There's a sublimely ironic force of echoing coincidences throughout "Claire's Camera" that suggests a supervening power, a secular metaphysics of connections — a sort of plasma of emotional energy that flows through Hong's frames and gets revealed when filmed at just the right angles.
The Balochs have historically remained a secular people with rare connections with forces that fought in the name of religion.
Although the results sometimes disheartened the most observant Jews, Dr. Mayer seemed to be reassured by the enduring connection even secular Jews found to their identity.
In the early years of the state, those serving in the rabbinate generally identified with the project of building a Jewish state and felt a connection with secular Jews.
Although the country is overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim, its people are largely tolerant and secular, with a yearning for connections to the West.
British politics can gain immensely from someone of this background, whose name opens doors, and whose connections to a secular culture within the Islamic world could build bridges where few possibilities sometimes seem to exist.
Religious Jews, especially the young ones who, more than any other generation for the last 5,000 years, have felt connected to the secular world, the "outside" world, felt an incredible connection with him.
Analysts argue that, before 2011, the Brotherhood's appeal lay in its ability to transcend the dirty game of secular politics – both through its connection to ordinary Egyptians, and through its offer of a redeeming and untried alternative: Islamism.
In an unusually accommodating personal reflection, Menachem Magidor, president of The Hebrew University, wrote that although he was a secular Jew, he felt a connection to a "transcendental, sublime presence" the first time he visited the mount after 1967.
The EU is a secular body with no formal connection to any religion.
