More On Atheists And Clergy Housing Allowance
Peter J Reilly, Contributor, Forbes
17 September 2013
http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterjreilly/2013/09/17/more-on-atheists-and-clergy-housing-allowance...
It’s Mainly Humanism
The main reason for the fairly large number of non-theistic clergy and members in the Unitarian Universalist Association is that it has been open to Humanism. The American Humanist Association has “Good without God” as its tagline and explains:
"Humanism is a progressive philosophy of life that, without theism and other supernatural beliefs, affirms our ability and responsibility to lead ethical lives of personal fulfillment that aspire to the greater good of humanity."
One of the nice things about Humanism is that they can modify their “doctrine” without invalidating themselves. They are currently on Humanist Manifesto III issued in 2003. The first Humanist Manifesto issued in 1933 had some language that needed adjusted in light of feminism. Stuff like:
Today man’s larger understanding of the universe, his scientific achievements, and deeper appreciation of brotherhood, have created a situation which requires a new statement of the means and purposes of religion.
Man will learn to face the crises of life in terms of his knowledge of their naturalness and probability. Reasonable and manly attitudes will be fostered by education and supported by custom."
When your core language is considered divine revelation, it makes it a lot harder to adjust for the cultural blind spots that are mixed in with the worthwhile stuff.
Reverend Schulz explored the relationship between Humanism and Unitarian Universalism in this article celebrating the seventieth anniversary of the original manifesto. (This year it is 80, if you do the math.)
"Perhaps in no denomination but Unitarianism, with its aversion to creeds and dogmas, could such a frankly nontheistic movement as religious humanism have arisen without provoking a schism, and even Unitarianism found itself hard pressed to encompass the new thought.
But religious humanism is not just a matter of historical curiosity, at least as far as Unitarian Universalism is concerned. After all,
46 percent of Unitarian Universalists reported in 1998 that they regarded themselves as theologically humanist—more than twice the number who identified with the second most common perspective, nature-centered spirituality, and far more than the 13 percent who called themselves theists or the 9.5 percent who described themselves as Christians. And even those Unitarian Universalists who do not identify with the religious humanist category would be foolish not to realize that they, too, should pay it tribute, for it provides a set of values that are due honor to this day." ...
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