Does Universalism indicate secularization?

One of my correspondents drew my attention to this story:

Who's in Hell? Pastors' Criticism of Eternal Torment for Some Sparks Fierce Debate

A Methodist pastor who voiced support for a book questioning the view of hell as a place of eternal damnation is "shocked" by his church's decision to fire him. Chad Holtz, who served as pastor of the United Methodist church in rural North Carolina, said he hoped his personal belief posted on Facebook would engage -- not anger -- members of his congregation.

Holtz was dismissed this month as pastor of Marrow's Chapel in Henderson after he wrote a note on his Facebook page supporting a new book by Rob Bell, a prominent young evangelical pastor and critic of the traditional view of hell as a place of torment for billions of damned souls.

I haven't read Rob Bell's book:

Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived

But I gather that he teaches something like Universalism, a fringe doctrine which, like Annihilationism, has never caught on to become christian orthodoxy. Both doctrines face a hard slog in trying to make hell go away, partly because they fight against the weight of christian tradition, but also because they face psychological barriers. Universalism conflicts with the human desire to punish enemies and defectors; while Annihilationism sounds way too much like the Epicurean theory of the fate of the dead. Apparently many christians would rather live with the possibility of going to the traditional version of hell over the prospect of eternal oblivion.

Bell promotes his book in the following video:



I suppose Universalism indicates a secularizing trend in christianity. The effort to do away with its traditional, psychologically traumatizing doctrines shows that many modern christians have a basically this-worldly orientation. The deinfernalization of christianity falls in line with the sort of apologetics which tries to show the beneficial, empirical effects of christian belief, for example, better health, lower anxiety and depression, more stable marriages and so forth. They've had to fall back on observable consequences because they've lost so much ground in scientific areas, and they never could demonstrate any of their after-death claims in the first place. Notice that Bell in the video argues against hell because it makes god look bad, not because he can demonstrate that hell doesn't exist.