At the Beliefnet Buddhist blog, Vince Horn worries that the secularization of Buddhism will strip the tradition of its roots:
But let me be clear about what I mean when I say, “making Buddhism secular.” I mean, specifically, the attempt to strip away the cultural trappings of the tradition, while preserving and re-packaging the “essence” of the tradition (which usually has something to do with meditation practice). In the process the religious language is jettisoned and new “less religious” language is used instead. Phrases like, “Buddhism is more a science than a religion” or “The core technology of Buddhism is meditation” are indicators of the secular impulse. The problem is that Buddhism is a religion. And it’s a science. And it’s more besides…
[…]The other problem with the secular approach is that it often, in an attempt to distance itself from “Buddhism as a religion”, strips away the historical significance of the Buddhist tradition. If you’ve spent anytime studying the history of Buddhism, you’d see pretty quickly that it is an ancient and constantly evolving religious tradition. It has a series of both practices and beliefs that have spread and mixed with many other influences. Buddhism as it entered Tibet from India melded and mixed with the Shamanistic Bon tradition there. As it entered China it mixed with Confusionist and Taoist influences, and now as it enters America it is mixing with our scientific culture and strange beliefs about the extreme difference between religion and science.
Read his full post here.