Don’t get me wrong. I am not generally a fan of profiling. I find it appalling that people of color are so much more likely than white people to be stopped while driving or followed in stores. I am horrified when an Arab-speaking scholar is presumed to be a terrorist for writing math equations on a plane. (Although, to be fair, I did really hate Algebra in school, and I’m pretty sure that Algebra is an Arab invention.) But when... Read more
Humanism developed in late Medieval Christianity, but moved on. European humanism reached high points in the Reformation and the Enlightenment and in Post-Second World War Europe and many of its colonies, including the US. But moved on. Humanism is not a philosophy. It is a way of thinking. This naturalistic way of thinking values observation and reason, seeks to promote human liberation and justice, and works to benefit the planet and its living things. As a way of thinking, humanism... Read more
Social media is great for so many things—staying in touch with distant friends and family, sharing the cute thing your kid or your cat just did, watching videos of people making delicious food at impossible speeds and much, much more. But what it is really superlative at is serving as a vehicle for expressions of outrage. There is nothing quite like Facebook for letting all the world know just how outraged we good people are at the actions of the... Read more
My daughter is about to graduate from high school in a few days, which leaves the terrifying prospect that she is now, more or less, an adult, and should know how to do the essential kinds of things that adults know how to do. I realize this is pretty much a fantasy, but still, I do think about the crucial things she needs to know, and how I have probably failed to teach them to her. And/or failed to get... Read more
A Twitter meme says, “Spiritual but not religious: people who prefer to make up their own stuff rather than believe stuff others have made up.” Is that the essence of the changes happening on the US religious landscape? In a recent post I mentioned a bumper sticker I saw: “It’s not religion / it’s a relationship” with a little cross in the corner. Perhaps we should call the time we live in The Age of The Book of Mormon. I don’t... Read more
It Is What It Is Despite what many conventionally religious people appear to think, humanism does not exist to annoy the pious. As a matter of fact, some humanists are pious—in both the positive AND negative senses: righteous and self-righteous; reverent and sanctimonious. Piety comes in many guises and clings to various theistic and atheistic demeanors. At the risk of annoying the conventionally religious, I think that the study of theology is in essence a study in employing and defining... Read more
Recently I saw a bumper sticker: “It’s not a religion / It’s a relationship.” The bumper sticker was in black and white with a little cross on the left side. My first thought: “good marketing!” That phrase surely comes as the result of contemporary research showing that younger people, millennials, are looking for just that: not a religion but a relationship. That’s the essence of the “spiritual but not religious mantra.” Don’t get me wrong—I’m not claiming that the church... Read more
[A note of gratitude and a heart full of appreciation to the Rev. Carlton Elliot Smith for his generosity, insight, and reflections in the creation of this post. -DV] Last night I began reading Uncovering Race: A Black Journalist’s Story of Reporting and Reinvention by Amy Alexander (Beacon Press, 20011). Describing landing her first “real job” as a reporter, Alexander writes, “I appeared on the metro desk like a speck of pepper atop a heap of mashed potatoes. Actually, along with Gregory... Read more
If I’ve learned anything from serving and visiting several congregations, it is that survival is not a mission. Religious institutions either have a saving message or they don’t. They know why they exist or they don’t. When I see a thriving congregation, I see one that is continually asking itself why it exists at all. Why pay the electric bill? Why shell out cash for bricks and mortar? Why be located here rather than there? What need do we fill?... Read more
Here’s what I want to say for Mother’s Day. Motherhood isn’t just one thing. And by that I don’t really mean the broad diversity of ways of being a mother, including step moms, foster moms, moms who placed babies for adoption, grandmas raising grandbabies, dads who are primary parents, important friends and neighbors and teachers and coaches who raise up kids who aren’t their own, etc. etc. Although Lord knows that’s important, and deserves to be said. But what I’m... Read more
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