular by performing her inspirational music of ' light ' in the ' darkness ' of the nightclubs and concert halls with big bands behind her, Tharpe's witty, idiosyncratic style also left a lasting mark on more conventional gospel artists, such as Ira Tucker, Sr., of the Dixie Hummingbirds.

Her unique style reflected those secular influences: she bent notes the way that blues and rock artists did and picked guitar like Memphis Minnie.

Even today, artists such as Sean Michel have credited her influence with the performance of gospel songs in more secular venues.

The term " crossover artist " may refer to musical performers and groups that are Christian music artists, who many times originally are marketed through Christian record labels, radio stations, churches and other Christian media but who start selling in mainstream secular markets as well.

He terms this early enthusiasm `` Romantic Christianity '' and concludes that its similarity to democratic beliefs of that day is so great that `` the doctrine of liberty seems but a secular version of its counterpart in evangelical Protestantism ''.

It is the triumph of rationalism and secular metaphysics which marks the point of no return.

This is brought out in the common religious ethos that prevails even in the denominationally diverse audiences at many secular semi-public and public occasions in the United States ; ;

There is a marked tendency for religions, once firmly established, to resist change, not only in their own doctrines and policies and practices, but also in secular affairs having religious relevance.

Today however, the `` outsider '' is likely to have professional qualifications of the highest order ( otherwise the college would not be interested in hiring him ) and to be acclimatized to the democratic processes of the secular or state university.

The current regime of President Mohammad Ayub Khan is determinedly secular.

Bruce Hindmarsh suggests that the secular popularity of " Amazing Grace " is due to the absence of any mention of God in the lyrics until the fourth verse ( by Excell's version, the fourth verse begins " When we've been there ten thousand years "), and that the song represents the ability of humanity to transform itself instead of a transformation taking place at the hands of God.

Surviving medieval art is primarily religious in focus and funded largely by the State, Roman Catholic or Orthodox church, powerful ecclesiastical individuals, or wealthy secular patrons.

Gregorian chant is an example of a cappella singing, as is the majority of secular vocal music from the Renaissance.

It is speculated that his parents were wealthy enough to afford giving him an esteemed secular learning.

That this day coincides with Christian Sabbath is not a bar to the state's secular goals ; it neither reduces its effectiveness for secular purposes nor prevents adherents of other religions from observing their own holy days.

Friedrich Klaeber somewhat led the attempt to connect Beowulf and Virgil near the start of the 20th century, claiming that the very act of writing a secular epic in a Germanic world is contingent on Virgil.

He lists seven kings of the Anglo-Saxons whom he regards as having held imperium, or overlordship ; only one king of Wessex, Ceawlin, is listed, and none from Mercia, though elsewhere he acknowledges the secular power several of the Mercians held.

Boxing Day is a secular holiday that is traditionally celebrated on 26 December, the day after Christmas Day, which is also St. Stephen's Day, a religious holiday.

Jonsen and Toulmin offer casuistry in dissolving the contradictory tenets of moral absolutism and the common secular moral relativism: " the form of reasoning constitutive of classical casuistry is rhetorical reasoning ".

Several influential stylebooks, both secular and religious, however, indicate that the correct form for referring to a cardinal in English is as " Cardinal < Name > < Surname >.

An example of this secular politicization is seen when Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor supported Pope Benedict IX, the most corrupt of any of the popes of the era.

Edwards makes a similar suggestion, observing that ' the context of the two prohibition in and suggest that what is opposed is not same-sex activity outside the cult, as in the modern secular sense, but within the cult identified as Canaanite '".

Celebration of Christian holy days is considered Avodah Zarah or idolatry and is forbidden ; however some secular Jews in the West treat Christmas as a secular holiday.